Understanding Cultural Identity Amid Racism

I hope everyone can see the problem with this meme and why it is racist, but in case you can’t.

The Native American individual is trying to maintain contact with a cultural identity in a country that has actively tried to eliminate that identity, even into the second half of the twentieth century. This is not an individual trying to make their culture mainstream, but carving out a niche to continue it. America is full of this, especially in immigrant communities where there are frequent cultural celebrations inviting the wider culture to understand and appreciate the culture of the immigrants’ heritage.

The lower image is equating white culture with America itself. It is suggesting that America is governed by a white culture. This image is relying on a 19th century definition of a nation that equates the political entity with the shared culture pf its people. The meme is promoting the idea that a nation must share a unified culture and since a white culture was historically dominant therefore it must be enforced. This is a racist idea and it was promoted by Fascists in the past.

The reality is that there is nothing stopping any group from preserving links to their cultural past, and in many ways it is good to do so. What is wrong is when we begin to identify our preferred cultural heritage with a nation in a way that forces others to capitulate to it. National cultures will change over time, this is a reality. We can preserve individual heritages within that nation as a way to mark the elements that have gone into forming the nation, but when we try to have one group artificially dominate we have prioritized one over another and that is racism.