I’m going to get right to the point: white pride isn’t a thing, and you need to shut up about it.

I am about as white as they come. I have researched my ancestors, some of whom have been in this country since the early 1600’s – around the same time the Mayflower brought the first English settlers to America. The most recent immigrants in my family tree came here from Croatia in 1890. My Ancestry DNA test is a testament to my whiteness:

To the alt-right, white supremacist movement, I suppose I would be the quintessential “white American.”

No, thank you.

The thing is, white Americans don’t share a common history or a common culture. What is “white culture”? Pumpkin spice lattes? Native American genocide? Are those things I’m supposed to be proud of?

We all came here at different times, from different countries. If you want to be proud of your ethnic ancestry, by all means, do that. Explore your English roots. Learn German if that’s in your background. But there is nothing that is quintessentially white for you to grab on to, and you should stop trying. Being proud of your skin color is the laziest form of nationalism possible.

White pride is akin to proclaiming “blue-eyed pride” or “blonde hair pride.” Don’t those things sound ridiculous?

I feel like I’m stating the obvious here, but there still seem to be an awful lot of people who don’t get this. Being white doesn’t make you a true American. America isn’t yours to “take back.” It never belonged to you. The only people with a true claim to this country are Native Americans. The rest of us are interlopers.

Now, I’m sure there is some white person reading this and thinking, “What about black pride? If they can have black pride, why can’t we have white pride?” Sigh. Really?

Most black people in America, unlike white people, do share a common history. Black pride, or Pan Africanism, has its roots in the struggle of Africans against enslavement and colonialism. It is nothing like the white pride movement, which has its roots in the idea that light-colored skin is awesome just because.

How about American pride? If you don’t feel connected to the mixed European ancestry that lies deep in your ethnic history, can you just be proud to be an American? I think you can, but you have to embrace the diversity that lies at the heart of America.

In case you forgot, America literally has a Statue of Liberty welcoming people from all over the world with the inscription:

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Notice that there is no sign proclaiming, “Whites Only.” Find something else to be proud of. Your white skin isn’t an accomplishment.