tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3361609556061178399.post2260294003009956185..comments2023-05-04T06:47:10.570-05:00Comments on Billy Graham's Electric Rodeo: It's the CityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3361609556061178399.post-19922269825615640872008-06-30T08:58:00.000-05:002008-06-30T08:58:00.000-05:00The answer to that is complicated -- first of all,...The answer to that is complicated -- first of all, she called me white, so it's a direct quote. But secondly, and I'm totally stealing this from a class I took on whiteness -- yep whiteness -- that around the 1920s the Irish, German, generally Europeans light-skinned folks began selling themselves as white to escape their third-rate status as immigrants, beginning to vote with the traditionally caucasian and allying themselves against other darker-skinned people to gain a political advantage. The strategy was effective; the Irish, Germans, Russians quickly became "white" further dividing the nation into two unequal racial categories. You can't claim a hyphenated existence, or at least I don't feel comfortable doing so, if your descendants are far enough removed, which mine are, and to claim them if they are about six generations removed as part of a hyphenated identity is to pretend to be part of some more complex minority heritage to which I don't truly belong, which would be affected on my part. I also believe there's no such thing as white, since it's a totally fabricated identity, particularly in America where it's a performance moreso than a matter of blood, but since it's too long to call myself Irish-French-British-by-marriage-Cherokee-caucasian, I opt for "white" for brevity's sake. In a nutshell.Parohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05339422307075019714noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3361609556061178399.post-48961351262028287302008-06-28T16:45:00.000-05:002008-06-28T16:45:00.000-05:00I find it interesting that you refer to Toni as Af...I find it interesting that you refer to Toni as African-American, yet refer to yourselves as white. Why not Irish-American? or Texan-American? or like me...British-American? HMMMMM.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com