Ask A Whitey

[onemancult]

I have to disagree as well Onemanhateswhitepeople (just kidding.....)

Whilst there may have been certain studies done, I find that as someone who has lived all around the world and has many friends from different countries, one of the main quips that often comes up in conversation about us "Americans" is how absurdly 'proud' and vocal we are about our non-American heritage. One person in particular, my wife, is from Ireland, and holy fucking shit I can't tell you how many times valley girls have noticed her accent and said "Oh my god, like I am Irish too!"

People of all races in the U.S. openly celebrate their heritage, whether it be Chinese, Italian, Swedish, etc. people will say they are American, but they are most often conscious about their heritage and it will certainly come up in conversation if you even mention the country they are "1/5th a part of." Our country isn't old enough for people to simply be content with being "american." Almost everyone I know when asked where they are from, or where their parents are from will automatically say: I am 1/2 this and 1/2 that. Instead of the logical answer, which would be "I am American."

I find that whether or not you are aware of your heritage has a lot to do with what wave of immigrants your family came over during.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, there are plenty of times that I have asked people where their family is from before it came to America and they can't come up with an answer. And they're totally content with being "American". Not to generalize too much, but the majority of the people who gave me this answer were transplants to NYC from small-town middle america- maybe that has something to do with it?

[the wit of the staircase]

when people move to this country they are expected to assimilate. first generation immigrants often did not teach their children anything about the culture they came from because they wanted their children to be american. the immigrant backlash has to be taken into account when this is considered. immigrants were less than americans. the culture you came from was less than no matter how "white" you are.

i rarely hear anyone under 60 speak cajun french here. and even then, it's hushed in public. they were beaten as children if they spoke cajun french in public. now there's this whole cultural revial going on where people are rushing to learn the language, before the old folks die. in this case the culture was lost so that people could survive in america, they didn't want us anywhere else, not because we wanted to be american.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

the only thing melting in the melting pot is human flesh

-swing kids

[sean_]

as a born and raised canadian, im really not following what you folks mean by the apparently unmissable 'latent racism' present in my country, care to expand?

[BTT]

There should be a canadian thread but why do most canadians hate americans? and this isn't even a generalization of personal encounters of canadians, I know this for a 100% fact that 80% of canadians hate Americans.

[minya]

as a born and raised canadian, im really not following what you folks mean by the apparently unmissable 'latent racism' present in my country, care to expand?

It's kind of hard to explain. I guess "racism" isn't always the best word to describe it; "ignorance" would be better, in most cases. I'm just astonished by how many people, especially older people, are completely ignorant of other cultures and have no interest in educating themselves. Sometimes that ignorance becomes racism when it turns into resentment and fear. Again, young people aren't like this for the most part, and if they are, it's simple ignorance and not fear/resentment. It's really just the older generation, but it's shockingly common.

There should be a canadian thread but why do most canadians hate americans? and this isn't even a generalization of personal encounters of canadians, I know this for a 100% fact that 80% of canadians hate Americans.

This is unequivocably true and truly hilarious. The answer is very long and complicated, but mostly what it comes down to is a combination of a massive inferiority complex and a national culture that celebrates victimhood and passive behavior and defines itself by what it is not (no Canadian knows what "being Canadian" means, but they can for sure tell you that it means "not being American").

[cheapmuthafukr]

why are white people so much cooler, better looking, and smarter than everyone else?

[englandmj7]

I think Canada should be leveled. We could use the parking.

[onemancult]

why are white people so much cooler, better looking, and smarter than everyone else?

because you learned early on how to steal things from every non-white culture

there is and pass them off as your own?

can we all please have back: rock n' roll, pasta, modern medicine, and math?

[cheapmuthafukr]

only if you take white women too.

[onemancult]

only if you take white women too.

... all of them?

[cheapmuthafukr]

well... i think that people should share all of the innovations that we as humans made. that includes our women who were made beautiful thru millenia of forced and arranged marriges.

you can have all the white women you want as long as i can have some black, brown, green, whatever color women.

[onemancult]

well... i think that people should share all of the innovations that we as humans made. that includes our women who were made beautiful thru millenia of forced and arranged marriges.

you can have all the white women you want as long as i can have some black, brown, green, whatever color women.

sharing is caring, friend.

i'll trade you a

for a

but i'm only doing it for the sake of humanity.

[cheapmuthafukr]

ok... done.

