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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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You could always do "A Negro living in . . . "

And you have to know where I'm coming from. I grew up in the seventies, when the Washington DC area had hardly any non-European immigrants. Things were a lot simpler back in my formative years; neighborhoods were either white or black (and nearly all the blacks lived in remote areas I never visited).

Had I lived in LA or El Paso as a kid, I might feel differently, but I will always feel in my heart that third-world immigrants remain foreigners no matter how long they've lived here.

Additionally, my post was partly a reaction to a new mortal sin among the left: mentioning someone's ethnicity if they're anything other than "generic white" except in a very few special cases, most of which involve denouncement of "white supremacy". The specific Reddit post that reminded me of this was basically: a woman met another woman in a coffee shop or something, first woman thinks she made a new friend, but second woman was just out to recruit for Amway.

The natural assumption was that both were white, but late in the post, it was mentioned #2 had recently immigrated from Nigeria.

I guarantee you that if this had happened in 1990, the account would have started, "So I met this black woman with a foreign accent, and . . . "

Ethnicity is important! It's vital for getting a proper mental picture of the situation, and I don't like having important details deliberately concealed.

Just my two cents.

And you have to know where I'm coming from.

Where you're coming from doesn't seem to justify it.

You might be able to justify "a Culmore man is a man who lives in Culmore and accepts American culture", but surely black people can qualify for that.

You could always do "A Negro living in . . . "

My point was that the black man's ancestors have lived there as long as his white neighbour's ancestors have; thus if his familial tenure is insufficient to make him a '_____ man', then his white neighbour would be 'An Englishman living in _____'.

Things were a lot simpler back in my formative years

...and you're upset that someone moved your cheese?

I will always feel in my heart that third-world immigrants remain foreigners no matter how long they've lived here.

What about first-world immigrants? If someone was born in London, will he always be British to you?

Additionally, my post was partly a reaction to a new mortal sin among the left: mentioning someone's ethnicity

I guarantee you that if this had happened in 1990, the account would have started, "So I met this black woman with a foreign accent, and . . . "

My understanding of the left's argument is that:

1, ethnicity isn't relevant in many circumstances; her being from Nigeria had nothing to do with her recruiting for Amway. (Maybe it would have been relevant if she had claimed to have received an inheritance of $50 MILLIOIN[sic] USD DOLLARS and needed to borrow $500 for legal fees....)

  1. treating 'white' as an unmarked default and all other ethnicities as a marked perpetual other is both rude and dangerous, as it lays the groundwork for the sort of atrocities all too familiar to the student of history.

Ethnicity is ... vital for getting a proper mental picture of the situation, and I don't like having important details deliberately concealed.

...what if we were to include the ethnicity of everyone including white people?

"Miguel Gutierrez, a Culmore man of Salvadoran origin, ... James Baker, an East Culmore man of English origin...."

"So I met this white guy with an American accent...."