White Heritage?

White Heritage?

Documentaries are a guilty pleasure of mine.  I admit it.  I find nearly everything fascinating – from history to how to make stuff to science to weird science.  So I drift across a documentary about the "KKK” by the “BBC”.  Well, here’s an interesting take – a British view of the American racist.  What can the British do to make sense of this singularly American of Hate Groups, hate groups. 

The British will bang each up pretty good over soccer teams, but Americans go right for the jugular with race.  Break it down, in much of Europe there can be found large numbers of Black persons, primarily originally from African nations.  In some cases, as in Britain, these persons are third, fourth or even longer generational immigrants.  They arrived in those Europeans countries escaping war, oppression or as sought after labor pools. 

The American take on this is Slavery.  While, as of today, the actual connection via slavery, as American citizens is minimal.  Not insignificant, mind you, but a larger proportion of Black Americans came here long after slavery was abolished and no actual member of their heritage was every in any way connected to it.  Still after a number of years being in America, that connection is socially assumed and often even taken up as what was a real connection.  If they happen to be racially Black, that is.

As far as I am aware, ONLY in the U.S.A. is slavery tied, automatically, to race – and that race is Black; a.k.a. African-American.  Even though a very large per centage have no actual hereditary ties to Africa – in any way.  Except in regards to proven Anthropology, that EVERY human being can be traced back to the African Savanna.

So these KKKers are grasping, ranting on about their White Heritage.  Mostly these citizens are from what is called The South in America.  The states that made up the Confederacy and were those that went to war against those opposing slavery over the cause of slavery.  In reality that is pretty much it for the vast majority of White Americans.    Oh, some White Americans will go on about how their families came from Italy or England or Germany or Denmark, etc. and whatever …  They will try to give themselves what they see as a uniqueness amongst the conglomerate of being white-ish. 

In terms of real heritage there is nothing White Americans can cling to, other than grasping on to some designation that truly only applies to distant relatives that most likely didn’t speak English.  Being a race – just any ole race, doesn’t automatically bring forward a “Heritage”.  It sounds a bit hypocritical, but to be a Black person (in particular) just immediately staples the post-it note of slavery to your forehead.  And the notion of slave immediately denotes “less than”.  This is tough one to get over.

So rather than say, “Our Southern American White Heritage”, which would, by historical fact, tie them to traitorous slave owners, they say, “Our White Heritage”.  Which, using simple Aristotelian Logic, says, “Our family are bigots.  We have been bigots for generations.  We will honor that ignorant bigotry forever!  Damnit!”. 

Rather than admit that, in America, in reality, there isn’t any real “White Heritage”.  You’re apparently derived from a mostly Caucasian Racial line, that may be mostly a fact – but, that’s not a heritage either.  It’s simply a DNA designation.

Most Americans who are more than four or five generations deep in this country, have such a hodge-podge of racial bloodlines that even claiming a “race” is a pretty mixed bags of mere assumptions.  So, addressing the KKKers, you can wave your flags of hatred and spout your ignorant slogans and all that; march with smudgy torches, but don’t claim any righteousness based on Heritage.  Because, you ain’t got none.  And DO NOT try to drag all the other White folks, like me, into your bag of shit.

My skin is white, but I have no clue as to what my Heritage is.  I just know that my heritage is most definitely NOT in any way connected to yours.