[onemancult]

there's nothing like cottage cheese on a skinny ass to make sex feel spectacular.

[touchthesky]

Minya

In my opinion, its not just canadians that hate americans. More like most of the world?

[englandmj7]

Minya

In my opinion, its not just canadians that hate americans. More like most of the world?

Okay. So I have a serious question that maybe someone can answer about a related subject. I actually don't get where French people, or even Brits, etc. for that matter can often be dicks about their general opinions of Americans/America.

For instance, many people in France at restaurants and the like, won't even respond to you unless you speak to them in French. Now, don't get me wrong, we have our ignorant and obnoxious tourists, but who doesn't? I am speaking more in regards to their opinions of the country as a whole. Now I know this may seem far-fetched to some, but in reality, we really did essentially single-handedly prevent Europe from becoming Nazi-ruled right? We gave thousands of lives for no reason but to essentially help out Europe. How can the French, of ALL people not be a little more appreciative? This was a long time ago, I know, but you'd think it would affect their opinions of us to some extent, at the very least.

I usually ask snotty Frenchmen: "Do you speak German"

Frenchman: "No, of courze not! I am French!"

Me: "Well you can fucking thank us for that you piece of shit"

Bleh.........

[mike lowrey]

well, first of all, I think the french ignorance you described is pretty much a cultural matter, stereotypically the french are obnoxious towards foreigners not speaking their language. I personally have encountered very little of this when I've been in france. there are less english speaking people than in some other countries, but I havent faced much obnoxiousness because of it. the few french people I know are very open and dont mind speaking english, which of course might be because they're young too.

I have no doubt about what the US did back then, but as you said, it is a bit far fetched. I'm sure it can affect the general long term opinion, but if someone today is not too fond of the US as a country or maybe its politics, they probably dont pay too much thought to historical things.

[Guest jmatsu]

i remember visitng canada around 10 years ago. some white people (i'll assume they were canadian) yelled out somthing along the lines of "sushi-sushi" and "aye?" various times. i would have said some dumb shit like "mcdonalds," but i was pretty sure they were canadian. if i had said mcdonalds, would that have produced the same effect (if they were in fact canadians)? what is the stereotypical diet of a canadian? poutine (which is great)? or is that only exclusive to french-canadians?

[sean_]

we eat seal blubber and wheat exclusively dude, poutine is for those dirty quebecers

[Analog]

We gave thousands of lives for no reason but to essentially help out Europe. How can the French, of ALL people not be a little more appreciative?

Really? What a wonderfully altruistic gesture

[englandmj7]

Really ? What a wonderfully altruistic gesture

Well of course you shouldn't take everything said 100% literally....I am not trying to spark an argument about the socio-political ramifications of a Nazi controlled Socialist Europe on the U.S. Bottom line is, despite the reasons for going in, no one would deny that Europe would be very different today if it wasn't for the U.S.

[zelah]

oh and the "look" is a very powerful thing in the US

My mother is white while my father is from Ecuador, and quite dark. Looking at me though, you'd think i was just "plain white", with maybe a little jewish. My cousin who is also 50/50, but looks hispanic, is going to have a much different experience than I will throughout life.

point is i can run for office and she cant

[Bandwagonesque]

i remember visitng canada around 10 years ago. some white people (i'll assume they were canadian) yelled out somthing along the lines of "sushi-sushi" and "aye?" various times. i would have said some dumb shit like "mcdonalds," but i was pretty sure they were canadian. if i had said mcdonalds, would that have produced the same effect (if they were in fact canadians)? what is the stereotypical diet of a canadian? poutine (which is great)? or is that only exclusive to french-canadians?

What part of Canada? I'm surprised this shit would go do anywhere other than a hick town. While no city is free of racist assholes, most major cities here are quite diverse, and rarely does one see random acts of explicit racism.

Poutine is enjoyed by all, but it's primarily a Quebecer thing. If you want to insult a Quebecer with a food term, pea-souper is usually the one to use. As for the rest of Canada, we usually eat the same fatty greasy shit as Americans, so McDonalds would have been appropriate. Or maybe Tim Hortons (Canadian donut chain), or Harveys (smaller Canadian burger chain - so much better than McD's, BK, et al.). I would have just got back at them with any number of white person insults. You Asians do have white person jokes, don't ya?

