White pride

White pride is a slogan used primarily in the United States and Canada to agitate for a white European racial identity and is closely aligned with white supremacy and white separatism. [ *citation | last=Dobratz| first=Betty A. |last2=Shanks-Meile |first2= Stephanie L.| title=The White Separatist Movement in the United States: White Power, White Pride | place=Baltimore| publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | year=2001 |isbn=0801865379.] Organizations advocating white pride are collectively referred to as the white pride movement. White pride activists argue that white pride is equivalent to black pride and similar terms that express no more than ethnic self-affirmation.

History

Carol M. Swain and Russell Nieli state the white pride movement is a relatively new phenomenon. They argue that over the course of the 1990s "a new white pride, white protest, and white consciousness movement has developed in America". *citation |last=Swain| first=Carol M. |last2=Nieli |first2=Russell|title=Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press| year=2003 |isbn=0521016932 page 5. ] They locate the reasons for this "new white racial assertiveness" in three factors: an immigrant influx during the 1980s and 1990s, resentment over affirmative action policies, and the growth of the Internet as a tool for the expression and mobilization of grievances.

Beliefs and criticism

Defenders of the term claim white pride is equivalent to black pride and similar terms that express no more than ethnic self-affirmation. Some defenders of white pride argue that "the United States government is biased against white people" because it views phrases such as "white pride" as offensive, but not "black pride" and the like. [ *citation|last=Moritz|first= Justin J. |url=http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/08/feds_rule_white.php |title=Feds Rule “White Pride” is “Offensive” and “Immoral” |journal=American Renaissance |date=August 3, 2005|year=2005| accessdate=2008-05-22.] Advocates of white pride argue white people should be recognized as a cohesive and legitimate cultural group, with the right to promote their sociopolitical interests. According to a University of Minnesota study, 77% of white Americans believe "their race has a distinct culture that should be preserved." [ *citation|last=Lee-St.John |first=Jeninne |journal=Time |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1531296,00.html |title=The Meaning of White |date=September 06, 2006|year=2006 |accessdate=2008-05-22.] There are claims that there exists a cultural double standard in which only certain ethnic groups are permitted to openly have pride in their heritage, and that white pride is not inherently racist, being roughly analogous to positions such as black pride or gay pride. [cite web|url=http://www.vpc.org/nrainfo/speech.html|title=Speech by National Rifle Association First Vice President Charlton Heston Delivered at the Free Congress Foundation's 20th Anniversary Gala|date=1997-12-07|work=National Rifle Association Information|publisher=Violence Policy Center|accessdate=2008-06-13] Thomas Jackson writes in the journal "American Renaissance" that "what would surely be called racism when done by whites is thought to be normal when done by anyone else". [Harvnb|Jackson|1991. Jackson writes as assistant editor of "American Renaissance", a journal that describes itself as "America's premiere publication of racial-realist thought" (citation|chapter=About American Renaissance | url=http://www.amren.com/siteinfo/information.htm |title=American Renaissance|accessdate=2008-05-22). Others, however, describe it as a journal of white supremacism: see "A Convocation of Bigots".]

Many opponents of the white pride movement argue that movements such as black pride differ from white pride. Philosopher David Ingram argues that "affirming 'black pride' is not equivalent to affirming 'white pride,' since the former—unlike the latter—is a defensive strategy aimed at rectifying a negative stereotype". citation |title=Rights, Democracy, and Fulfillment in the Era of Identity Politics: Principled Compromises in a Compromised World |last=Ingram |first=David |year=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |place= Lanham, MD|isbn=0742533484 page 55. ] By contrast, then, "affirmations of white pride—however thinly cloaked as affirmations of ethnic pride—serve to mask and perpetuate white privilege".

Views of minority status

White pride activists state whites will become a minority group in historically white countries. They note that non-Hispanic whites comprise less than half the population of California and Texas, the states with the largest economies outside of New York, and that some models predict that white people will become a numerical minority in the United Kingdom by 2100. [For Texas, see citation|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165395,00.html |chapter=Texas White Anglos Become Minority |title=Fox News |date=August 11, 2005|year=2005 |accessdate=2008-05-22; for the UK, see citation|last=Browne |first=Anthony |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,363750,00.html |title=UK Whites Will Become a Minority by 2100 |newspaper=The Observer |date=September 3, 2000 |year=2000|accessdate=2008-05-22; and for California as well as the "developed world" as a whole, along with a commentary on rising white separatism, see Harvnb|Browne|2000.] This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the minority-majority effect.

