White American Culture

White American Culture

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Here’s a guy, someone I watch now and then on YouTube, complaining that White Americans have no culture. It’s hard to know what to make of this. It’s an idea generally associated with White Supremacists, but I don’t think that’s his point.

He says most white Americans lack a sense of culture and a sense of racial or ethnic identity. He says culture is not just behaviors. He’s defining culture as a shared history, shared values, and looking alike.

He sees it as a serious problem. I disagree. Strongly. Where he goes astray, I think, is that defining culture in a way that is not measurable—which is the net result of excluding behaviors. He isn’t defining culture, he’s defining ethnicity then using an undefined set of beliefs and values which are presumably the same across the entire group as a proxy for “white culture”.

But are they really? In my world, the values of my suburban cousins, my cowboy cousins, my Mormon cousins, my Episcopalian cousins, my city cousins, my rural cousins, my rich cousins, my poor cousins, all have significant differences from one another. The culture they share, defined by shared history and shared values, has nothing to do with being White. The culture they are has to do with shared participation in American subcultures. Nothing to do with being White.

Along the same lines, let’s remember that our WASP ancestors found it easy enough to feel separate from and superior to immigrants, even immigrants who are now included under the label “White.” I don’t know anyone moaning about White cultural identity who is willing to face the prejudice White Americans felt toward the Irish, Eastern Europeans, and of course Mexicans. Historically, being White didn’t get you very far if it wasn’t Anglo.

Beyond that, our friend sees consciousness of identity as an essential element of culture. “To know that you share a sense of purpose in life, the same sense of purpose in life, with millions of other people as part of a culture is a glorious thing.” Taken as a whole, he’s not saying White people have no culture. He’s saying we aren’t aware we have a culture.

That’s not my experience, and I don’t believe it was the experience of our ancestors. For the most part, we live our lives inside our culture. It’s as invisible to us as water is to a fish. We become aware of our unique cultures only when encounter different cultures. I am never so aware of myself as a city boy as when I’m visiting country cousins; never so aware of myself as a Westerner as when I’m in New York City; never so aware of myself as an American as when I’m in Europe.

When I think of invisible culture, I also think about religion. This is a connection I’ve smiled about since I was in my teens. If I can see the culture in religion then it doesn’t seem so much like religion to me. I like the cultural element in my religion to be invisible to me. When I go to services at an Episcopalian or Lutheran church, it’s just plain, ordinary church. When I read about or attend a ceremony with Buddhists or Hindus or Neopagans, it something exciting and strange and at least a little bit exotic. The spiritual element gets lost in the “tourism”.

Finally, our friend is missing the element of time. He assumes we belong to the same culture as our ancestors. This is another clue he is confusing culture with ethnicity. It’s easy enough to see we have a different material culture than our ancestors, but perhaps not so obvious that frequently we also have different values.

Very often these differences in values across time end up being enshrined in the politics of liberal versus conservative. Those who are moving on versus those who want the world to stand still. My point will get lost if I choose an example that’s too emotionally charged, so let’s say rodeo. (Not perfect. This is still going to offend people.)

I like rodeo. That surprises most people because I’m politically progressive. We went to rodeos when I was a kid. I continued to go as an adult. After I “came out” I started going to gay rodeos (IGRA). Many of the people I know think rodeo is cruel to animals. The world is changing, and in this case I’m on the cusp. In another generation there might be no rodeo for anyone. When that happens, will rodeo be part of our culture or not? The world will have changed because the values we share will have changed. (And it would be a mistake to see those values as White.)

In the end, I can’t see the argument that White Americans have no culture. First, equating culture with ethnicity is a sleight of hand from the start. Second, culture is something that would normally be invisible to its participants. And third, culture changes over time. All this fretting about the loss of “White” culture isn’t very practical. It’s not grounded in reality.

Learning the middle ages

Learning the middle ages

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I pulled this old article by James Palmer out of my bookmarks last night. I’ve found my interests wandering lately from the Middle Ages to the American West.

Don’t know why that is. If I had wanted to do western history, my parents were total geeks. I was mysteriously attracted more to medieval stuff, and now I’ve been doing it for 50 years or more.

So, I’m asking myself, “why study the Medieval world?” I’ve been particularly interested in the processes of ethnogenesis and group identity.

Palmer teaches a course called Power and Identity after Rome. He says, “This is a good topic to get students into. Arm them with some ‘origin legends’, some medieval historical writing, and a bit of archaeology, and get them to assess the relative merits of the two sides. Students can quickly find themselves developing critical skills to form cogent arguments on the basis of fragmentary evidence, while working on the ability to make independent judgements. Plus they are engaged in a current debate while doing so, namely what it means for an individual or group to invent, develop or appropriate a particular identity label.“

Does talking about how to learn medieval history seem off-topic for a post about my wandering interests? It’s not. There’s an intimate connection between how you learn and what you learn.

Palmer continues, “Exploring the past is often to enter an intellectual gymnasium. It is a place to practice critical and analytical skills, while one learns to be forensic in one’s approach to information and the construction of arguments. It is a place in which the imagination can be used and trained. Hopefully my students can take the skills they develop and do interesting things with them.“

This, I think, is why this Palmer article interests me. History is an intellectual exercise. It’s hard. It’s work. It requires discipline and reading and thinking. I’ve wandered away from the world where there are people with an academic interest. The people I know are having fun with wild, crazy, way out stuff. Many of them, genealogists included, want to play modern fantasy with some medieval color.

