Editor:
A letter in response to the European American Heritage Month guest column on Oct. 14.
First, I’ll list my qualifications. I’m of mixed heritage—a mutt as my Dad would say—being both European and American Indian ancestry, so I think I’m qualified to respond to Ms. Brown’s opinion in a thoughtful (I hope) manner.
I find it interesting that you pointed out that October is European American Heritage Month. Oddly enough, it wasn’t until I reached college that I realized that there was any other American history besides European American. Whose tax dollars were paying for the emphasis on that? Ours. As for the bashing, I’ll leave that to other writers as I’ve got more important things to worry about like how many classes are going to be offered in my major next semester.
You state that students hear only the negative things done by Europeans over the past few hundred years. Again, I have to disagree. Coming from the perspective of a 30-something male human, my education has been filled near to overflowing with all the great discoveries and wonders of European art, religion, and science. Indeed, one of my favorite times in history was the Renaissance, because of this explosion of human creativity. Many of my idols during my youth were men like Ben Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom I am related to by marriage in my family’s distant past. Now that I’m older, I still respect them, but now that respect is tempered with the knowledge that they were both products of their times.
As for the Confederate flag, I’ll keep my opinions on that to myself, except that I grew up wishing I had a red Dodge Charger. You get a gold star if you can guess what cultural reference that is...
Now when it comes to the topic of illegal immigration, I admit that I don’t know much about the Wa-gas to form an opinion yet, but they sound like an interesting group. Having said that, however, there were millions of people here pre-Columbus that were basically massacred—unfortunately by some people who just so happened share my European DNA.
In closing, I do understand your frustration, but try to imagine for a moment how you would feel as a non-European American student and were basically indoctrinated solely about European heritage. You wouldn’t feel any connection to these people. They don’t belong to your family so why should you have to learn about them aside from simple human curiosity?
47 comments
the HUMAN race in all of its multi-colored, crazy variety. We're really quite fascinating as a species when we get over ourselves and start respecting each other in spite of our 'differences'.You see, if you take away that thin layer of tissue called skin, you'd find that we're all pretty much the same. If you don't believe me, just crack open a human biology textbook. The concept of 'race' is essentially a social construct used to divide people into categories to allow for ease of discrimination. Apparently it's easier for some people to get into the 'Us versus Them' mindset....tragic really.
genocide is a NOUN
not a verb.
and there IS a concerted effort to genocide us. I've posted links to Professor Noel Ignatiev advocating exactly that.
That may be the case but I'm not about to take anyone who believes that the white race is going extinct all that seriously. It's one thing to be proud of your ancestry/heritage, but that rhetoric borders on the knife-edge of paranoia...
Of course, I'm not 'PURE' white, so I could really care less...
Here is the quote in its entirety:
RNVNA: All white countries face total destruction due to: massive non-white immigration, low white birth-rates due to homosexuality, non-white crimes against whites, abortion, racial mixing, etc. Could this be the end of the human white race worldwide? What do you think we should do about that?
CRAIG BODEKER: Educate people! Let white woman know that Sexual-Discrimination is not only OK, but in fact it’s NECESSARY TO OUR SURVIVAL AS A PEOPLE!
Contrary to PC doctrine, no one can be “half-white.”
Ask any subscriber to the theory that a mixed-race person is “half-white,” just how many white children is he or she capable of producing?
Of course the answer is zero.
That question itself should be an inportant component to any definition of “white,” but for some reason it’s not. Anywhere.
This is a quote taken directly from an interview he did for Romanian National Vanguard News Agency: International News for People of European Descent:
"Educate people! Let white woman know that Sexual-Discrimination is not only OK, but in fact it’s NECESSARY TO OUR SURVIVAL AS A PEOPLE!"Being a mutt, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't give an airborne rodent's posterior on my opinion and that just breaks my heart. That was sarcasm by the way. And for the record, having a discussion means sharing opinions and facts, and LISTENING to everyone else's viewpoints NOT spewing rhetoric and expecting everyone to listen to it if it were the gospel truth.
"(S)imple human curiosity."
Just a thought.
If anything, I'm a bit annoyed that I didn't hear anything about the role of WOMEN in history until the early 1990's much less the parts played by other racial/ethnic groups.
On a final note, I am NOT ashamed of my Euro-American heritage. I would, however, like to balance what I know of it with more information on my Cherokee/ Cheyenne ancestry. All that I know about that part of my past is on a piece of old paper filed back in Oklahoma--The Dawes rolls.