Racial Pride is Reasonable
And I'm tired of pretending it's not.
I think it's reasonable to be proud of one's race or ethnicity. That, of course, goes for Blacks, Asians, Hispanics/Latinos, Whites, etc. However, most discussions concerning the legitimacy of racial pride center around whites in particular. This post aims to dispel a few common arguments against the notion of White racial pride.
“Whites can trace their ancestry, Blacks can’t”
One common argument against the idea of whites in particular being proud of their race is white people can usually trace their ancestry to a handful of European ethnicities, while people of color can't trace their ancestry to specific African tribes. Thus, they argue, white people should just be proud of their particular ethnic group, not their race as a whole.
However, this poses a major problem: it contradicts the idea of Asian pride, as the vast majority of Asians can trace their ethnicity to a single Asian ethnicity (i.e. Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, etc.) yet pride for Asians as a race is obviously still widely considered acceptable. So if the idea of white pride is bunk for this reason, then by the same standard the idea of Asian pride should be as well.
“Whites haven’t overcome oppression”
Another argument is white people haven't "overcome oppression" in their time in the US, so they have nothing to be proud of.
However, even if it was granted that whites indeed have never overcome oppression, it seems "overcoming oppression" isn't the only thing one could reasonably be proud of in relation to their group identity. Perhaps one is simply proud of their group's cultural, artistic, philosophical, or scientific achievements.
“You don’t choose your race”
Last, there's the claim that because you don't choose your race, it is foolish to be proud of it. This argument typically doesn’t come from the far left, instead it comes from those who would oppose any form of racial pride, be it White, Black, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, etc)
I believe those who use this argument are using a different meaning of pride than the one we typically associate with racial pride. The most common definition of pride refers to one’s own achievements, not those of others. However, pride can obviously apply to people and things other than oneself, that one happens to be related to.
I would respond by asking: Is it acceptable to be proud of one's brother or sister? You had no role in their success, and your relation to them is a complete cosmic accident, yet few would argue being proud of them in particular and not others is unreasonable.
Conclusion
The most common arguments against racial pride, in particular white racial pride, fail.