Can someone please define for me what "Culturally white" means?

[Le Jacquelope]

Thanks.

 

[Liar]

Believing Nickleback has groove.





(Wtf do I know?)

 

[Safe_Bet]

Tyra Banks when she tries to sound like a "sistha".

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Believing Nickleback has groove.

(Wtf do I know?)

Same here. I just read the term 'culturally white' here and I'm just trying to figure out what that means.

Culturally white means...?
Culturally black means...?

 

[gauchecritic]

you could probably say that Obama is culturally white or that slim shady is culturally black.

It's basically a racist term which prejudges someone's persona identifying it as belonging to a stereotype.

 

[3113]

Thanks.

You like mayonnaise.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It depends on what your basic instinct is for cotton. If your first inclination is to wear cotton, youre probably culturally white; if you feel the need to pick cotton, youre likely not.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I've never heard or read the expression, but I have heard of "acting white" and I suppose it means much the same thing. That is, it would be a non-Caucasian person who does not care for hip-hop or rap or salsa or whatever kind of music is sometimes attached to that person's ethnicity. He or she would speak proper English, have the ambition to become a doctor or other professional, eat hamburgers, celebrate Independence Day with a barbeque, and otherwise be a member of the American mainstream, although having different racial characteristics than most members of that mainstream.

The expression sounds like one used by sociologists, but means much the same as slurs, such as "oreo" or "radish" etc.

 

[cloudy]

That is, it would be a non-Caucasian person who does not care for hip-hop or rap or salsa or whatever kind of music is sometimes attached to that person's ethnicity. He or she would speak proper English, have the ambition to become a doctor or other professional, eat hamburgers, celebrate Independence Day with a barbeque, and otherwise be a member of the American mainstream,

In other words, a "good negro," right, Box?



...and by the way, it's not "radish," its "apple." Get your insults correct, at least.

 

[xssve]

Technically everyone tends to belong to a particular subculture, often several - African immigrants, for various reasons, were largely segregated and sequestered from participating in the European culture that brought many of them over here to begin with, the result is that they formed their own subculture, with it's own priorities and view of reality, and called it "being Black", the "Black Experience", etc.

This is a fairly unnatural state of affairs, but it'll probably never go away, just as there are people who identify as Christians, Rednecks, Hillbillies, Liberals, etc., which have nothing to do with skin color, it has more to do with a shared paradigm of reality and a set of associated behaviors and modes of verbal exchange - fashion mostly.

Thus, if you share the cultural paradigm of Black people, whatever it is, the cops are out to get you or whatever, you're "culturally Black" if you're like JBJ and your paradigm is that the cops are there to "get the Blacks" then you're culturally a weaselly moron.

Officially, the common American culture is the rule of law according to the constitution, but not everybody seems to fully grasp this, and many reduce it to simple minded territorialism, cultural or otherwise, and open hostility to anything outside their zone of predictability, often called provincialism, parochialism, etc., by those who identify with a more cosmopolitan paradigm.

 

[xssve]

Actually, JBJ is good example of the conservative subculture, they're very centripetal, and their mode of social bonding always involves denouncing someone else, i.e., their culture inherently revolves around some heroic struggle against the enemy du jour, they only exist in opposition to something else.

 

[Stella_Omega]

It's pretty hard to define that, isn't it? Box can attempt a definition based on negatives; Cultural whites don't like Hiphop (because that's the music of the disenfranchised. It's okay for whites to like the Blues, but that was once the music that marked you as not a member of the mainstream).

"Culturally white" means anything mainstream culture wants it to mean. And white culture gets to define who is and isn't stepping in time to the paradigm. And the definition can shift without any notice. It's about keeping "the other" out.

Humans are a tribal species. This doesn't work real well, when the tribe has grown too damn large to be defined any longer.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

XSSVE

Eddie Murphy had a comedy routine about a trip to Africa he made, to bond with the bruthas. Funny as Hell, and so true.

 

[WRJames]

Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread

 

[Boxlicker101]

I've never heard or read the expression, but I have heard of "acting white" and I suppose it means much the same thing. That is, it would be a non-Caucasian person who does not care for hip-hop or rap or salsa or whatever kind of music is sometimes attached to that person's ethnicity. He or she would speak proper English, have the ambition to become a doctor or other professional, eat hamburgers, celebrate Independence Day with a barbeque, and otherwise be a member of the American mainstream, although having different racial characteristics than most members of that mainstream.

