The Importance of Identity

Not for you White Man.

We have read and heard about some of the important downward trends in White well-being - White Americans being the only racial group in America with increasing mortality rates, Whites devastated by the opioid epidemic, White men with high rates of suicide, opinion polls reflecting White pessimism, all consistent with Whites acting like a defeated, despairing people.

Identity is an important component of the psychological well-being of people.

…groups provide individuals with a sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging (i.e. a positive sense of social identity) they tend to have positive psychological consequences.

Certainly, that’s celebrated for “minorities”- and that’s the point. Non-White well-being is maximized by expressions of ethnoracial Identity, while Whites are not allowed to do the same.

If Whiteness is stigmatized, if Whites are told that they have no positive group racial identity and that Whiteness is a myth that exists merely to subjugate others, if Whites are told that they are uniquely and inherently bad, if Whites are denied the same rights of group racial Identity and the ability to organize around that Identity and around group interest, will that not be psychologically harmful?  If Identity is so important for psychological well-being, isn’t the denial of White Racial Identity – e.g., in America – an attack on White well-being and an important contributor to the problems discussed above?

One can look at places of employment, academic institutions, various other organizations and social entities and observe the fanatical attachment to expressions of Identity by non-Whites. For example, in the academic/education setting the hysterical, obsessive, navel-gazing, laser-like focus by non-White students on their racial and cultural identities is well-known and quite remarkable in its psychological intensity. These people find emotional release in expressions of their Identity and are quite aggressive about it – not only are these expressions typically characterized in the form of opposition to Whiteness, but White students – themselves deprived of the opportunity of equal expressions of group Identity – are forced to watch, and sometimes participate in, expressions and celebrations of non-White Identity. Similar scenarios play out in the workplace as well, from smaller companies to large, multinational corporations. It’s in the general culture as well; it is everywhere.

Indeed, in such a setting, every group has an organization, every such group has special events celebrating their Identity, every such group has a “history month” – every group has that, except for Whites, except for people of European descent. They are singled out as not being allowed to have an Identity or to participate in any expressions of that Identity, but instead are singled out as “privileged” – the ones who are not allowed to have an Identity, not allowed to organize, not allowed to express pride and defend interests are “privileged” while the ones allowed all those thing are “oppressed.” Is it no wonder Whites are in despair?  

Identity is so important to people that when Whites are deprived of authentic expressions of Identity, deprived of expressions of genuine tribal attachments, they pathetically grasp for substitutes. The issue of atomized ethnic attachments and questionable ethnic identities is discussed below. In addition, there are identities revolving around abnormal sexual preferences and other various types of deviant behavior, and of course there are sex-based female identity groups. That is one reason –  besides personal self-interest – that White women, particularly young White women, focus Identity around “woman’s issues,” and all declare that they are “feminists.” However, since feelings of group solidarity are best released by kin-based tribal-like affiliations, I doubt that White women really get much from inauthentic multiracial “woman’s groups” in which they are no doubt lambasted for “White Privilege” and held back as lacking the “intersectional” advantages of their colored "sisters."

The hostility toward race-based expressions of White Identity can be contrasted to the relative acceptance of atomized White ethnic group identities. Let’s consider a thought experiment, taking place at some American university. A group of Asian students want to form an Asian-American Student Union to express their Asian racial-cultural identity. Would the school have any problem with that? Of course not; indeed, it would be encouraged, promoted, and celebrated. What if, instead, a group of specifically Japanese-American students wanted to form a Japanese-American Student Union for like purpose but restricted only to the Japanese ethny, excluding other Asian groups?  While the school would likely not overtly oppose that endeavor, the move may be considered somewhat controversial, with administrators, faculty, students, and staff wondering why other Asian students are excluded. I’m sure there would be calls for pan-Asian unity and such pan-Asian attitudes would be encouraged by the university, or at least not opposed.

On the other hand, if a group of White students wanted to form a European-American Student Union that would be vehemently opposed at all levels as a “fascist,” “racist,” “Nazi” affront to decency. If not rejected outright, the group would be subjected to official and non-official persecution and ridicule. The doomed history of the European-American Student Union (EASU) from the mid-late 1990s proves that this thought experiment has value.

On the other hand, atomized White ethnic student groups – Italian, German, Irish, Greek, Slavic, French, what have you - would be, if not encouraged, at least somewhat more palatable, as long as there was no cooperation or interaction between them. For adults in the broader society, one can also consider that Italian-American, German-American, Greek-American, Irish-American, etc. celebrations and organizations are mildly acceptable, but any European-American equivalent is hysterically opposed as “Nazi” and “racist” and “fascist.”

So, on the one hand, a pan-Asian Identity would be encouraged and atomization of that Identity viewed askance and perhaps discouraged, while a pan-European Identity would be discouraged if not actively rejected (and perhaps opposed by student violence on campus), while atomization of that Identity would be encouraged, at least as an alternative.

Further, given the realities of inter-European ethnic mixing in America, atomized ethnic identities are actually quite inauthentic for most White Americans. If a person is a mix of several European ethnic groups, what do they do?  Pick only one, ignore the others, and join one ethnic-based club or organization?  Join all of them?  None?  Meanwhile, typically mono-ethnic Asians are allowed to form pan-racial groups and revel in racial solidarity. What is worse is when people on the Right question the validity of Whiteness as an organizing principle and promote intra-European division, thus doing the dirty work of the System. Ethnonationalists are part of the problem with respect to forming a racial White Identity.

Fighting for the right to express a positive racial and cultural/civilizational “White” (pan-European) Identity is a reasonable and feasible activist approach, consistent with Democratic Multiculturalism, and related to the points made here.

This is a project that can bridge the generational divide, uniting dastardly Boomers, angelic Millennials and Zoomers, and Purgatorial Xers in an across-the-board societal-wide battle for White Rights: in the schools, colleges, and universities, the workplaces, the churches, and the wide culture.  For example, at the academic level, Millennial and Zoomer students can fight to establish European-American student organizations and events, with support from Boomer and Xer parents, faculty, and others.  That would be a place to start, success there can spread throughout horizontally and vertically throughout society.

Whites have the right to express a positive racial Identity, but they have to earn that right through struggle.  The hostile System won’t give them that right, they have to seize it.  Their well-being depends upon it.