In much of Europe, Asia, and Africa, cultures developed across centuries of continuity. Even neighboring towns can have distinct languages, traditions, and identities because communities lived in place long enough to build them.
And then there are settler continents of North America and Australia... "Settler countries" like the U.S., Canada, and Australia are built on a very different foundation. Indigenous civilizations were violently disrupted, and instead of organic cultural development, a standardized colonial identity was imposed. The indigenous of these two continents have effectively been eradicated and successfully genocided. The result is a dominant culture that feels largely the same across vast territories, similar language, institutions, media, food, and tradition, but often lacking the depth that comes from rooted history. Unlike countries defined by deep cultural continuity, settler nations often define themselves through:
citizenship rather than ethnicity
ideology rather than shared ancestry
consumer culture instead of tradition
That cultural emptiness has consequences. When people don’t have strong cultural identities, racial identity steps in to fill the gap. It’s one reason white supremacy concentrates so heavily in settler societies: “whiteness” becomes not just a category, but the only identity many people feel they have. The word American, Australian and Canadian does not carry an identity, it is a legal document. The idea “Whiteness as identity” develops precisely because there is no shared heritage in the same way as in older civilizations.
Tldr: most of us are living on stolen land where the original culture has been eradicated and real identity no longer exists. There is no real identity here because it's gone. "Whitewashed" is just the dominant modern settler culture that replaced the original identity.
I think this is more like the Anglosphere playing plausible deniability over the identity of the white settler countries: the USA for example is supposedly built on the notions of "freedom," "democracy" and "private property"—and thus there's the belief that this country is open for everyone who upholds these ideals regardless of their race. Yet the USA's track record is proof alone that it's a bullshit concept. The white Americans fought against king George because the tax on tea is oppressing them, but they didn't think that driving out the natives and enslaving Africans was evil. They fought a civil war under Lincoln to liberate black people from slavery, proclaiming that they equally deserve freedom—then 40 years later they invaded the Philippines and Cuba.
The fault with the diaspora Asians in this regard wasn't learning to speak English or play baseball or cooking backyard BBQ, but rather being too gullible and falling for this smokescreen that they'd be considered "Americans" or "Australians" alongside the descendants of the European colonists. Plausible deniability is one of the white man's most powerful tools that enables imperialism to this day under the guise of "fighting Communism" in Asia.
American culture is ingrained more than people realize. The real problem is 'white supremacy subculture'. Oddly enough, I do better in very rich white areas and worse in middle to low class areas that have white ppl in positions with some level of control. In the very rich areas, people tend to be nicer to me and leave me alone. I get the power tripper racist ass bitches on the lower rungs.
Damn that's so true about the class thing. Rich white areas are weirdly chill - they already got theirs so they don't feel threatened or whatever. It's always the middle management types and suburban Karens who lose their shit when they see successful Asians, like we're somehow taking "their" spot
They just have tidier ways to suppress you in wealthier white areas.
That's not what it looks like when they see me get into a Tesla lol
Duping high-income Asians into wasting money on overpriced Western slop to make white guys rich is the primary strategy, actually. Were you born yesterday?
lol
Good insight. I would also posit that the dominant race in a settler col9ny founded on genocide only allows equality to be achieved through dominance and necessitates a supremacist approach.
Had Asians called Asian subreddits Asian supremacists and very toxic.
All these identity politics have their agendas. Some wants to hold onto power. Some want people to be in fear and divided. Some want votes. Some want to distract people. Some wanting to change something they can't change.
Even if there were a strong cultural identities, many will still become "white washed". People in Asia has strong shared culture, but they still white worship.
Older gen Asians, didn't really care about racism. The newer generations grew up in this system, realizing, how they will always be viewed as an outsider despite doing their best to assimilate and please whites. I don't think Asians want to focus on their race too much. They've just been reminded over and over again, you don't belong here, erase your Asianness, and be subservient.
Culture in many ways is just politics. White kids see colors, can already have racist feelings towards POCs. Because our racial appearance is the first thing they see, automatically tells them us vs them.
American individualistic culture makes everyone have high egos. Ego loves identities. For them to feel good about their identity, they will make you feel shit about yours. What goes around comes around.
Older generations cared a lot about racism. They had lawsuits and shit.
Those are the brainwashed cucks. They're subconsciously following their masters agenda thinking it's the right thing to do when instead they have all their power taken away from them and are just empty parrots serving their owners.
