- I don't know.
Halloween is just like a weird holiday
to be dressing up as anybody else's culture.
- You can say the same thing about any costume.
Are you gonna tell a six-year-old girl
that she can't dress up like a pirate
because she doesn't know the history of pirates, like?
- That's very different. - Well...
(ambient pensive music)
(ambient pensive music continues)
- [Interviewer] White people have culture.
Three, two, one.
(pitch whirring)
- We're all technically White. - Yeah.
- If you're from England,
if you're from Australia,
if you're from wherever,
South Africa.
You know, we all have these crazy places we come from
and these people were around
and we get those ideas from those people.
But that doesn't mean us as a whole have no culture.
- But as a White person, it's not really a culture.
You can have culture.
Like I'm hella Irish obviously, and that's a culture.
But just being White is not a,
it's not a culture.
I can't relate to you just because you're White.
- I think you could say that for any ethnicity though.
If we were all Black,
could I relate to you guys
just because of the color of our skin?
- Yes, because they go through very similar experiences.
Like they'll get discriminated against
and you're not getting discriminated against
because of your skin color.
They can both relate to that.
- But I also feel like with culture,
we branch out, we try different things,
we wanna do different things
so maybe we've lost a little bit of our culture.
- Maybe we're creating a new culture. (laughing)
- There you go. (chuckles)
- [Interviewer] I believe in reverse racism.
Three, two, one.
- I don't know what that is.
- We can explain it.
- Okay, what it is?
- I'll stay here then.
Reverse racism is like
someone being racist against you because you are White.
Like do you believe that someone can be racist
against a White person?
(pitch whirring)
- Yeah, I grew up
where it was completely like Hispanic culture.
I was constantly made fun of because I was White.
"Oh, White people can't dance.
White people look stupid."
Whatever.
- They shouldn't say White people can't dance,
but they can't. (laughing)
- Yeah, I can't dance. - They shouldn't say it.
- Just putting that out there.
But I mean like being honest though,
like they would say those mean things to me
and more hurtful things than that.
It's like a hard pill to swallow
because if I turned around
and said Black people can't dance,
I'd get hell for that.
But then, if someone says the same words to me,
it's somehow okay because-
- You have to look at the difference of it though.
And I relate to you,
I grew up with all Latino or Black friends.
I had very few White friends.
And yeah, I got made fun of for being like the White girl.
I was gringa.
And I didn't take offense to it
because the huge part about racism
is that there's hate and oppression behind it.
And as a White person in America,
I do not feel oppressed.
- And I definitely think
that we should take the log out of our own eyes
before worrying about the sawdust in other people's.
Like I totally agree with that.
But there is sawdust.
So that's kind of what, just what I'm saying.
- For me, I feel like anything we do can come out racist
to any other type of race,
but at the same time,
if they say something mean or racist to us
that we feel is racist,
it kind of gets brushed off.
- When I think of the word racism,
I think more towards oppression.
So that's why I'm in the disagree,
like I'll deal with someone just being mean to me,
but whatever.
- [Interviewer] Focusing on race divides us.
Three, two, one.
(pitch whirring)
- I think it's important to focus on race
in order to bring us together.
There is a race issue in America
and if we just avoid it altogether
and pretend like it's not happening,
nothing's going to change in my opinion.
- I kind of was thinking about the question differently
because if all I'm thinking about when I meet someone
is, "Oh, I'm White and she's not White
and I'm White and she's not White,"
like that, for me that's like what focusing on race is.
- Yeah, we're never gonna be happy
unless we just like all work together.
Just like treat each other like each other, you know?
Like there is no race.
- Yeah and that sounds great
but it's like we're not there.
We're not there.
I feel like people who have that perspective
might also say like, "Oh, I don't see color,"
or try to have that attitude.
I don't think that helps anybody.
I think we need to like to respect each other's backgrounds
and like that is only gonna happen if we do see color.
We do like appreciate everybody's differences.
- [Interviewer] Cultural appropriation is real.
Three, two, one.
(pitch whirring)
- Yeah, I think cultural appropriation's very real.
You see all the time, like Coachella,
you know, we're in LA
and you see people in the Native American headdresses
without knowing how important that is to Native people.
- Yeah, exactly, I think there's a difference
between respecting the culture
and completely disrespecting the culture.
But then also, if you wanna dress up on Halloween
like a geisha because you like the costume,
you think it's a beautiful costume,
that I wouldn't say is..
- I wouldn't do that.
I think if you're gonna go and dress up as a geisha
without knowing the importance of it
and just being like,
"Well this is cute, like I'm gonna put this on."
And also, even if you did know the importance
and you're like, I don't know,
Halloween is just like a weird holiday
to be dressing up as anybody else's culture.
- You can say the same thing about any costume.
Are you gonna tell a six-year-old girl
that she can't dress up like a pirate
because she doesn't know the history of pirates, like?
- That's very different.
- Well, so, it's just like-
- That's very different.
Those are children. (laughs)
- I think it's a lot about intention
because I thinks wearing that thing at Coachella
like I feel like I would see that
as that person mocking someone.
- Well, even if they don't intentionally mean it.
- Yeah. - It's still offensive.
- [Interviewer] I should be able to say the N word
while singing along to a song.
Three, two, one.
(pitch whirring)
- The only reason I'm at somewhat disagree
is because a lot of my favorite rappers use it frequently.
Like if I'm listening to my favorite Childish Gambino song
which it drops it like a hundred times.
