Steven Michael White Americans have heritages they can be proud of; Irish, polish, whatever, be bold and be proud to be French even. We have a past. We have a history. Some of our ancestors were Vikings or even a British blacksmith. Whatever. We can say those things. Black people in America don't have that luxury. They had their history stolen from them. Most of them have no idea what country of origin they have. And "Africa" isn't a country. So they get to be black. And they get to be proud to be black. Because our whiteness erased their heritage. So when a white person asks, "Why can they be proud to be black but I can't be proud to be white?" Because you're celebrating things like the erasure of their history and the violence and torture their people suffered at the whim of white America.