Time for some controversy!
I get the feeling that the media and institutions of higher education don’t value or perceive the history of "white" people in the same way that they do other cultures. Diversity courses in college are never about people with light skin colors (instead only about how light skin people have harmed dark skin people). It’s almost as if we’ve been here so long that our history doesn’t matter, or even exist.
Not only do I think our past is brushed off as unimportant, but also our culture. Just because we don’t make empanadas, wear headresses, or speak other languages doesn’t mean we lack culture. It only means the media and higher education doesn’t care about our culture.
Before you label me a racist (because after all, saying something positive about "white" people makes you a racist), ask yourself this question: For what purpose are we forced to appreciate "diversity" in schools? Why not put a greater emphasis on the individual and their character traits that really matter. I am much more concerned with work ethic, moral standards, the family unit, and personal responsibility than whether or not you are a minority that eats "ethnic food."
I am not arguing that "white" people are better than anyone else (and if that’s all you’ve gathered so far you’ve missed the point entirely). It’s just as ignorant to lump all white people in a group as it is to lump all brown people in a group. Talk about the hot water you would be in for putting all brown people into the same group and assuming they have the same culture and history!
But you can do that with "white" people. We don’t have a history anyways!
Update: EDSE 435: United States Secondary Schools: Intercultural Education
Update II: A final clarification as my original post might have been a little muddled. I believe there is a double standard. Someone can put "Brown Pride" across their rear window and they are labeled "proud." If I put a "White Pride" sticker up I’m an anti-semite. It’s this sentiment that fueled the original post (much of which was tongue in cheek if you didn’t notice).
I would prefer the whole appreciating and valuing of people based on their skin color STOP completely. A piece on the news the other night was up in arms about the low number of black students at UCLA. Because it was about blacks it means you are "concerned about race relations." If someone complained about the number of white students in any context they’d be labeled a white supremacist (again, a reinforcing that it’s wrong to value "whites’).
Let’s start appreciating qualities that deal with character, something that actually matters.