So, the American West is the more grounded option right now. And, I’m learning something from it. I always thought it was like a fish trying to study water. For someone embedded in the American West it’s hard to get distance. I’m learning, though, that the modern West is not the Old West. I’ve missed out here, assuming I already know. More on that later.

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Time to Kill Off Chivalry

Time to Kill Off Chivalry

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

A few days ago I wrote about the Necessity of Chivalry. That was C.S. Lewis talking about the ideal of turning brutal warriors into men who care about the world and people in it. That was medieval chivalry.

Now I’m thinking about killing off chivalry. Modern chivalry. The modern stuff is different from the medieval stuff.

Paul Sturtevant has an article that highlights the differences. Medieval chivalry was an attempt “to impose a culture of restraint on what often was a group of aristocratic thugs with something to prove.”

“Our contemporary ideology of “chivalry” can be traced to the explosion of medievalism in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century popular culture. Knighthood and chivalry became coupled with gentlemanly behaviour and the sexual politics of the day, and these values were expressed in neo-medieval art, novels, architecture and, eventually, film.”

Modern chivalry “has been pared back only to encompass a type of politeness consciously performed by men within heterosexual relationships.”

For most moderns, chivalry is “simply performed politeness.” Some people think it’s an important elegance. Some think it reflects a Victorian sexual ideology that damages relationships. You decide; just remember it’s not what our ancestors meant by the word chivalry.

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“The age of chivalry is gone. — That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.” — Edmund Burke (1790)

Online Learning

Online Learning

by Justin Durand

Shut in because of the COVID-19 virus for a couple of weeks now. I’m catching up on some old genealogy chores, but I’m ready for some variety. Maybe this is the time to work through some of the online learning courses I’ve bookmarked.

I’ve spent I don’t know how many hours with YouTube videos. Mostly history and politics but also a big chunk of web development. I’ve also dabbled a bit with Coursera and FutureLearn.

Now I’m thinking that instead of browsing these sites for courses that might be interesting, maybe it would be more productive to think about what I want to learn then look for those things online.

I had a vague idea I saw an article about this on BBC awhile back. And, yes, here it is: Could micro-credentials compete with traditional degrees? Not really my goal here, but it shows the idea is in the air. Then too, I’m a fan of Dr. Jackson Crawford who has given some thought to the subject of online education. For example: Being a Good Learner (June 22, 2019), Online Video Education: Nine Principles (Nov. 8, 2019) and Education and Value: A Call to Adjuncts (Feb. 8, 2020). Now I don’t feel so bad about never getting that History PhD.

The courses I’m thinking about now are all at National Archives UK. (Caution: they use Flash.) I’m choosing these because I did Accelerated Latin as an undergrad, and loved it. I ran out of time to do Medieval Latin, then never doubled back for it. Also because my paleography skills suck. It remains to be seen whether I still have the self-discipline to start and finish.

Update

Somehow I forgot about adding one of my new favorites.

FiveTimesAugust: Coronavirus Song 4 “I Will Learn (1,000 Things)” Parody of 500 Miles by The Proclaimers Covid19 2020
Other Possibilities

Other Possibilities

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So often someone sends me a solution to a genealogical knot, along with the expectation I will see it as the final answer. That’s surprisingly common with reconstructions of early medieval dynasties but it also happens with routine research into ordinary people.

My expectation is quite different. A good test of the evidence is whether, given what we know, could it reasonably have been any other way. If yes, then we have a theory not an answer.

It might surprise you that I learned this perspective from years of reading material about the search for the Historical Jesus. (That’s the connection to Easter, today.)

I came across an excellent example last night, reading before bed.

John Shelby Spong (former Episcopal bishop of Newark), writing about influences of the Old Testament on the Gospels. has a passage about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (“Palm Sunday”). The episode parallels Zechariah 9:9. The debate here is whether this is a prophecy or propaganda. Did Jesus just happen to fulfill the prophecy or did he set it up so he would be seen to fulfill it? Most people I know believe it was a set up.

After briefly scoping the debate, Spong surprises us with an insight that transforms the problem: “The argument of the traditionalists that Jesus must have deliberately and overtly acted out this image as a way of making a messianic statement is, in my mind, the last gasp of a literalist mentality that is in perpetual retreat from reality.”

Wonderful. There are more than just the two alternatives we hear about everywhere in the literature.

Spong suggests a third alternative: the Gospel writers are telling a metaphorical story inspired by Messianic prophecies. In fact (he believes), the Gospels follow a story line suggested by both Isaiah and Zechariah. (Jesus For The Non-Religious (2008), 189).

Wonderful. Now we have a fuller range of possibilities. To my way of thinking, that means less certainty. Given the evidence we have, it could have been at least two different ways, and maybe three. That means we don’t really know. And that’s huge.

Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise alternative history works the same way. When I talk to anyone who has read Holy Blood, Holy Grail or anything on a related topic, I can pretty much bet the ranch they believe it. It’s rare, very rare, to find someone who also read something that challenged it and even rarer to find someone who read critically.

Bottom line: No matter the topic, everyone has a theory. And most people seem to believe the theory presented in the one and only book they read. A good genealogist will think of more possibilities, look for other reasonable theories, not try to cut off debate by being too sure, too soon.