“No one was white before he / she came to America” wrote James Baldwin in On Being White… and Other Lies. The image of the white lifestyle has been largely defined by the American ideal. So, what is the American ideal? Ideally, a lifestyle that provides a house with a porch and a white picket fence, a pet dog, two children, a boy on the t-ball team, and a girl in ballet, and a husband who works hard wears a suit and styles a comb over; this ideal also includes a wife who is completely devoted to her household and is always up on the days gossip. Is this what Baldwin meant? Or is it that the term white was only a color until it was brought to the united states to be used as a category, a racial definer used not to describe a certain ethnic group but rather to oppress another. Whiteness can better be defined by examining the privilege and oppression that is synonymous with the term.
White means I will make more money, I will make a better first impression on a potential employer, I not get pulled over so often, I will not fit in at a salsa club, booty club, or jail. I will be born with my foot in the door rather then holding it open for others. In general white means opportunity, white people are understood as being cleaner, middle or upper class, and more trust worthy. Generally black people have been labeled as dirty and uncivilized.
This idea has been taken from the Indian and Negro past. Years of working outside in the fields living in a society with few social restraints, when the Europeans landed in Africa and in America they saw the inhabitants as crude, dirty, and uncivilized. This opinion has held strong through the times. It may have been endurance of these views that have formed the social stereotypes that have caused the non-whites of America to have to work against common misconceptions.
The Essay on Patriotism Country Ideals America
Patriotism Patriotism. The very sound of the word brings to my heart feelings of loyalty and pride. I feel loyalty for my country and my country's ideals, and I feel pride for those before me who fought and sacrificed much for the freedom of my beloved country. I love and honor my country. I feel a sense of duty to this country that has been my home since my birth. As I turn the pages of our ...
In order to illustrate this point, lets try and imagine what a person might assume in seeing a white person running away from a crime scene in one direction and a black male running away in the other, who would most likely be accused? Whiteness is an ideology that has separated the whites from the non-whites, but at the same time managed to unite multiple ethnic groups into one word and one race, white.
