White America is struggling to find culture. For generations, assimilation was the norm as waves of immigrants came to America, giving up their own ethnic culture in the process. To cure our cultural void, we often try to turn to the concept of western culture. Western culture is supposed to be wonderful – built upon the great philosophy of the Greeks, well versed in the arts, and home to democracy and tolerance. It is easy to identify with western culture in America. But western culture isn't really that western, as pointed out by Kwame Anthony Appiah. In reality, western culture takes from many groups, and the tool of "the west" as means of separating America and Europe from the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia stems from cold war propaganda. So, if we are to accept Appiah's argument that west isn't a culture, the logical question is what is our culture as white people? What are we left with? For me, I turn to both the cultures I have been born into and those I have acquired: my ethnicity, my nationality, my history, my gender, and my religion.
I was born to two
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White isn't my ethnicity - I am Ukrainian, English and Scandinavian. For me, food is amazingly cultural. To celebrate my mother's Ukrainian heritage, we make vereniki and halupki. For my father's Scandinavian roots, mashed potatoes, lefse, and lutefisk. This is probably the part of my ethnic culture I identify most with, as I have never had much of an appreciation for the folk arts of Ukraine or Scandinavia. But even without this deep connection to the finer aspects of culture, I still feel pride for my heritage and am hurt when someone calls Ukraine part of Russia, or makes mashed potatoes improperly. I believe you can identify with aspects of a culture and ignore others, so long as you understand the context of what you identify