what does it mean?

[cos]

Please comment on this post before you read anyone else's comments.

This weekend, I saw a bumper sticker that said,
Straight, White, English-Speaking
Proud American
For a moment, I was offended ... then I started thinking of several different possible intentions, meanings, and contexts for this slogan. After a bit of confusion, I settled on curiosity. What does it mean? What did the people who sold it intend for it to convey, and what did the person who put it on their car intend to say by it? I can think of several different possibilities or nuances, and maybe there are more.

So tell me, what do you read in this bumper sticker slogan? And if, like me, you see several possibilities, which one came first, before you thought about it?

Comments

[omnia-mutantur.livejournal.com]

first response, there are still people proud to be americans?

second response. neat. i take it to be the same sort of sense of humor that lets people but 'actions speak louder than bumperstickers' bumperstickers on their car. and even if the person who put it on their car is an asshole, and believes it says one thing, it doesn't necessarily actually say that, so it's supersubversive. if it is any sort of hatespeech, it's not very good at it.

i guess maybe i'm cutting too much slack, which seems odd for me to say, and i don't want to jar my flamingliberal label, but i'm also sort of hung up on words. so if a bumperstick that says 'proud queer', it doesn't mean anything about the individual's opinions about straight people.

Bad Taste

[(Anonymous)]

Immediate response is that the person is right wing bigot. Upon reflection, it might not be the case. But it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. A friend of mine once had one that said, "God loves you. Some restrictions apply." He intended it as irony, but found that the main reaction he got was from religious right types who really think God loves them more than anybody else, and thought that's how it was intended.

Re: Bad Taste

[cos]

What sort of reaction did your friend get from the religious right types? Did they communicate with him about it?

[lachesis.livejournal.com]

firstly; Hi! :) I'm sort of surprised you remembered my LJ name (tho I use it on pretty much every email list as well, sooooo....)

Secondly, I read the bumper sticker thing and thought "hmm. sounds like my father."

My father (since you dont know) came to this country from England "two weeks before the Beatles" (as we're likely to say), in his early-mid 20s, enlisted and fought in Vietnam, became a citizen of the U.S. along with his mother, worked his way up to (and then left) a major telecom company position to start a company of his own, and has been the 'typical' upper-middle class person ever since. Therefore, he fits all the categories. :)

But I doubt he'd put a bumper sticker on his car; so at least I know it wasnt HIM that you saw! :)

[sionnagh.livejournal.com]

You say I never post on LJ. Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah :)

I think they're trying to say that they're not weird like us.

[afer.livejournal.com]

I hear it as similar to the college boys who complain "there's the BSU and a La Rasa and the WymynsCenter, why can't there be a straight white guy club?" To which the classic response is, of course, that their whole college is still, despite much diversification in the last thirty-some years, a straight white guy club.

I would lean heavily toward the guess that neither the printer nor the purchaser meant it to be along the lines of "straight but not narrow," "your marriage does not undermine my marriage," and "another man against violence against women."

[gumby42.livejournal.com]

I think it has to be pure satire, after a few moments thought, mostly because it says "white." I think it's fair to say that no one would publicly announce to the world that they are racist, and that even the most conservative people aren't admittedly racist, at least in thier thoughts, if not in thier actions.

I have to admit though, for a moment, I thought it could go either way. Anywhere in massachusetts though, it has to be satire.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Coming to this debate late, please forgive. :-}

My first reaction tends to be along the lines of: "This person is feeling threatened by all those non-straight, non-white, non-English-speaking, non-proud people in this country who may or may not be Americans."

Subsequent reactions run along the lines of: "Attempt at irony," "saying, 'hey, we're still here, too, you know,'" "making fun of identity politics," "simple statement of fact." (These are in no particular order.)

I sometimes like to poke fun at the whole identity politics thing at demonstrations by carrying signs that say things like: "Just another heterosexual, fat, Jewish, vegetarian, middle-class, redheaded woman for/against foo." Usually the people on the same side of the issue as I find those signs funny. :) No idea what the people on the opposite side think, as they don't tell me.

