Whites are Cultureless
Purpose of Research, Informants and Culture
There have been many arguments held of whether the whites, especially the whites living in America, have a culture or not. However, Pamela Perry does not put this argument as her focus in his article “White Means Never Having to Say You Are Ethnic”. Her focus is on the power that the whites exercise when saying that they do not have a culture. As she quotes different scholars who have studied the whites’ culture, she tries to give the different views that have been put across by the different scholars on the same topic. As she picks Valley Groves and Clavey High schools as the two schools she bases her research on, she is able to find out that the students in both schools feel that the whites do not have a culture. However, they use different processes to arrive at this. In her article, she has successfully shown the powers the whites use to show that they do not have a culture.
As identified earlier, the purpose of the research was to find out what power the people use to say that whites are cultureless. Perry got an opinion from two students, one coming from each of the schools. Laurie, who came from Valley Groves, did not know what American culture is like. In other words, she did not feel like the Americans had a culture at all. Murray, who was a Jew going to Clavey High did not find the importance of culture at all. According to him, what are of importance are the present and the future happenings. The past was not as important. Perry feels that the processes of naturalization have made the youths’ view develop of being cultureless (Perry, 2001).
The time spent doing this research (two and a half years) was quite adequate to come up with the conclusion made. People are known to change their views and so this was long enough to get a solid conclusion. She revealed that she interviewed more that sixty students during those years. Although she argues that her concentration on the white students did not compromise on her research, it would have been better if she had made a fifty-fifty concentration balance. This would make the results be balanced hence making a solid conclusion.
As mentioned earlier, this research was mostly done on high school going students from Valley Grove and Clavey. The high school students in Valley Grove, who were mostly whites, had no words to describe the white culture. They could not identify what it is. They could talk about the school cultures, for instance how the students related with one another in the schools over the years, but they could not specifically describe the white American culture when given in a general perspective. However, they could talk about the white identity. To explain this further, the students felt that being white meant that one had no cultural links. They could not identify as the Africans do or the people of other races. According to the students, it is about the people and not their culture.
When talking to students in Clavey, a school that has mixed races of African, Mexican, Asian and American origin, the students felt that every particular thing/activity was ass9ociated with a particular people. Braiding the hair meant that one was trying to be black, listening to rock meant that one was trying to be white, and so on. This meant that ones culture was defined by the particular activities that people of that race/group did as a form of identifying themselves. In these schools, some games as football seemed to have most players from a specific race for example African Americans. The self-segregation found in the schools was mainly because some people felt that they had more things in common with particular people more than they had with others. However, this was not mostly based on their cultural background or upbringing.
When the views of the students in both the schools are combined, it is evident that they have different opinions of culture. However, the students seem to agree that the white culture is empty and does not have any meaning if it is there. In the white community, no particular trend/activity can be traced from the ancestors to the current generation if this is what describes culture. However, if culture is defined by what one is identified with or what defines someone, then the whites have a culture. People from the other races, especially of the African origin have been scolded for behaving or conducting themselves in the American ways. “Why are you wearing like the Americans?” (Perry, 2001). This is when a teenager wears a short dress showing off her cleavage. “You eat like the Americans” (Perry, 2001). This is when one eats with the entire cutlery present or worse still, eating while walking.
Perry has tried to bring her point home about the American’s cultureless life. Using the teenagers/high school students to find out about the white American culture was quite good, as the young/youths should talk about a culture best if it exists. A culture is said to be there if it can be felt by the current generation. If it cannot be clearly defined b y the reigning young generation, then it is not in existence any more. The fact that students from two different schools of different races felt that the white culture was empty if it was present at all, should put this debate at rest. However, maybe, the people should find a way of redefining the term culture so as to mean one that defines a particular people, rather than what has been practiced over the years.
The students may not see the whites having a culture, but they may have a self-made culture of their own. Many people, including teenagers and the young need something that they can identify with. This means that they will make their own things so that they have something they can identify with. If culture is constant over the years, then the whites have no culture. However, if culture is allowed to change but still define the particular people, then the whites have a trace of culture.
Reference
Perry, P., (2001). White Means Never Having to Say you’re Ethnic: White Youth and the Construction of “Cultureless” Identities. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 30.1: 56-91.
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