Unfortunately many don't see the bigger picture. They'll be "Asian" only when it benefit themselves. Many are still chasing after white's approval. Their subconscious peasants/second class citizen mentality can be hard to overcome. Internalized racism goes deep. Unaware their whole identity is what whites had designed for them, to serve white supremacy.
Yup you nailed it.
If you really study you'll understand that Asians and native Americans are different types of people and they have a history of keeping their culture going on for over 10000 years. We can really learn something from them rather than black and white.
I will say it any Asians who deny (MJ) has falling for colonization. We Asians have been trading (MJ) for over 10000 years it wasn't untill British came and put the most highest tax on (MJ) in history over in India. Where the problem grew including (OPI). Thus Africa be ending up having their Durban poison you can say.
What I'm saying is. mj is part of Asian cultures and our identity. When it came to America and use it as unrelated source of spiritual and medicine. It has lost its meaning of culture and identity. A disrespect to it's origin.
It's the same for native Americans. White people took their tobacco which is their spiritual and medicine. They have use it for over 10000 years. People who smokes don't understand it's origin and identity and people who is digested by people who smokes tobacco don't understand that what they are saying is...the native Americans deserve to be sick killed grapes and have their land stolen? If we all can understand where things come from people will be more respectful rather than acting a fool.
Also also is cheeseburger an American food? When basic cheeseburger have bread onion lettuce cheese pickle beef..their origin came from Asia..which leaves us tomato . Tomato is from land of America. The only American cheeseburger about it is Tomato. Ugh
Yeah. Man.
You sound schizophrenic, dude.
And you sound like a PC. Deal with it you colonized mind. Your father is a failure to your knowledge and all you do is accept wyte education.
Idk what MJ is
Cannabis
Not a bad take. In America specifically, the concept of the “melting pot” has not really played out the way it could have. It’s been called “salad” but I think of it more like swirling colors into a can of paint. Start with a base color, white. Swirl in other colors, which have strong streaks that trail away. If you keep mixing, the overall color would change.
I argue there’s nothing fundamentally wrong about American culture, though. I don’t mind living in a multicultural society that can celebrate what different people bring to it. Easter? Christmas? Thanksgiving? Hanukkah? Eid? Diwali? Kwanzaa? It’s all good, man.
In reality, it’s more complex because there is racism and prejudice and self-grouping and so on. Racism / prejudice / cultural animosity is not unique to America or to the West. That’s where there’s hope as part of the American experiment. Working to make a better place. Working to help people work together and ideally bridge prejudices that exist elsewhere.
Well, the one problem with this is identity politics that unmixes the paint. We could convince the entire population that ethnic and racial identity should not matter so we can get along as one identity. But we could also convince people to care about their identity because it's, ultimately, a human nature. I think the former is harder to maintain. Even if it's not domestic politics, it could be a geopolitical one. If China and the US become extremely hostile to each other then the racism against Asians in the US would make COVID look like a playground.
Identity politics as it currently exists is a real problem. It is deliberately divisive.
Also, I think it’s unrealistic to convince everyone that ethnic and racial identity don’t matter. It does. And that should be ok, too. But there should be some overall guidelines on how that’s done.
Let’s take an exaggerated example: if freedom means “let’s create an Islamic Caliphate in the US and impose Sharia law” then I think that’s a problem.
But to the extent of “let’s allow cultures to celebrate themselves and what they bring to this country,” that’s cool.
What’s weird is when you start getting external interference. Say, the influx of Middle Eastern money in higher education.
European countries are the same as white settler countries in that regard. Most Western Euro countries nowadays are quite diverse, with identity based on citizenship rather than ancestry.
The reasons are different though. After World War II destroyed much of Europe, they needed to rebuild, so they started mass importing labour from their former imperial colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. And that's how European countries ended up diverse like the white settler countries.
You realize that every European country has its unique own identities right? Own languages, food, music? Every country in north America and Australia might as well be one country because there's no unique identity left
I live in Europe (UK). My point is that European cultures have changed significantly over the generations. They're now melting pots just like the US, Canada and Australia. At this point, the Anglo countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia) may as well all be the same country.
Even the UK still has identities: welsh, Irish, Scottish, british etc.... probably because they've been living there for over a thousand years? Indians moving to the UK is probably never going to call themselves any of these ethnicities.
Everyone born in the UK is British regardless of ethnicity. British is not an ethnicity, but a nationality.
But you're right that whites have distinct ethnicities here. Along with the English, Welsh, Scots and Iriish, there's also Eastern European migrants. And they often don't get along with each other.
