There's no TL;DR for this post, so if you want to comment, please read the whole thing before doing so!
Hello Escapists.
Now, when reading the headline of this subject, I realize what you might be inclined to think, but I'll start off by saying that I'm not a neo-nazi, racist or extreme nationalist. I'm just puzzled.
I'm going to spark, what I hope, to be a reasonably well-behaved discussion. SO BEHAVE!
I'm kind of nervous at this, but here I go;
Have you ever thought about the fact that saying the words "I'm proud to be white" makes you sound like a member of the Ku Klux Klan? Well I have, and I'm sick of it.
If an African-American stands up in a crowded room, full of strangers, with a fist in the air and says "I'm black, and I'm proud", white people will nod their heads and clap their hands politely, like he/she is saying the most inspiring thing in the world. But if a white man does exactly the same (not that I believe any sane white man has ever done so) people will immediately think back to World War II.
Of course the above example is exaggarated, but now you get the gist of it.
Here's a situation that's actually happened to me once or twice:
If I'm going out at night, with my friends, having a beer and a laugh, and I accidentally bump into the wrong guy, prompting an immediate apology from my side, but he persists at offending me - I'll counter-retort. That's the kind of guy I am. Problem is, if he has a different skin-colour than me, well then I'm suddenly a racist, and all of the people at the club are drawn into the spectacle.
Did I say anything bad about his ethnicity, country or colour? No. But that doesn't mean he's not a dick. Calling him a dick, though, makes me a racist.
When did this happen? I'm in my twenties and I realize that "white people" have done some pretty bad stuff during the years, you'll never hear me deny that - but that has got nothing to do with me. It's history. Sure, it's a bit of my history too, but what has been done by some short guy with a weird beard and delusions of grandeur, or a bunch of slave-traders in the 19th century reflects nothing about my own personality.
Furthermore, when we Danes, (I'm from Denmark) do something bad in the eyes of, I'll use this example, the islamic world - such as distributing a satire-drawing of the Prophet Muhammed, in a nationwide newspaper - and then defend it to the rest of the world by being proud of our right to free speech, suddenly half of the nation is feeling ashamed of themselves.
It's not that I think it was a wise thing to do. Heck, it caused a lot of people to be very angry with our country, but I'm not in any way ashamed of the fact that we defended our right to free speech when the all of the islamic socities in the world screamed 'bloody murder'.
I am proud to be who I am, as a caucasian male. And I'm proud to stand firm for what I believe in. It's not like I'll go around spewing that out of my mouth. But if I would, I couldn't. Or, well, I could, but let's just say it'd be a bad idea.
Phew. I think that covered most of what was on my mind. So, that's the deal guys (and girls). What I want from you, is your constructive input;
What do you think of this? Am I right in saying that "white people" are somehow discriminated against, concerning this particular issue, or am I completely of my rocker?
Again, I want to stress that any racist comments or anything that resembles any such will be promptly reported.