However, simple numerical minority status is not how most sociologists or economists define a minority group. To avoid confusion, some writers prefer the terms "subordinate group" and "dominant group" rather than "minority" and "majority".Fact|date=May 2008 In this context, sociologists argue that white people—specifically white men—would remain the culturally and politically dominant group in historically white countries, even if they came to represent a numerical minority. [ *citation|last=Brasel |first=Brian |url= http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featbrasel_145.shtml |title=Membership Has Its Disadvantages: Whiteness and the Social Entropy of Privilege. An Interview with Tim Wise |journal=LiP| date=November 19, 2000|year=2000 |accessdate=2008-05-22. ]

Usage

The term "white pride" is widely used by groups that are also sometimes called white separatist, white nationalist or white supremacist. Sociologists Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie L Shanks-Meile state that the slogan "White Power! White Pride!" is "a much-used chant of white separatist movement supporters". [Harvnb|Dobratz|Shanks-Meile|2001|p=vii]

The slogan "White Pride, World Wide" appears in the logo of Stormfront, a website owned and operated by Don Black, who was formerly a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. [Harvnb|Faulk|1997] Other extremists also use the term, such as the North Georgia White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who described themselves as "a patriotic, White Christian revival movement dedicated to preserving the maintenance of White Pride and the rights of the White Race". [Harvnb|Hilliard|Keith|1999|p=63]

According to Joseph T. Roy of the Southern Poverty Law Center, white supremacists often circulate material on the Internet and elsewhere that "portrays the groups not as haters, but as simple white pride civic groups concerned with social ills". [citation |url= http://judiciary.senate.gov/oldsite/91499jtr.htm |chapter=Statement of Joseph T. Roy, Sr. before the Senate Judiciary Committee |accessdate=2008-05-22 |last=Roy |first=Joseph T.|date=September 14, 1999 |publisher=U.S. Senate Committee on The Judiciary]

ee also

*Asian pride
*Gay pride
*Double standard
*Racialism
*Racism
*Anti-racism
*Nazi-Skinheads
*Neo-Nazism
*Reverse discrimination
*Reverse Racism
*Ultra-nationalism

Footnotes

Bibliography

*citation| title=A Convocation of Bigots: The 1998 "American Renaissance" Conference |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education|issue= 21 |date=Autumn, 1998 |year=1998 |pages= 120-124 |url= http://www.jstor.org/stable/2999023 |accessdate=2008-05-22.
*citation|last=Brasel |first=Brian |url= http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featbrasel_145.shtml |title=Membership Has Its Disadvantages: Whiteness and the Social Entropy of Privilege. An Interview with Tim Wise |journal=LiP| date=November 19, 2000|year=2000 |accessdate=2008-05-22.
*citation| last=Browne |first=Anthony | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/racism/Story/0,2763,363783,00.html |title=The Last Days of a White World |newspaper=The Observer |date=September 3, 2000 |year=2000 |accessdate= 2006-09-09.
*citation | last=Dobratz| first=Betty A. |last2=Shanks-Meile |first2= Stephanie L.| title=The White Separatist Movement in the United States: White Power, White Pride | place=Baltimore| publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | year=2001 |isbn=0801865379.
*citation|last=Faulk |first=Kent |newspaper=The Birmingham News |date=October 19, 1997|year=1997 |title=White Supremacist Spreads Views over the Internet.
*citation |title=Waves of Rancor: Tuning in the Radical Right |last=Hilliard |first=Robert L. |last2=Keith |first2=Michael C. |year=1999 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |place=Amonk, NY |isbn=978-0765601315.
*citation |title=Rights, Democracy, and Fulfillment in the Era of Identity Politics: Principled Compromises in a Compromised World |last=Ingram |first=David |year=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |place= Lanham, MD|isbn=0742533484.
*citation|last=Jackson |first=Thomas |url=http://www.amren.com/917issue/9107issue.html |title=What is Racism? |journal= American Renaissance |volume=2 |issue=1|date= July, 1991 |year=1991 |accessdate=2008-05-22.
*citation|last=Lee-St.John |first=Jeninne |journal=Time |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1531296,00.html |title=The Meaning of White |date=September 06, 2006|year=2006 |accessdate=2008-05-22.
*citation|last=Moritz|first= Justin J. |url=http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/08/feds_rule_white.php |title=Feds Rule “White Pride” is “Offensive” and “Immoral” |journal=American Renaissance |date=August 3, 2005|year=2005| accessdate=2008-05-22.
*citation |last=Swain| first=Carol M. |last2=Nieli |first2=Russell|title=Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press| year=2003 |isbn=0521016932.