As for Indians and other non-whites, most of them came from former British Empire colonies to help rebuild the country after World War II. The UK has been multi-cultural ever since.
But my point was about nationality. Anyone born in the UK is British regardless of ethnicity. It's a multi-cultural society with different cultures living side by side. So it's the same as the US in that regard.
Yes, I think I pointed out the difference between citizenship and identity. A Scotsman is British because that's what their legal document says but they can also call themselves Scottish. The same reason there are Chinese-Americans or Korean-Americans or Indian-Americans. Citizenship is not an identity. A Chinese person can be a Chinese Canadian one day and Chinese American the next through whatever legal means.
Identity isn't a legal document or title, it is something that is built for many generations that is passed down: languages, music, traditions, values etc.... Once it is lost, it can't ever be fully regained.
So your point is about ethnicity? In that case, I agree there is a difference in how "whiteness" is perceived.
In the UK, there are a number of different "white" ethnic groups. In the US, there's only a single "white" ethnic group.
That's why white supremacy is stronger in the US, because whiteness is the only identity they have.
But if you're talking culture... That's not static, but changes over time. British culture today is vastly different to British culture 100 years ago. Modern British culture has been heavily shaped by foreign influences and migrant cultures over generations.
No? I'm talking about identity, the topic of this sub. Cultures can evolve but identity still stays the same. Identity is something that is created by time when a group of people live in an area for a long time. It doesn't matter how different their culture is now than a 100 years ago because that's part of the identity. Citizenship is not identity. Identity is defined by all that I've listed that is grown over time. Change is part of growth.
Countries can change names, territories can change name, citizenship can change name, identity cannot.
I'm literally repeating the same thing over and over and over.
So you mean ethnicity, basically.
Identity can mean anything. It can mean ethnicity, nationality, gender, culture, religion, sexuality, profession, hobbies, etc. These are all identities.
It's a combination except the citizenship. Idk about profession and hobbies because, like I said, only things that are generational to develop. Let's be clear here, what makes something an identity is something you can't take away, change or create instantly.
You go back far enough and even the supposed natives took it from someone else.
That said I do agree that culture >>> race.
Territories changes don't always result in genocide. That's why many Asian countries still have sub-groups of indigenous ethnicities that have been there for thousands of years with their own languages and everything.
If the natives of North America and Australia still exist today, it would be a continent of multiple cultures. The natives were not homogeneous like modern state.
The real issue in these settlers countries is visible minorities are not treated as equals.
I'm just addressing those struggling with identities like I was. I learn that being an Asian-American is not an identity. Asian is a label for a vast continent and American is a legal document.
Asian American is a place holder identity. Just let's a person know they aren't Black, White, or Hispanic.
It was convenient for White people to label the "new comers" in the pseudo science race theory as such.
Just like its convenient to label every Asian trait as a weakness in their mythology as Americans.
Most white people werent even here that long. Most are Ellis Island newcomers. Average Hispanic has more native American blood and has longer and stronger connections to this hemisphere than any white flag waving redneck with a German last name, claiming authenticity because their great grand parents moved here a "long" time ago, like in 1910~
Wherever you live in the world today (including Europe, Asia and Africa), you are probably living on land that was "stolen" from some other group of people if you go back in time far enough.
Whoever is living on the land today were the last group of people to "steal" it.
There’s a difference between:
Events centuries or millennia back where populations mixed, borders shifted, cultures evolved, and no identifiable “original owners” still exist vs
Very recent, historically documented dispossession where descendants of the displaced still exist and the consequences are still active.
Identities take centuries and millennias to grow. So my point is that there hasn't been enough time to grow one, especially with the modern world constantly moving around and mixing.
Sure, culture takes time to develop, no argument here. North and South America do have their own cultures, although it is obviously not as deep as that in the Old World, and to some extent it is a derivative of the Old World.
Just pointing out that "settler countries" are not by any means the only stolen land in the world. A casual review of a map of Europe 100 or 200 years ago should make this obvious. And stolen land is stolen land, regardless of whether it is historically documented or not.
Stolen land but not stolen heritage. Every country might take over the groups of indigenous, that's why one country has so many ethnicities. The mountains of Vietnam have a dozen ethnicity, all with their own languages, names and traditions. North America did the same. Every major tribe has their own languages, traditions, food etc...
It's not just stolen land, cultures were erased.
Again, no argument here. It happens all over the world, to a greater or lesser extent. Life goes on.