Graphic by Brenda Delgado
As an interracial person, I am more than used to people asking me about my cultural affiliation. More specifically, I am usually on the other end of white people not being able to place the coloration of my skin into a category of recognition that supports their understanding of what certain people of color do or do not look like. This usually materializes in the form of some well-meaning (but largely ignorant) white person posting the question, “what are you?” Experience (as well as too much early exposure to slam poetry about being trapped between two worlds) has shown that that vague inquiry of tangible self, that prompt of reflection on association, that ever-important question of what are you, are really just ignorant (and at times a little dehumanizing) ways of asking where my family is from.
While it can be a little annoying sometimes, I can admit that I have also found myself sharing in their curiosity when I see a person with features that I am having trouble placing because they are not like my own. Curiosity about people’s personal identities is incredibly natural, but our own personal curiosities do not entitle us to answers. In the United States, being not white creates a sense of ‘otherness’ that permeates the identity of every person of color living in this country in a way that is both uncomfortable and seemingly unavoidable. My own experiences with people asking me invasive questions about my identity keeps me from ever giving in to my curiosity and accosting a person of color I do not know about their identity.
However, that spirit has never applied to the white people that ask me what I am, so I have taken to asking them right back. Usually, I am met with some confusion and then an assertion of “I’m white,” that is usually paired with a sense of perceived obviousness that borders on condescension. But what does it mean to be white? According to the population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2022, 75.8% of people in the United States identify as white. Despite the high concentration of white-identifying people in the United States, there is no unified idea of what white culture is, or even what it means to be white.
In her book, “The History of White People,” historian Nell Painter builds a timeline of how the definition of whiteness has expanded and changed. Early-lasting definitions of whiteness stemmed from Professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s classification of humans into five racial groups that were based upon his aesthetic preferences (with African and Asian skulls ranking at the bottom of his preferential list). Despite the initial lasting classification of whiteness being largely based in pseudo-science, whiteness continued to exist and be upheld by legal and social systems within the early days of the United States. An early influx of Eastern and Southern Europeans were turned away from the United States’ border under the guise that something about their physical appearances made them non-ideal for working, and thus they had no place in North America. Southern Italians and the Irish experienced rampant acts of blatant discrimination and hate that sometimes resulted in physical violence. For years it was clear that these immigrants were not welcome on the shores of the United States.
However, over time the lines of what “counted” as white and what did not began to change. Sociologists like Henry Pratt Fairchild began to push the narrative that whiteness could be achieved by fairer-skinned immigrants simply by acquiring wealth and acting in a way that mimicked the behavior of white society. Immigrant groups that had previously been shunned and oppressed by the institution of whiteness like Slavs, Italians or the Irish, were now being given a ticket to equality at the expense of their connection to all the beauty, history, and community of their motherland.
Words have power, and applying an arbitrary descriptor like “white” to the identity of the majority population that also happens to hold the most amount of systemic power and resources is an intentional means of rhetorical control. Semantic constructions of a binary of identity that only provides the options of white or person of color, oppressor or the oppressed, reinforce the systems that oppress so-called people of color because they establish them as the cultural “other” within the United States society. As Toni Morrison aptly points out, “In this country, American means white. Everyone else has to hyphenate.”
White Americans have abandoned their cultural ties in favor of subscribing to the nameless and faceless white identity that has been normalized by society to mean “American.” The people in the United States have developed a culture that is thought of as the “American culture,”, but it can be difficult to really pin it down outside of explorations of vague themes like liberty, freedom and a strong sense of Nationalism because those themes have largely been superseded by whiteness. However, the white identity only exists as a way to enforce division by stripping people of their former cultural ties as a means of creating a controlled conglomerate identity. Blanket whiteness offers no sense of community or pride. The disconnection from community that permeates white America is a byproduct of the capitalistic implications that come with supporting the maintenance of an identity that must use consumerism to create cultural ties because it does not have the history or fortitude to be based in anything meaningful. By unpacking the white identity and instead adopting a personal identity that is informed by history and culture, white Americans have the ability to try to break up the strength of the white identity from within by decentering the importance of whiteness in their lives.
White people treat their whiteness like a girl with an ugly boyfriend who is really good at opening jars — she gets super uncomfortable addressing him in public, but is really glad to have him around when she can utilize him. Any mention of white pride (rightfully) calls to mind images of burning crosses and hate speech. The intangibilities of whiteness are precisely why a further connection to culture should be established. There is no white culture. But there is Polish culture, Italian culture, and Swedish culture, and dozens of other people groups with rich and beautiful histories and traditions that should be celebrated as part of America’s melting pot. There is nothing fulfilling about whiteness, nothing beautiful or spiritually nurturing, and that is precisely why further connection to a mother culture is needed.
Sociologist Stuart Hall defines cultural identity as not just something that you are, but also something that you become. Much like any self of self it exists both in the past and the present, which means that it is never too late to take that genetic test or engage your older relatives in a conversation about where your family comes from. The only people who are originally American are people who are from the Indigenous population, anyone else exists here on stolen land and has a mother culture to connect with or create for themselves. For people whose families have been in the United States for a long time and have lost the knowledge of their origin culture, it is important to remember that cultural identity in this context doesn’t always have to mean country of origin. You can take pride in the traditions and history of the state or city that you’re from and use those to guide your cultural identity. What’s most important is that that identity doesn’t define itself in non-tangible things like whiteness. From there, all you have to do is start doing the research.
It may seem difficult and a little tedious at times, but getting into touch with your culture can be a deeply liberating and exploratory experience. By engaging with an unfamiliar culture, you open up your mind to so many new ideas and people. As a Black woman, my cultural identity and all of the history, tradition and community that comes with it are a rich part of the tableau that makes up my personal identity. My experiences inform my understanding that everyone, regardless of skin color, should have the opportunity to reap the benefits that come with connecting and engaging with a culture. Inside of every one of us there is so much untapped history and connection that has been taken from us by white supremacy — we owe it to ourselves to at least attempt to reclaim what was taken.