[Kasper]

Now I know this may seem far-fetched to some, but in reality, we really did essentially single-handedly prevent Europe from becoming Nazi-ruled right? We gave thousands of lives for no reason but to essentially help out Europe. How can the French, of ALL people not be a little more appreciative? This was a long time ago, I know, but you'd think it would affect their opinions of us to some extent, at the very least.

I usually ask snotty Frenchmen: "Do you speak German"

Frenchman: "No, of courze not! I am French!"

Me: "Well you can fucking thank us for that you piece of shit"

Bleh.........

the same can be said about america, without french help, americans might have not succeeded in driving the brits out. i would be hard pressed to find some american that is grateful to France for it...

but seriously, the older european generation still remember. i have heard so many stories about ppl my parents age being invited by dutch when visiting holland just cause they had a canadian patch on their backpack. and in the summer of 2004, i visited normandy where the canadian army landed on d-day (forgot the name of the villages) and i have never seen that many canadian flags in my entire life.

[Kasper]

we eat seal blubber and wheat exclusively dude, poutine is for those dirty quebecers

yes, we run on poutine, beer and hate toward minorities...

[englandmj7]

the same can be said about america, without french help, americans might have not succeeded in driving the brits out. i would be hard pressed to find some american that is grateful to France for it...

but seriously, the older european generation still remember. i have heard so many stories about ppl my parents age being invited by dutch when visiting holland just cause they had a canadian patch on their backpack. and in the summer of 2004, i visited normandy where the canadian army landed on d-day (forgot the name of the villages) and i have never seen that many canadian flags in my entire life.

True, but that was the Revolutionary War and was a couple hundred years ago. Good point nonetheless, but the difference is that MANY people from WWII are still alive. I am not saying they need to "respect" us no matter what, it just seems that in the scheme of things they are so willing to forget that it happened and deem the whole country "Pig Americans." But mostly, I just dislike Frenchies.

[Kasper]

True, but that was the Revolutionary War and was a couple hundred years ago. Good point nonetheless, but the difference is that MANY people from WWII are still alive. I am not saying they need to "respect" us no matter what, it just seems that in the scheme of things they are so willing to forget that it happened and deem the whole country "Pig Americans." But mostly, I just dislike Frenchies.

summer of 2004, i was in paris in August and they had a big public exposition about the liberation of paris, and there was pretty much no mention about american/canadian etc role in the liberation of France, only some self loving bulshit. anyway, i got so pissed and yelled at some random french ppl of were congratulating themselve for driving out the nazis etc. i also wrote a really long letter to Le Monde (the french equivalent of the New York Times) about how i couldn't believe that the french government could setup such a public display of historical distortion. they never published my letter (i had friends on the lookout), but to this day, i cannot believe that something like this was set-up by the government. on a side not, i visited the Pearl Harbour last november and the historical revisionism there was almost as shocking.

i think the french-american relation use to be much better. french anti-americanisn is fucking annoying and always bother me when i am there, but the whole freedom fries, breaking perfume and bottle of wine and calling someone french being a huge insult (the John Kerry thing comes to mind) is not much better...

[C0C0]

oh and the "look" is a very powerful thing in the US

My mother is white while my father is from Ecuador, and quite dark. Looking at me though, you'd think i was just "plain white", with maybe a little jewish. My cousin who is also 50/50, but looks hispanic, is going to have a much different experience than I will throughout life.

point is i can run for office and she cant

typical self hating 'white' hispanic

[Servo2000]

summer of 2004, i was in paris in August and they had a big public exposition about the liberation of paris, and there was pretty much no mention about american/canadian etc role in the liberation of France, only some self loving bulshit. anyway, i got so pissed and yelled at some random french ppl of were congratulating themselve for driving out the nazis etc. i also wrote a really long letter to Le Monde (the french equivalent of the New York Times) about how i couldn't believe that the french government could setup such a public display of historical distortion. they never published my letter (i had friends on the lookout), but to this day, i cannot believe that something like this was set-up by the government. on a side not, i visited the Pearl Harbour last november and the historical revisionism there was almost as shocking.

i think the french-american relation use to be much better. french anti-americanisn is fucking annoying and always bother me when i am there, but the whole freedom fries, breaking perfume and bottle of wine and calling someone french being a huge insult (the John Kerry thing comes to mind) is not much better...

Englandmj is already on a plane to France strapped with explosives, quivering in fury.