Three Cheers for White Culture

Not long ago Joes Biden got into trouble for saying kind words about “white culture.”  His remarks were alleged to be demeaning to non-whites.  They were equated with white nationalism, the supposed epitome of insensitive bias.

So allow me to wallow in this reputed bias.  I love white culture.  Not all of it deserves respect, but much of it does.  Were this not so, why would so many people from third world countries migrate to the United States?  Don’t they expect to live better lives under the umbrella of white culture?

After all, white culture gave us the insightful plays of William Shakespeare.  It also gave us the American constitution.  The same is true of Newtonian and Einsteinian physics. Without these ways of thinking and behaving, which developed in Europe, all of our lives would be impoverished.

This is not to say that Caucasians are biologically superior to other races.  They are neither genetically smarter nor more moral.  Nonetheless, many of their cultural contributions are worth celebrating. Many of the ways of living they pioneered are really superior to others.

Consider the humble pocket.  It was invented in medieval Europe.  Hasn’t it made daily living more convenient?  Or how about eyeglasses?  They too are a medieval European innovation.  Shall we ban them because of the skin color of their inventors? Should we apologize because these folks were not African?

This is not to say that the Chinese should not be proud that their ancestors were the first to develop movable type.  We should also be prepared to acknowledge that gunpowder came from the orient.  And why shouldn’t we—it did.

As for sub-Saharan Africans, their technology was not very advanced when Europeans overwhelmed them.  This in no way, however, indicated a personal inferiority.  All it says is that theological advances are made unevenly. Sometimes they proceed more quickly in one place than another.

The fact is that the British were way behind the Egyptians for millennia. Like it or not, as Benjamin Disraeli reminded English voters, his Jewish Ancestors were writing the Bible when their Anglo-Saxon forbearers were running around in blue paint.

This did not prevent the English from subsequently establishing one of the greatest empires the world has seen.  Nor did it stop James Watt from perfecting the steam engine that allowed his people to dominate the globe economically for over a century.  Plainly, neither scientific nor economic developments are predetermined by skin color.

It is for this reason that it makes no sense to castigate white culture as holding other folks back.  To illustrate, my ancestors were Jewish.  They did not invent modern physics.  This did not prevent them, when they came to America, from going to college and learning what later enabled them to earn Nobel prizes.

Tearing down white culture helps no one.  Were we to do so, it would plunge of us into poverty and ignorance. The fact is that if those who envy white achievements want to get ahead, they must accomplish things that earn the respect they desire.

We live in times when a sense of entitlement is rife.  This applies to students who believe they deserve college degrees even if they never crack a book.  It also applies to minorities who assume they deserve to get ahead because their ancestors were mistreated.

Still less does it make sense to replace cultural innovations with less effective ones just because of who created them. The criteria we use ought to be which best enable us to meet our needs.  Doing otherwise condemns us to misery.

At the moment, our society is consumed with identity politics, not with our abilities or characters.  This is a disaster in the making.  It is laying the groundwork for incompetence and defeat.  If what works best is irrelevant, eventually we will be surrounded by what does not.

This should be regarded as common sense, but it is not.  A dimwitted moralism that regards total equality as essential has taken its place.  No matter that this kind of equality is impossible.  No matter that respect ought to be earned.  So-called social justice is instead elevated above all.

  White culture, however, deserves to be evaluated for what it is, not by where it came from.  Anything less is not justice.  Indeed, anything less is social suicide.  Yes, some groups have been abused.  Nonetheless abusing ourselves via willful ignorance will not reverse the past.  The best we can do is move forward with our hearts and eyes open. 

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Kennesaw State University