- Right, right, I know, same.
In the car, it's like...
- It's like, I'm not sitting there thinking
all these horrible things about Black people
and I'm like, it's just in the song
and when I'm singing, it comes out.
- There's like two different forms of the word.
There ends with an ER and with an A
and like with my friends,
they're like, oh, you can say it with an A.
Like that won't hurt my feelings.
- That's what people told me, too, right.
- But also like even when I'm in the car by myself,
like I still feel like it's not my place.
Maybe I'll like whisper it like with an A at the end
you know, like if I'm by myself,
but like out of the respect for other people,
I just think it's more appropriate
not to say it at all.
- Do you guys think rappers should stop putting it
in their songs? - No.
- I feel like if they're African American-
- Why?
If you think it's wrong though, why?
- I don't think it's wrong.
Because the history of the N word come, you know,
slave owners would call Black people
as the N-word with the hard R at the end.
If Black people wanna take that word
and claim it as their own
and claim that painful history
and like be like F you, like I'm gonna claim this word,
I think they should be allowed to do that.
I don't think as a White person,
I have that right to take a word
that was derogatory towards them.
They should 100% have the right to do that.
- But do you think it's okay
for a White person to sing the song?
- See that's where we're like all on the fence.
It's like I feel like we're-
- It's just, it's a word used as like my friend basically.
And like, just like she said,
if they want to take that back from its horrible origins,
then I'm totally fine with that.
But as a White person, you can't say that word
without feeling a certain way.
That's why I don't- - Yeah, but I have a question.
If they didn't put it in their songs,
you wouldn't say it right?
- No, yeah, 100%.
- So are they causing people to say that word more often?
Because she wouldn't say it if it wasn't-
- It's not White people's place
to tell them what they can and cannot use.
So. (laughing)
(chord strikes)
- [Interviewer] I live a privileged life.
Three, two, one.
(pitch whirring)
- It's so sad to say 'cause I never say it out loud,
but it's the truth is like,
getting pulled over by the police,
I always feel like I have a little bit of a one-up.
Because I'm White, because I'm a woman,
and I feel so bad that that's the truth.
But this is a real thing and it's unfortunate.
- For me as an individual, I feel like I'm not privileged.
Sure, like White people background,
came from like being higher up on the scale.
But I've gone through really hard things before.
You know, I don't feel like I'm superior over other people.
So as an individual, I don't feel like I'm privileged.
- I think privileged, I guess,
I don't really think that I'm above other people.
I just think that naturally, I'm treated differently.
- Yeah, it's like perceptions.
It's just perceptions.
- Yeah, I think that's a huge misconception.
I have privilege that I didn't ask for.
It's just society sees me as
like the standard for whatever reason
and because of that, I get treated differently.
And my privilege, you know, like you said,
it's not about what you've gone through
or what you experience.
It's a hundred percent how the world sees me.
- [Interviewer] I am proud to be White.
Three, two, two.
- Just be in the middle. - Yeah.
- Can there be a middle?
- All right. (pitch whirring)
- You gotta pick a side.
Pick a side.
- I don't dunno which side to pick.
What should I do?
- Don't hate me, guys?
- I don't, I almost went there too.
It's like so hard.
- It's think, like guiltily,
like I am like happy that I'm not oppressed
but I'm not proud of like
things people have done in the past.
- When I think of being proud of something,
I think of something I worked for
or that, yeah, I had to do nothing to be White,
absolutely nothing.
And nothing was taken from me because I was White.
- It's like saying I'm a proud White person
is a completely different saying
than saying I'm a proud Black person.
Because when you hear I'm a proud Black person,
I think empowerment.
I think strength.
I think courage.
I think you know, all these amazing things
that the Black community has done
and accomplished throughout the years.
But then when you say I am a strong
or I'm a proud White person,
already, there's so much like hate involved in that.
- The thing about that is like how you said,
someone who says I'm proud to be Black, that's empowerment.
Why aren't I allowed to be proud to be White?
What makes it wrong?
- 'Cause you haven't been oppressed.
- Yeah, what are you proud of?
Just your skin color?
Because yes, that is wrong.
- So you're saying I can't be proud to be White
'cause I don't have a culture.
- No (laughs), that's not what I'm saying.
It's that, when White people say they're proud to be White,
a lot of times, at least in my opinion,
they're talking about their skin color,
that they're not a different race.
- Right. - I think that's wrong.
- Yeah.
- But as like we were talking about,
as a proud Black person, they've been oppressed,
that a lot of their culture was stolen from them.
And then a lot of reasons that I don't like
proud to be White is 'cause it has,
the Nazis used it. - Right.
- The KKK used it.
I don't want to be associated with any of those things
so I'm just gonna completely stay away from that.
- Sure, I'm not proud of like what my culture's done,
but at the same time,
like I would not wanna be anything else.
If I had to choose another race,
I don't know what I would be.
I'm okay with where I am
even though I'm getting backlash about being White.
(panelists clapping)
- No food questions? - Yeah.
- I was waiting on the food question.
- Do you like Starbucks? (laughing)
- How many of you are vegan? (laughing)
(panelists indistinctly chattering)
- Hey guys, this is John.
- And I'm Erin.
- Thank you so much for watching this episode of Spectrum.
We hope you enjoyed the discussion.
Let us know what you thought in the comments below.
- And if you'd like to watch more of our videos,
click here to subscribe.
- And we'll see you next time.
(gentle pensive music)