Very few want to "be white"; most want to be raceless

[grimfan]

Among those Asians, and other minorities, who are condemned for wanting to "be white", I have a theory for them: they don't want to be white, as much as they want to be raceless.

Consciously or subconsciously, most people think of being white as having no race at all. There are some distant cultural traditions stemming from native Europe, but for the most part, being white just means being American pop culture. Being white gives you the freedom to move from trend to trend, cherry pick from various cultures and traditions, and above all else, avoid constricting stereotypes. Sure, there are white stereotypes, but whiteness is so general that these stereotypes do not stick very well.

For 1st generation children, their ethnicity and race can be frustrating to deal with. They naturally want to fit in with the popular culture (what many will call "whiteness") as they are bombarded with it from every media outlet. They will watch movies and TV shows depicting a certain kind of contemporary lifestyle that has no basis in any cultural tradition (therefore, we call it "white"), yet the racial or ethnic identity that their immigrant parents enforce upon them make this an impossible ideal. Therefore, these people will resent their outsider status and wish to shed these annoying labels that stereotype them into very constricting circles. They don't want to be known by their racial identity, they just want to be known for the music they like, or the clothes they wear. Incidentally, these are what white, or raceless, people are like. Thus, being white and being free of imposed racial identities becomes incredibly alluring. To paraphrase MLK, they want to be known for the content of their character, not for the colour of their skin.

IMHO, it all comes down to freedom of identity. Whites do not have a coherent identity, which allows them much more freedom in determining their own character. Minorities, however, are known by their skin colour first, and all things come second.

[Hiroshi2]

Interesting. That pretty much is the stereotype though, that white people don't have a culture of their own, which is why some of them "try to be black", others "want to be Japanese", etc etc.

[lee duk sun]

i agree with your theory... wish i could have put it so well. xOx

[TB4000]

Being white is basically being raceless. You see someone mentioned on the news or in an article, if they're white, they're just referred to by age, gender, or whatever else. If they're black, latino, asian, they're called a "27 year old mexican female". The race is always entered if they're not a minority. It's just assumed that white is the default.

[SunWuKong]

wanting to be "raceless" is just another result of being stigmatised by the white mainstream. you don't have to be defined and confined by stereotypes, but if you go out of your way to be opposite of the stereotypes or "raceless" because of those stereotypes, then to me that's the same as letting mainstream America dictate how you identify yourself.

[grimfan]

It's ideal to be raceless though. That's the privilege of the whites. I don't want to be identified by some stereotypical Western view of my people or culture; I want to be identified by my individual actions and thoughts. Race is a social construct designed to put certain peoples "in their place", and to be free of such a strait jacket is to be privileged.

[returntosender]

The idea of raceless benefits minorities but not really whites though. It would make sense for you to want to be raceless, but not for them.

[tapestrybabe]

if this idea was presented to me
while i was younger...
i prolly would have agreed...
i mean, when i was younger...
i dont think i really had a strong
sense of identity...
i didnt care too much about
being korean or asian...
but i just wanted to be me...
without having to be categorized as such...

but i no longer think that way tho...
i dont mind being categorized
as being korean/asian...
i can still be into so called american pop stuff...
but i dont want my sense of racial/ethnic identity
be taken away from me...
in order to be defined as being raceless...

[Chu Chi]

There is only one race of people.

The people who PRACTICE racism.

Non-white people don't want to be mistreated on the basis of color.


CC

[urbia]

The idea of raceless benefits minorities but not really whites though. It would make sense for you to want to be raceless, but not for them.

From what I understand, whites may go out of their way to seem raceless so they're seen as neutral in society. Neutrality is very useful for sustaining white privilege, being seen as objective, unbiased, unmarked, one of the average Joe, 'the common good,' etc.

[LaiSteve66]

Whites are by no means "raceless", sure many Whites come off as racially apathetic but they're really not, if they were, we wouldn't have things like "White flight" which is so prevelant is our society.

[zero]

Some girls want to be white when their ex-white boy friends confides in his new white woman as he proposes to her referring to the Asian ex"She is a gook. A nasty girl. She touched my hand I can't go into it." The white girl responds, "I can get her raped and murdered just like that. (As she snaps her finger) In the worst scenario. I can use wooden sticks nad baseball bats."

[yuuteya]

Very few want to "be white"; most want to be raceless?

if you want to be "raceless" all you do is stop thinking about race and it will go away. its true. its very simple answer. but the catch is we all have to do it. not just one or two people.

[Fireblade]

if you want to be "raceless" all you do is stop thinking about race and it will go away. its true. its very simple answer. but the catch is we all have to do it. not just one or two people.

In a utopia society, that may very well be true. But I really doubt it. Because inevitably, human beings as a whole will undoubtly relegate one's individuality to the differences they garner from each other. The thing to distinguish one person from another is race. It's not "the guy with the big nose, gray eyes, yellow teeth", it's usually "that asian guy, that white guy, that black guy, that weird mix that everyone is confused as to what race he is, etc."

http://inthefray.com/html/gallery/gallery/cartoons/200504_tak3.gif

[SunWuKong]

if you want to be "raceless" all you do is stop thinking about race and it will go away. its true. its very simple answer. but the catch is we all have to do it. not just one or two people.

no, not talking about race isn't going to make it go away. race will only go away if we all look alike, speak the same language natively, and share the same culture.

otherwise if you stop talking about race, you're really just pretending there's no such thing as racism.

