“White Pride, Shame and Privilege” #SOC119

This is a short segment from SOC 119, an introductory class on race and culture that is taught by Dr. Sam Richards at Penn State University. Today's video comes from the fifteenth class of the Spring 2024 semester. The live streams took place on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. The full lecture live stream is available here:

Feel free to participate in the comment section.
But please be kind.
Remember, this is a classroom.

Watch the other Highlight video(s) from this class:

New to SOC 119?
We live stream every class, Tuesday and Thursday.
🏖️ August to 🍂 December, the stream happens from 1635-1750 (435-550pm).
☃️ January to 🌷 May, the stream happens from 1505-1620 (305-420pm).

Timestamps:
00:00 Preview
02:28 Whiteness in America
06:47 Ashamed to Be White
12:18 What Do You See?
15:48 White Privilege

CONTACTS:

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The short answer is: All the money goes back into the stream or sent to our international partners for fundraisers mentioned in class.

Do you have a comment, question or concern?

Want to check out the slides and references used in this class:

#White #WhiteExperience #Race

[tiffany.Elizabeth.]

I am not ashamed to be white. I’m sick of anti white rhetoric and anti western sentiment.

[cybtb]

So as an Irish descendant, I was enslaved by the English. Now centries later because I look like the English (white) I am therefore the same as them and furthermore guilty for all the actions of the English. On top of that, my ancestors were enslaved by North Africans, but I'm told to hold my head in shame for the actions of other whites and African slavery. The English themsleves were brutally colonized by the Romans, the Vikings and the Normans. Its complex, and people want easy answers.

[timothyjfry]

As someone outside of academia, it’s quite heartening to hear this conversation happening! It brings me hope that much of the divisiveness we’ve experienced over the past 20 years or so is on the verge of being a historical aritifact.

[louiesamuel]

Donald Trump has not said it’s okay to be white (even though it is). He has said it’s OK to be an American, be proud to be an American, to put America first, and that includes ALL races.

[SD-whfs]

The ignorant statement from the Tutor that Europe invented slavery on the basis of skin colour and race is fundamentally inaccurate. Factual history matters.

[louiesamuel]

Only 2-3% of the slaves from triangle trade ended up in the American colonies. The rest became slaves in the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

[stephenatkison]

What is the difference between being proud to be white and being proud to be black? If white pride is racist then black pride is racist.

[gabev]

I wish I could be part of this class, I feel like I would get along with the teacher bc we have some of the same feelings abt important political stuff and topics

[vanceerickson]

He seems to be ignoring the enormous Arab slave trade by claiming that Europeans invented race-based slavery.

[masterbuilder]

In history, every race viewed themselves as the superior (or at least preferred) race to itself. The only difference between a sub Saharan African tribe seeing themselves as superior to others and European nations feeling the same way is that the European nations were able to inflict this attitude during the colonial era around the world. A difference in scope, not kind.

The true difference in kind became when European and European based cultures eventually realized that this belief was wrong and over a few hundred years worked to eliminate this attitude as thoroughly as possible. The 1990s are often seen as the apex of the elimination of racial division among whites, where it was held that no race was intrinsically superior than any other; that the only difference was performative (what you do vs. what you are). White people, generally speaking, moved past the idea of racial identity.

Unfortunately, most of the world did not follow suit (which is not surprising. Racial/ethnic identity was the norm for virtually all of human history. In-group preference is even understandable from a Darwinian perspective) and are dragging white people back into that style of thinking. The result is fairly predictable. White people get shamed for being white. It logically follows that the flip side of the coin will appear. White people feeling pride for their racial identity.

Again, this isn't any different that what existed for most of human history. Most racial/ethnic groups feel pride/shame for their group depending on the circumstances.

Is this how it should be? In what way should race be used as a determiner of value, or should it be used that way at all? If the former, what attributes then make up a 'good' race? Or a 'bad' one?

[micahkilpatrick]

I think a lot of people mistake pride of one's ancestry with pride of one's ancestor's actions. I love my country and I'm comfortable in my pale, freckly skin, but I'm damn sure not proud of slavery, lynching, wrongful arrests and prosecutions, Jim Crow laws, and the genocidal crimes that came with manifest destiny. If history was taught correctly in schools--as observation and objective analysis of all important historical events, rather than the whitewashing from the right or the historical revision from the left--we wouldn't be having silly arguments.

[Satch__Hogs]

hold on... the middle East was purchasing Africans more than 2 centuries before Europeans. If anything we got the idea from the Muslim slave trade. We just had the technology that allowed us to go the West cost of Africa and not the East cost like the Muslims.

[TheKaos]

I am from germany. I dont get the notion of thinking im black/white/yellow or any other skin color.
Perhaps it stems from learning a lot about our own bad history, but whi should i be proud/ashamed of my skin color. It is an arbitrary feature. I can be proud of my achievments or those of my country. What has skin color to do with it?

[Doug-rvnr]

Literally every major cultural and scientific contribution to society in the last 500 years was made by a White person. We absolutely should be proud. If you include Asians, then together we have made every contribution to humanity for the past 5000 years.

[jimdolan]

Jealousy always breeds hate and hate breeds racism

[CVEIWKID]

Im white i grew up dirt poor like really poor eating wild animals and bathing in state parks

[danielschauffer]

There’s no such thing as ‘white’ only this or that there are individuals and individual cultures that are completely different from one another. German white people are very different to white people in South Africa or Zimbabwe for instance! Our cultures would get along but we would be brought up completely differently with completely different experiences too! It is exactly the same as for blacks or for any other skin coloured people we are ALL different there is no value in saying all whites or all blacks are this or that this is incredibly dumb!

[owene.ahearn]

Pretty sure the idea that Europeans enslaving people based on characteristics and so on… that’s not true. Arabs had been enslaving Africans and Europeans since before, and slavery based on ethnicity is as old as humanity…

[kingcormaciii]

This is absolutely unprecedented. Fantastical.

[RePete_Jackson]

How is pride involved in skin color? Is it a choice?