If “white pride” is racist, isn’t “black pride” racist too? What’s wrong with being proud of being white?

No, “black pride” isn’t racist, and yes, “white pride” is. Why? Because racism is a power dynamic in which the politically dominant race (in most of the world, whites) oppress others in ways that include creating and maintaining the narrative that being non-white is intrinsically inferior, less civilized, more barbaric, and generally something that one should be ashamed of. The corollary to that is that white people are better.

In that climate, pride movements for oppressed people (Gay Pride, Chicano Pride, what have you) involve overcoming the shame and self-hatred society tells you to feel, to be proud that you are what you are and that you deserve equal treatment and respect.

White pride, on the other hand, is pride in the assumed superiority of whiteness, in a society in which whites do not face oppression on account of their skin color. That’s the difference.

It’s also important to note that these phrases aren’t just phrases, they’re products of specific political ideologies and movements. Using the phrase “white pride” signals that you align with the white nationalist, white supremacist ideology that coined it, in much the same way that saying “black pride” signals an affiliation with the Black Power and other Civil Rights Era movements that popularized the term. They may sound the same, but their history and their purpose are worlds apart.