Anonymous asked: Can White people face racism in countries where they're not the majority? Does White cultural appropriation exist?
These are loaded questions. Also very good ones. You asked two questions, so we’re handle them one at a time.
Let’s throw out a disclosure before answering this question: We’re a Black American that rarely travels out of the country. We keep up with World News when we get a chance. So, this answer is not perfect and we invite anyone to add their input in this matter. With that being said…
White people = The Minority?
White people can face racism if they are the minority in a country.
But let’s be frank, any race can face racism when they are quite easily the minority. However, the chances of a white person facing this type of racism is very low… unless they are American with military battle dress uniform. Then it’s fair game. Even their own race in BDUs will be feared.
White Cultural Appropriation
When it comes to this question, we have to ask “what is White Culture?” Why we have to ask is simply because when it comes to White Culture, parts of it is from other places. White Culture can be Scottish, English, Greek, Australian… take your pick. So, we’ll start off with something simple… and since we’re Americans and have an appreciation for sports…
Basketball used to be a “White Sport”.
If you look at Basketball now, people may wondered how is it a “white sport”? Now, it’s an American Game dominated by Blacks, but there’s room for other races and cultures, thus making it really American. But that’s what America is all about right? A big melting pot. But truth be told, Whites are still seen as “American as Apple Pie”.
The strange thing about White Cultural Appropriation is that when it comes to other people entering and adapting their something within the White Culture, it’s met with a lot of criticism. One needs to look no further then the recent racist threats when a Black hockey player scored the winning goal. See, when White people comes into Black Culture, we are threaten because White people tend to do a thing called “White-washing”… in other words, it’s not popular within their culture unless they are the starting point.
For example: there’s an advertisement a few years back for an Elvis collection album. The tagline stated “Before anyone did it, Elvis did it all!” Elvis was a rock star, a gospel singer… pretty much everything that the Black culture was doing. They were black rock stars, black R&B singers and Black Gospel singers before Elvis. But Elvis was marketable because of his skin color. If you look at wikipedia entry for this singer, they even said ‘If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.’ Basically, Elvis Presley’s existence (wither Elvis knows it or not, who knows) was a “starting point” for most White Americans. When Eminem entered the game, even thought he himself shows great respect for the culture, their are White Americans who would say that he’s the “first rapper” they can “relate” to, and would not look backwards at his influences, who were obviously Black.
So, as you can see, when Blacks enter what is known as “a White thing”, Whites feel threaten that we will “ghettoized” it. When Whites enter something that’s for Blacks, we fear that it is only because they see it as a profit and a chance to enhance their culture while at the same time eliminating our influences and history, like Whites have done with Jazz and Rock & Roll.
Also, let’s point out another example; Remember when Sarah Palin said “Real Americans”, suggesting that anyone living in the cities is not Americans? Some people will go out to say American Culture is a White Culture when it’s suppose to be a mixed one.
We will leave that part here for you to chew on.
Hope that answered your question.
