Being White (or Scotch-Irish-British-Native American)

I'm currently reading the book, "Being White," by Paula Harris and Doug Schaupp. It's a really interesting book, about how as white people, we need to recognize that we have a culture and a history that shapes the way that we interact with people of other races, and the need to learn how to interact with them in a way that celebrates our differences and redeems our relationships with each other. The first three sections are about cross-cultural encounters, cross-cultural relationships (of all kinds), and cross-cultural displacement. But I recently started reading the fourth section, which is on the subject of White Identity.

I've always been of the opinion that white people don't really have a culture. In America, we're made up of so many different things, coming from so many different backgrounds, how could we ever have one, collective White culture? How could all of white history be considered my history? But Paula Harris suggests that we come to a face-to-face acknowledgement of our past. That whether or not we as individuals are personally responsible for the atrocities that white people throughout history have committed, we have indeed benefited from their mistakes. Whether or not we personally, or someone in our family, owned slaves, we are now operating in a system that gives us privilege simply because we are white, and denies certain things to others simply because they are people of color. She asks the question, "Will I have the humility to admit that I may benefit from other white people's racial sin? Will I take spiritual responsibility for my community, even if I don't see how I bear personal responsibility?" (123). Whether or not I see myself as a part of the larger white community, or as personally responsible for the history of white racial blunders, I am white. Other people see me as white. In our society, I benefit from being white. And I see the need to acknowledge that.

But even that acknowledgement is complicated. What does being white mean, anyways, for a person who is a mix of Scottish, Irish, British, and even Native American blood. How do I come to terms with the past of "my community" when that community includes the Scottish; the Irish, who banned the immoral practice of enslaving British prisoners of war in the 12th century, but who played a role in keeping slavery alive when they came to America as immigrants; the British, who played a huge roll in demeaning the darker races through both the slave trade and colonization; and Native Americans, who were oppressed and killed in unspeakable ways by first, the British, and then every other group of white Americans? Where is my identity in that? Which history do I relate to? Which community do I call my own?

More thoughts to come...