[Dei Wong]

no, not talking about race isn't going to make it go away. race will only go away if we all look alike, speak the same language natively, and share the same culture.

otherwise if you stop talking about race, you're really just pretending there's no such thing as racism.

Even then people would find reasons to mess with each other. How many times do see people of the same race kill or screw each other over. I guess its just a human trait we may just have a nature to destroy ourselves.

[Craig]

otherwise if you stop talking about race, you're really just pretending there's no such thing as racism.That's a common occurrence I've observed over here in California.

[eos]

don't we have to stop the violence within our own race in order to combat racism? otherwise we'd just be perpetuating the cycle and nothing gets accomplished.

one thing i really don't like is when someone who's not asian says "don't look at me as (said person's race). look at me as one of you."
bitch, you ain't one of us so don't be acting like you know shit.
yes, i'm ranting. meh....it's that time of month. leave me alone.

[Dei Wong]

don't we have to stop the violence within our own race in order to combat racism? otherwise we'd just be perpetuating the cycle and nothing gets accomplished.

one thing i really don't like is when someone who's not asian says "don't look at me as (said person's race). look at me as one of you."
bitch, you ain't one of us so don't be acting like you know shit.
yes, i'm ranting. meh....it's that time of month. leave me alone.

Is it alright if I ask what you mean?

[eos]

er...i guess i was commenting on your comment about how people of the same race kill and destroy one another and how i thought we can't talk about making racism going away until we clean up our own act within our own races. it's like someone saying "pollution is bad for the earth" and turning around and litter. but i guess that's for another forum, not this one.

[Dei Wong]

er...i guess i was commenting on your comment about how people of the same race kill and destroy one another and how i thought we can't talk about making racism going away until we clean up our own act within our own races. it's like someone saying "pollution is bad for the earth" and turning around and litter. but i guess that's for another forum, not this one.

Hold on you have read something in my post that isn't even there.
First off I was talking about humans in general. I was not making a reference to any race in particular. SunWuKong said

no, not talking about race isn't going to make it go away. race will only go away if we all look alike, speak the same language natively, and share the same culture.

I said

Even then people would find reasons to mess with each other. How many times do see people of the same race kill or screw each other over. I guess its just a human trait we may just have a nature to destroy ourselves.

Because I think even if all humans looked alike, talked, and did everything the same they would still find a reason to act stupid with one another. People would still find reasons to attack, shun, or hate one another. I think that is just a trait people have. Don't people of the same race that share traits SunWuKong mentioned act crazy with each other. Race just makes for a easy reason to attack, shun, or hate someone. Thats all I meant by that post. If SunWuKong feel I have said something rude or that he finds offensive I would glady say I'm sorry right now.

one thing i really don't like is when someone who's not asian says "don't look at me as (said person's race). look at me as one of you."
bitch, you ain't one of us so don't be acting like you know shit.

What the hell is this crack about? Have I ever said claimed to know what it means to be Asian. Feel free to look up any of my post and post them for everyone to see. Why would you think I would want to be asian? Nothing wrong with being Asian some of my closes friends are Asian. Why is there something with being African American? Oh the name that must be it. Well if you want to know why I use this name just read some of my old post. Trust me I use this name everywhere.
if you see Dei Wong on any other sites its more than likely me. Maybe you misread my post. Maybe your having a bad day. Maybe you think I'm some self hating guy who wants to be asian :rolleyes:. If you think I posted something that is offensive or you have problem with it would be nice if you could ask me about it.

[kimpossible]

I don't think it was aimed at you and it was a general vent while akane was posting on this topic in general. You don't have to bring your Asian friends in as a defense this often - as an aside.

Something that non-Asians on this site need to learn at one point or another is that when we talk amongst ourselves and vent from our point of view it's not necessarily aimed at specific non-Asians and as a mod I'm going to support their right to converse freely and vent. Please try to not read in the personal so much. If I thought she was making a personal attack however, that'd be a different story. But when non-Asians read in too much personal it tends to derail the topic from an Asian-centric point of view.

This happens periodically so I'm taking the opportunity to mention it here and now.

[eos]

look, i didn't even know you were non-asian.
i was making a GENERAL comment.
plus, if i meant to attack you personally, i would have used your name.

[Dei Wong]

I don't think it was aimed at you and it was a general vent while akane was posting on this topic in general. You don't have to bring your Asian friends in as a defense this often - as an aside.

Something that non-Asians on this site need to learn at one point or another is that when we talk amongst ourselves and vent from our point of view it's not necessarily aimed at specific non-Asians and as a mod I'm going to support their right to converse freely and vent. Please try to not read in the personal so much. If I thought she was making a personal attack however, that'd be a different story. But when non-Asians read in too much personal it tends to derail the topic from an Asian-centric point of view.

This happens periodically so I'm taking the opportunity to mention it here and now.

Ok if it was not aimed at me I'm very sorry. And I'm not bringing my friend in on anything. I was just being sarcastic.

[kimpossible]

Great, let's move on.

[uhhden]

It'll be like that episode of South Park if we were to really have everyone gets "raceless." Everyone will be beige in skin tone and speaks some morphed form of a bunch of languages slapped together...

[deez nuts]

hahahah dei wong, you're fucking crazy.