Dear Princess ‘Ishka,
The concept of ‘pride’ in politics can spark discomfort, confusion and even outrage. In previous letters of mine I have talked about gay pride, but similar cases for pride can be made for women’s pride, black pride, disable pride, etc. Every time a social group has been systematically oppressed, stigmatized or denied full participation to public spaces in a society, there is a case for these social groups to develop each a collective conscience to change their social world for the better through pride. Where there was shame, self-hatred and hopelessness, pride ignites self-worth, love and hope.
At the same time, we all know too well the downsides of pride, eminently through Christian religious teachings: pride is the worst of capital sins, for it is connected with hybris, that is, the denial of original sin and hence the thought that we are more god-like than religion would like us to be. We needn’t go all the way to religion to see the deleterious effects of pride when it comes to nationalism, white suprematism, elitism, etc.
What does make ‘pride’ in politics a good rather than a bad attitude? This question is particularly pressing for I read here and there of straight white men worried that the tendency among stigmatized groups to base one’s sense of (political) self on pride might not be too different from nationalism. Otherwise, if they had to accept the positivity of pride in those contexts, why shall they be denied the right to be proud of being straight white boys?
I want to take this challenge seriously. There are certainly cases in which pride is considered good, even from a religious perspective: the pride of the parent for his daughter, of the artist for her artwork, of the rugby team for the win, etc. these do not seem at all to be problematic cases of pride. Instead there are clear cases of pride being bad, as mentioned above. Lgbt pride, women’s pride, black pride, disable pride etc. occupy a space that is less easily classified as either good or bad. The reason of this controversy is twofold. On the one hand, these identities are a response to a negative state of affairs and do not start out from a positive value like the joy and pride at seeing one’s adopted child socialize and being happy. On the other hand, for every individual belonging to an oppressed social group, some identities will make her/him always privileged under other respects. A gay white man is always a white man in many social contexts, hence privileged. A straight white woman is always straight and white and privileged for that. A straight black man is still a straight man, and so on and so forth…
What is left for white straight men to be proud of? An easy answer would be a further question: why do straight white men even need pride when they are privileged everywhere they go? But I am suspicious about this easy answer. First of all, problems of social class are a huge issue, which greatly influences the level of privilege one is ascribed socially. Many straight white men don’t feel privileged precisely because of their social class and it would be a gross mistake to stubbornly say that they are privileged none the less. Instead of concluding that stigmatized social groups shouldn’t be allowed to appeal to pride, or straightaway allowing for white nationalism, let’s start simply by acknowledging that being proud of belonging to the working-class, i.e., one stigmatized class, is not necessarily bad.
Working-class white straight men can be proud of belonging to the working class. Of course, working class gay black men will be structurally more oppressed, but their greater oppression doesn’t cancel the claim of working-class people in general to be proud of belonging to their class. If we say “upper class white straight men have no claim to pride”, that sounds already a lot better, doesn’t it?
I don’t want to stop here, however. I think that there is always a sense of the word ‘pride’ that even the upper class white straight dude can appeal to. This sense of pride is related to a specific profession or social role one plays. There is pride in being a good hairdresser, football player, entrepreneur, journalist, teacher, parent, friend, etc. As soon as we see this apparently innocuous meaning of pride, we start perceiving the depth of the concept of pride for oppressed groups. What does it even mean to be oppressed? Well, one of the clearest uses of the word refers to the systematic exclusion from social roles for which one can be proud of: gay people being excluded from professional sports and parenthood, women from positions of power and responsibility, black people being not only excluded but even segregated, disabled people being treated with paternalism and not given the chance to express their full personal potential.
One of the main reasons why many straight white men feel so much discomfort at hearing of gay pride, women in science day, black lives matter movement or disabled people visibility events is that they are so soaked up in their own privilege that they don’t even see how many things they can be proud of that society systematically keeps away from oppressed social groups. Only when they will start to deeply question their position in this world, will the straight white men I have been talking about also be able to see what truly oppresses them, that is, their social class and/or their own gender role, and stop come up with idiotic reactionary ideas.
Forever yours,
‘Miasha