I don’t know if you’re familiar with Before We Were White, but it’s deep, nuanced reading on this topic. Good podcast too. https://beforewewerewhite.com/
"I’ve developed a sense of unease whenever I see a young white man with a shaved head."
One of my good friends shaves his head because he's going bald, and, though he prefers a beard, he's very limited by what facial hair he can have because of his job. So he has a goateeish thing going on. He often laments that he looks like a white supremacist.
Anyway, I appreciate this article, because it strikes me that this mentality is all about flattening identity into easily digestible categories that are neatly mapped onto a person's visible features. It's the basest level ignorance. Beyond the absurdity of saying that assorted Europeans are all the same somehow, there's also the part that I have more in common with a lot of "white" Americans than folks who look like me and share my ethnic heritage. I like punk rock and bicycles and photography; were it not for my skin tone, I would basically be a white Brooklynite.
Also, with respect the esteemed doctor of dentistry, it's shocking how right wing/bigoted a lot of medical providers are. I was lamenting this pretty early on in my career in healthcare.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with Before We Were White, but it’s deep, nuanced reading on this topic. Good podcast too. https://beforewewerewhite.com/
Hadn't heard of it, thank you for the recommendation
"I’ve developed a sense of unease whenever I see a young white man with a shaved head."
One of my good friends shaves his head because he's going bald, and, though he prefers a beard, he's very limited by what facial hair he can have because of his job. So he has a goateeish thing going on. He often laments that he looks like a white supremacist.
Anyway, I appreciate this article, because it strikes me that this mentality is all about flattening identity into easily digestible categories that are neatly mapped onto a person's visible features. It's the basest level ignorance. Beyond the absurdity of saying that assorted Europeans are all the same somehow, there's also the part that I have more in common with a lot of "white" Americans than folks who look like me and share my ethnic heritage. I like punk rock and bicycles and photography; were it not for my skin tone, I would basically be a white Brooklynite.
Also, with respect the esteemed doctor of dentistry, it's shocking how right wing/bigoted a lot of medical providers are. I was lamenting this pretty early on in my career in healthcare.