I am programmed to be proud of a lot of things. Proud to be American, proud to be black, proud to be a black American, proud to be a Dartmouth student, proud to live in a "free" society, proud to be a Christian, proud to walk upright, etc. But what does "to be proud" mean anyway? Pride, loosely defined, is a sense of one's self-worth; it also can mean pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's present circumstances. This latter definition is where I believe the perversion of pride begins and will be the major focus of this article.
White supremacy groups have been known to champion the cause of "white pride." One web site I've seen shows a white man striding through a door, hair streaming backward, wearing a white pride shirt and looking proud. (I inadvertently came across this sort of web site while typing in the address of the Black Panther organization. One errant tilde!) "Be proud, white man," the caption beneath the picture says. This piques my curiosity. Are all white people proud to be white? That is to say, if they woke up black one day, would they shave their heads, hurl themselves into the nearest vat of acid, or sandpaper their skin off? Publicly proclaiming white pride is VERY politically incorrect these days and such declarations immediately get one labeled at best a bigot and at worst a racist.
But the million dollar question is: Do these white supremacists believe their societal self-worth is lessening (taking into account the advances made by minorities following the Civil Rights Movement) or do they believe great pleasure should be taken in the fact that they are white and so many other people are not? To take pleasure in one's appearance in comparison to another's denotes a certain vanity. "Well, his hair doesn't flow, his nose is too obtrusive, his melanin content is too great. Boy, I'm glad I'm not him! He is not pleasant to look at!" Indeed, these are the beginnings of the perversion of pride. Instead of being content that both white and black people are products of nature, some decide to take it one step further and say, "Well, nature did a better job with me!" and so forth.
Black pride is no better. "We existed before the white man," I've heard in discussions of race. "Blue eyes indicate albinism." "White people have to wash their hair everyday." "They have to wear skin protection cream in the summer." And what's ridiculous about those who take black pride beyond the realm of instilling self-worth in black people is that their comments inadequately serve to elevate their own self-opinion and ultimately ridicule no one. White supremacists use the remarks for comedic fodder in their propagandistic literature. Normal white Americans scratch their heads for a minute in consideration and promptly go back to their homogenous lives.
And oh, let's not forget America. Land of the free and the home of the brave. Every other country in the world is populated by oppressed, timid people, apparently. "We were the first to create a modern democracy, and so far, we have the best one. Canada's isn't as great." "Admit no immigrants. They'll just have to go back to Iraq or Sierra Leone or China or Bosnia or whatever half-assed poor country them come from. America will be brought down by an inferior stock of immigrant." With these we see that American citizenship gives one immediate license to wield that hegemonic pride we have become so world famous for.
And Christians? They seem to take a sick pleasure in condemning (silently and openly) both non-believers and people of other faiths. "She may be a valedictorian and smarter than me, but she's an atheist. She's going to Hell!" "Gay people are going to Hell! Ah, gay people burning in the fires of Hell! Yes!" Do some Christians feel threatened by these people (normal people with normal beliefs [or absence of beliefs])? Yes. Do they take their fear and convert it into an excessive pride buoyed by the promise of everlasting life in Christ? Yes. This is partly the reason there is such an incredible anti-Christian, anti-God backlash today. People don't want to be part of a hypocritical, condescending group like the Christians. They associate the true God with the God of these people and decide that that sort of God is not the God for them.
To be proud of something is to realize the value of that thing in the greater scheme of humanity. For example, the inventor of the zipper could be proud of his invention when he sees that people the world over benefit daily from it. But pride would be misused if the zipper inventor took pleasure in the demise of the button fly. If the button fly had happened to be a better invention, then so be it. My khakis would feel a little weird around the crotch probably, but I'm sure the button fly inventor would be proud.
