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Identity: White Individualism and Minority Collective
It’s hard to unpack our identities. It’s not something that comes fully formed from us and, for minorities, it’s even more challenging because a large chunk our identities are, oftentimes, given to us. For you, white people, you often have the luxury of self-discovery; whereas we, minorities, have more of the collective forced upon us. We are always put in groups in relation to our ethnicities, skin color and, of course, our relation to whiteness in this society. We are seen more for the “group” of minorities we are a part of and for the fact that we are not white, than for our individualism.
White Individualism
White rarely has to identify as white because it is the default in this country. Their whiteness is ingrained in their upbringing, in capitalism, in education and in the government. To even identify someone as “white” can bring an onslaught of white fragility, claims of reverse racism and anger. The reason they are upset is thanks to this default. Society makes white the standard while everything else is an offshoot.
So white children growing up have ample time to discover their individuality and what makes them unique. They are not only told to “be themselves”…