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Culture

Culture.

It’s a strange elusive thing to conceptualize and grasp its importance and effect on our lives.

I’ve never been or felt the part of a Patriot. I went to church as a kid but never bought in. I’m a gay man, but I’ve never felt connected to the “gay culture” as it were. A few generations removed, my family has some ties to mob culture, but I have no connection to that either. I’m white….

I don’t feel I am connected to that, but how can I avoid it?

In western society, and America, all things have been geared toward the white end of the spectrum. God and Jesus are white, and it spreads from there. Thing is, you don’t notice it because it’s just there, and it’s the way it’s always been. Unless you’ve ventured beyond the surface, it’s like the water surrounding the fish. The fish doesn’t know of anything else. It’s just there. But where would they be without it?

That’s not the direction I should go with this post. Too extreme metaphorically. How about this.I know a lot of people, most are white, a few brown, who are the typical modern Conservative, insist the current crisis of racial relations, the inequality that many live with on a daily basis, is a mirage, something conjured up and passions stoked by the left-wing mainstream media. The say something like “Look, WE had a civil war and ended slavery. We died so you could be free. WE passed Civil Rights legislation in the 60s to fix segregation. Racial inequality is a lie made up by liberals to keep you enslaved.”

The last line is a direct quote from Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Mark Levine, etc. And, inevitably, in the same breath, they all extol the virtues of the Founding Fathers, ignoring the very fact that many were themselves slave-owners, and that the Constitution they created to form this government had to include provisions that guaranteed the continuation of slavery, else it never would have been ratified by states (and white people) that relied on the institution.

How nice it is to have that cultural history of the white WE. Of the white savior, from God and Jesus on down. I can’t say I’ve indulged in that frothy brew, but the cup is always there for me for the taking. Because of where I was born, of the color of my skin, of the availability of that cultural identity, that luxury is always available to me. I would only need to embrace it. Maybe, twenty years ago, when I too was Conservative-ish, I did, at least a little. If I identify with a culture, it’s that of an artist. It’s certainly a smaller subset, but it’s the waters that I swim in with ease. It gives me comfort swimming in this pond. It gives me confidence to be able to walk up to another who also swims in this body of water and relate.To close this rambling thread, I want to point out the reason I went down this path. I’ve had a realization stuck in my head for quite a while, but I couldn’t figure out how to express it in a concise manner.

I think I have it now.

The same people who exclaim that racial inequality is not real, that the pursuit of black / brown cultural is a made-up construct foisted upon us by the liberal media / government in order to separate us and divide us, will invariably pivot right back to extolling the greatness of this country and the virtues of the Founding Fathers, not even recognizing that they are leaning on the white cultural view of the world. The fact that many of those Founding Fathers owned people, or that the Constitution was crafted with part of its purpose to keep those who embraced the institution of slavery happy, else it would never have been adopted, isn’t even an afterthought. It’s glossed over and ignored.

They are relying on their own cultural identity of white greatness and superiority. It is as vital to their identity as air is to breath. This is something the descendants of slaves and oppressed peoples simply don’t have.

10Betty Sanchez-Mallory, Mike Gentry and 8 others9 Comments2 SharesLikeCommentShare