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Racial Pride
So I was stumbling around the internet the other day and ran into this.
In short..
Racial pride is invalid because it is not a factor that you control. You can't be proud of your race for the same reason you can't be proud of your hair colour or height.
The article does a better job of explaining it.
Now, every time I hear someone saying something like "yeah, pride man!" I explain this to them and without fail, they disagree very strongly but I've never gotten a decent argument back why racial pride is valid. Maybe someone here can explain to me why practically everyone disagrees with me on this.
What's your opinion?
In short..
Racial pride is invalid because it is not a factor that you control. You can't be proud of your race for the same reason you can't be proud of your hair colour or height.
The article does a better job of explaining it.
Now, every time I hear someone saying something like "yeah, pride man!" I explain this to them and without fail, they disagree very strongly but I've never gotten a decent argument back why racial pride is valid. Maybe someone here can explain to me why practically everyone disagrees with me on this.
What's your opinion?
Comments
For example blacks pre 1960's or arguably even now in the United States,
I think it is alright to be proud of being what you are when others think less of you
It doesn't necessarily help things in the long run but if you are in a minority situation I think it's okay.
I mean you originally talk about race, but you can extend that to something like sexuality. When people say you are wrong, or inferior, which can be race or sexuality or many other things, should you stay in quiet subjugation or speak your mind?
Saying something like white pride is obviously invalid, what do you have to be proud of being in the status quo? Maybe racial pride in current days is something that is invalid but years ago why not?
This would create a double standard where some groups are "allowed" by society to have pride and some groups are not. This is basically the situation we have today where "white pride" is frowned upon but other racial pride is encouraged.
Besides that, the notion of racial pride is inherently flawed. Race is just a physical quality that we are all born with. Just as someone can't be proud of being short or tall, they also can't be proud of being black or white.
If someone succeeds in the face of racial or sexual prejudice, they should not feel pride in their race or sexuality. They should instead feel pride in themselves for their achievement and also for overcoming the prejudice.
I think by disallowing pride of any sort you're encouraging acceptance of the status quo, but being proud of yourself youre encouraging others to take a step back and think why should they be proud of themselves, theyre human too? Then after introspection they should realize why they are in that situation in the first place.
You mention double standards are bad, but they are present everywhere in society now. Im not trying to go off topic, but think about subjugation of woman, it took people to stand up and be vocal about their posistions in society to start a change in society. If they had just kept it to themselves like women were expected to it would have just reinforced the status quo.
I think pride of physical qualities which are not chosen is and will still be valid until racism and sexism come to a final end. I think were progressing to that point.
There are exceptions for opressed minorities ingrained into the political system too. Do you not think they should save a certain amount of seats in parliament for natives, and women and other minorities? Do you not believe in minority scholarships? Clearly white people and many other races are going to have an economic advantange in the world, most of the time. We all may be equal but we arent all facing equal situations.
Things like male pride, straight pride, and white pride, anyone whos actually oblivious enough to want to fight for such rights, no comment for them. Pride is good when used in the face of adversity, straight white males aged 18-36 who have a problem with this should really take a look at themselves :P
You say racial/sexual pride is valid as long as there is racism and sexism. We can't just change the meanings of words based on conditions in society. If racial pride is valid now, it should be valid under any conditions.
To answer your questions. I do not believe in saving a certain number of parliamentary seats for women or minorities. I do not believe in minority scholarships. I would much rather have these things based on pure merit.
For one thing, it cheapens the achievement. Suppose a minority student receives a scholarship from a university over other non-minority students with a higher GPA. The minority student would not feel the full achievement of working hard enough to earn a scholarship because it was given to them even though they deserved it less than other students.
If all races are equal, let's treat everyone equally.
http://www.oup.com/oald-bin/web_getald7index1a.pl
In fact, it appears to be both. The first problematic point of the article is the author's use of the words "real", "genuine", and "false". Just what makes individual pride more "real" or "genuine" than group pride? Why is it real and how would you define "real pride"? The dictionary makes no such distinction; rather, the author seems to label proper and improper instances in which to feel pride on the basis of individual merit.
Another problem with the article is that it disregards how people think and act. It is too idealistic and prescribing. It is natural for people to associate some sort of achievement to themselves and hence be proud. Blacks are proud of Martin Luther King Jr. Greeks are proud because their country gave birth to philosophy. Heck, Canadians are proud of being the best at hockey (go back to 2006 when the Oilers made it to the finals, everyone was going nuts during their games). By prescribing and proscribing, you will do little to change the ways people behave. It's true that Canadians should feel no pride when their hockey team wins a championship, but they find a common characteristic with the players and take pride in the association between them. That's what actual pride is based on, association.
Thirdly, the author generalizes from himself to all people and makes a normative matter out of it. That is, in taking the achievements of Aristotle, Newton, and Shakespeare, the author states that just because he's white doesn't mean he takes pride in the achievements of any of those great men. Well he may be like that, but Britons and Greeks would certainly view the matter differently (another fault is that he disregards the ethincities of the great thinkers). They would be proud of their thinkers by recognizing the thinkers' achievements and associating themselves with them.
Time is another matter. People will perceive achievements differently depending on the amount of time that has passed since they occurred. Britons certainly took more pride in Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing--when they won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2005 and 2007 respectively--than they did in Shakespeare, at least temporarily.
I've got a few other ideas which I'll post later, because I'm too tired right now.