[navrins]

My first reaction was:

Sure. If there can be gay pride, there can be straight pride. If there can be black pride, there can be white pride. I haven't run across Spanish-speaker pride (or other language pride) but I'm sure it's out there. Personally I think the whole "pick one piece of who I happen to be and announce how proud I am of it" meme is kind of silly, but if it's okay for the minority it's just as okay for the majority.

I don't know if the bumper-sticker-owner meant to express his pride in his majority traits or just to poke fun at the whole idea, but since I think the whole idea's kind of silly, I don't much care.

[ericjay.livejournal.com]

The absolute first thing that popped into my mind was that it was satire. A commentary on the "Straight, White, English-Speaking" demographic being the only ones left who are allowed to show pride in their ethnicity/religion/culture/sexual orientation without somehow being considered suspect.

Of course, the last thing I read BEFORE reading this post of yours was the Mass ACLU's Mass Impact (after reading your post in b0st0n)... so maybe that biased my brain?

Of course, it also might be my satirical sense of humor, which lead me to leave this comment (http://www.livejournal.com/users/gangsta_ho_bag/182265.html?thread=1007097#t1007097) in a friend's LJ recently... which come to think of, you won't be able to read because the original post was friends only... but the post was about a bad experience with a republican in a bar, and some of the comments suggested opening up liberals only bars... so I replied with the (satirical) idea that maybe someone should open a bar that allowed everyone except for straight White Christian men.

[cos]

Huh, now I'm curious to hear the story of the bad experience.

[irishtechno.livejournal.com]

Not to get anyone mad but I thought immediately of the sterotypical "good ol' country redneck South'rn boys" that I had the mostly unpleasurable experience of growing up with. Then again, I was not what you would call "normal" back in the day. *shrugs* oh well I grew up and am comfortable with who and what I am today.

I was going to look at other comments first but you're at 121 comments when I hit the reply button so I decided to go ahead and do as you asked. Also.. I found you thru madscience's LJ cos of their meme and for the fact that your username is what I use as a shorten version of 'because'.. amusing..

[cos]

Welcome! Some of the other comments are worth reading... and some aren't. Take your pick :)

I tried looking at your journal but apparently it's not open to casual readers.

[irishtechno.livejournal.com]

Yeah sorry about that.. I had to close it off due to a horrible falling out with my exgirlfriend. Not only that but I'm.. well.. pretty much serving in the military and I don't like to advertise that anymore than I possibly can.. helps to have things F/O. Something to do with the fact that apparently "most servicemembers prefer not to know that the guy/girl fighting alongside of them in war is not completely hetero and there *might be a slight chance that their buddy likes their "bits and parts".. "(had someone tell me that before as a reason why GLBT shouldn't serve in the US military)

Other than that.. I'm pretty boring as it is ;o) but I like the info you've been putting out over the past public entries. Thanks :o)

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

I'm really only posting here because i want to read other people's thoughts.

so, that said, my reaction is, good for you!

in a serious way.

I feel that sometimes the straight white english speakers get squashed under how hard we're trying to not forget other people.

...so now i can read comments! ^_^

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

I'm interested by how much i'm outweighed.

But I haven't really ever been in the political majority, so...

bumper sticker

[(Anonymous)]

Why is it that right away people say "bigot" or "asshole". I think THESE people are a bit narrow minded. They feel that they must be either overly sensitive to the situation of people who are non-white. the fact is that non whites in america are adding to our culture at such a geometric rate, that whites feel threatened at losing their own identities. They see their children listening to hiphop or using languange that is so foreign to them and they cant keep up. They see the legacy that they wanted to leave their children being subverted by a new american culture and it scares them and makes them feel defensive. YES. These people need help, but by calling them "assholes" and "bigots" doesnt help the situation. They need the same support you would show any other human. Let them be Straight, White, English-Speaking Proud American. why not. You can be what you want too... GOD BLESS AMERICA

Re: bumper sticker

[cos]

It seems that you responded after reading other people's comments, which was not the point. Oh well. Who are you?

Re: bumper sticker

[(Anonymous)]

actually, I stopped reading after the first few comments. I felt like adding an opinion. I thought that was the point...oh well.