Like most white people, I have grown up thinking, "I have no culture." "American" culture, which includes hamburgers and hot dogs on Independence Day and turkey on Thanksgiving, is not confined only to white people. Besides, having holidays doesn't exactly count as a "culture." This has always made me rather sad and envious of racial and ethnic groups that do have a culture. It provides members with a connection to their past. Culture also connects members with their present-day communities and future generations. These bonds run deep and provide a sense of identity - a bond of similarity and unity with strangers that I lack. If I had a culture, perhaps I could feel it too. Of course, a disconnection with the past and the presumption of not having a culture are key components of white culture - right up there with guns, the Second Amendment, religious liberty for Christians and the right to feel "safe." There's also organic food, correct grammar and bottled water on a different side of white culture. You see, like Muslim culture or black culture, there are multiple branches of white culture, not all of which can be thrown under one umbrella of generalization. This discovery was a revelation. Much to my surprise, the assertion that white people have no culture is actually quite irritating to people who aren't white. This takes some time to figure out because it usually requires talking to a non-white person about whiteness, an awkward exercise that makes everyone involved uncomfortable. Luckily, white people love WordPress blogs. By clicking through various WordPress blogs, I discovered another blog called Stuff White People Like. It's really an amazing study of white culture. It contains regular updates on white peoples' tastes and problems we face in our everyday lives, such as significant others who haven't read enough books. It also explains how to pass as a white person or even just deal with us, including how to identify an "expert level" white person, which requires treading with care. (Hint: When confronted about music piracy, experts will reply, "It's all paid for, transferred from vinyl.") The most significant feature is a growing list of 95 things that white people like. For my part, I am guilty of liking 22 things, including: religions my parent's don't belong to, tea, hatred for my parents, "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report," Apple products, public radio, irony, co-ed sports, study abroad, hating corporations, bad memories of high school and free health care. Damn, I'm a lot whiter than I thought. Despite the obvious fact that the site is semi-satirical, as a white male writes, it makes an important, not-so-subtle point: White is a culture. To say otherwise is self-centered. Buried within the cultureless-white-people theory is the assumption that "white" is the default race; that any deviation from it is "flavor" and "color," but more deeply implicit is that white is normal. And everything else is just … interesting, if we're being polite or politically correct. This playful rebuke serves as both a wakeup call and a warning about what we think of as "default." We think of white as being "normal" just as we think of male as being "normal." If you doubt me, just think about the Internet: an anonymous, infinite forum where you can literally talk to anybody in the world. If you have no identifiers in your screen name and don't explicitly tell anyone who you are, what are you presumed to be? A young white male. Stuff White People Like also challenges white people to be more self-aware. I write and reflect a lot about being female in a male-centered society, but I rarely take the time to examine my own privileges as a white person. Yeah, a biased hiring manager might tend to pick a white male colleague instead of me, but who would they pick if asked to choose between a black male and myself? Or a black female? I know in my gut what the answer would probably be, and I don't like admitting it. It takes away from my accomplishments if I don't play on an even field, but rather as in a game of Chutes and Ladders. White people, as several women of color have pointed out, have the privilege of not seeing or being aware of race, something non-white people have no choice but to recognize. If we truly care about eliminating the racial disparities in our society, we must become aware of them. And it is up to us to educate ourselves.
-Ruthie Kelly is a journalism junior and a staff columnist.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed - include your full name, major and year in school.
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