The expression sounds like one used by sociologists, but means much the same as slurs, such as "oreo" or "radish" etc.
__________________

In other words, a "good negro," right, Box?

A good Negro or members of any other race or ethnicity who think of themselves as primarily "American" rather than anything hyphenated. My ancestors are mostly from England and Ireland, but I don't even know the dates of Guy Fawlkes Day or Boxer Day or the queen's birthday and I don't even know what the Irish holidays are, except for St. Patrick's Day. I know the Irish people were ground beneath the British heel for centuries, but I don't worry about it now, because I think of myself as being an American, rather than Irish-American or Anglo-American or even European-American. That has nothing to do with ethnicity, of course, but the same kind of thing can be said of persons whose ancestors came from Asia or Africa, and who primarily think of themselves as Americans.

...and by the way, it's not "radish," its "apple." Get your insults correct, at least.

Okay, then "apple" although I think I have read the term "radish" used also. I'm sorry if I insulted you, because I didn't mean to.

 

[3113]

Miracle Whip and Wonder Bread

Thank you! See, no need to make it so complicated.

 

[3113]

"Culturally white" means anything mainstream culture wants it to mean. And white culture gets to define who is and isn't stepping in time to the paradigm. And the definition can shift without any notice. It's about keeping "the other" out.

I don't know if that's quite fair. I mean, certainly the dominant culture, being white, decides what is white and everyone goes along with it, but it's also true that each culture/tribe defines itself to some extent, in everything from slang, to music, to clothes to food so that people in that tribe can feel special and united.

Cultures will hang onto things that they feel are valuable and that they don't want assimilated by the dominant culture. The mainstream, for example, really has no say in whether a white rap artist is accepted as a rap artist or viewed as a wanna-be black person and should be dismissed as such. And as much as martial arts has become "mainstream" it's still viewed as culturally Asian, not part of white culture.

 

[cloudy]

A good Negro or members of any other race or ethnicity who think of themselves as primarily "American" rather than anything hyphenated. My ancestors are mostly from England and Ireland, but I don't even know the dates of Guy Fawlkes Day or Boxer Day or the queen's birthday and I don't even know what the Irish holidays are, except for St. Patrick's Day. I know the Irish people were ground beneath the British heel for centuries, but I don't worry about it now, because I think of myself as being an American, rather than Irish-American or Anglo-American or even European-American. That has nothing to do with ethnicity, of course, but the same kind of thing can be said of persons whose ancestors came from Asia or Africa, and who primarily think of themselves as Americans.

And that's just hunky-dory, right? Let's see...if someone thinks just like you, celebrates the same holidays you do, in the exact same fashion, eats exactly the same things you do, well...they're "good." Otherwise, they're "bad."

You just don't get how insulting that is, do you? Or how scary.

eta: no you didn't insult me, because I'm not an apple, so no worries there.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

"Culturally White" is a color in the Martha Stewart collection.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

Carlton Banks

 

[DeeZire]

Okay, then "apple" although I think I have read the term "radish" used also. I'm sorry if I insulted you, because I didn't mean to.

I have used the term "radish" to describe a caucasian woman's nipples. Do I need to apologize?

 

[Safe_Bet]

Anyone who owns a "Vanilla Ice's Greats Hits" CD.

 

[Safe_Bet]

I have used the term "radish" to describe a caucasian woman's nipples. Do I need to apologize?

To her nipples?

 

[Pure]

there is an abstract on the internet which includes the term. it's applied to Korean Americans [and some other groups]. due to their actions, practices, etc., they are often treated as 'white.' e.g. the objections to marrying of 'white' (anglo) and korean american would be minimal. another marker is high SES status and professionalism. Korean Americans equal the white upper middle classes in these areas, in general. (percent university graduates, for example; entrance to professional schools.)

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/8/5/4/3/p185430_index.html


i suppose also some individuals of minority ethnic/racial background achieve this, e.g. perhaps OJ Simpson in his prime. and again the [not dis-approved] marriage with Nicole is an indication.

i believe obama, as an individual, is seen by many [white persons at least] as outside of 'black' or 'half black' categories, and equal to 'white'. this is in virtue of his lifestyle, values, activities. i believe his (student) editorship of the Harvard Law Review attests to this phenomenon, for Harvard is certainly a mainly Anglo institution.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Wanting to get an MBA.
Wanting to do an MBA.

Or, you could just go to the source.