It seems as simple as what goes round comes round and eventually what's up comes down. Depending on where and when you're born depends on how and why your 'group' (color and gender) is treated as it is. Shame or pride of ones skin color has always struck me as ridiculous; it's not like anyone had a choice.

I'm not ashamed, nor am I proud. I'm apathetic.

WOW! Shame? That's awful! Unless the "Shame" is motivating "you" to replace it with love it's not helping ANYBODY! Pray you, avoid shame. Becoming more conscious as you continue to live is the BEST action ANYONE can take.

Because people are still foolish enough to look at the outside instead of looking at someone as an individual.

Who's ashamed? That's just stupid.

Who is doing that to you? That's terrible. I don't know where you are now, but I don't see much of this in the US. I do see white people being asked to acknowledge the long history of terrible treatment they as a group have dished out to other ethnicities (colonialism, genocide, slavery, etc). If *that* makes you ashamed to be white, it's probably understandable. I feel that way sometimes. But it's part of the process of acknowledging history and studying culture, and ignoring the past is no way to proceed even if it did make you feel better personally. People who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it. For the sake of everyone else on this planet, a lot of people need a good history lesson.

Who is ashamed? No one can make you be ashamed of something. You know who and what you are. Do not look to others to see how you should feel.

I am not ashamed, but am I white? A typical vicious circle: - if I am white, I must be ashamed - if I am ashamed, I am getting red with shame - if I am red, I must not be ashamed - if I am not ashamed, I am getting back to white .......... Indecision killed the chamaeleon!

I am not ashamed; nor, am I proud. It is merely a quirk of fate. I had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Is this something that some Americans feel? I am Australian and we don't have this problem. I think we should only feel ashamed of being poor human beings, not of our skin colour. That is something we have no control over. Over our behaviour, we have control.

This is a loaded question - either you're baiting for a response, or someone is feeding you a line of crap. There is no reason to be ashamed of your race and/or skin color. There is a small, ultra-conservative, vocal, patriarchal group that is threatened by the fact that the straight-white-male is no longer ascendant in Western Culture (specifically the US). They often preach ridiculous messages like White Pride and nonsense claiming they are being overlooked in the scheme of things. Do not believe them - it is simply balderdash.

No one should be ashamed of the color of their skin. I'm not. What I am ashamed of sometimes is my spelling abilities.

I'm a Mexican, and sometimes some whites look dorky doing some things, some mexicans look dorky doing some things, etc. It's only the Al sharpmans and Jesse Jackons that ever tell you to feel ashamed to be a color.

I'm not White, so I don't know if my answer means much, but you should know that you don't have to be "ashamed" of your race, nor should anyone else feel this way regarding who and what they are. When does this madness end...

This is the way the governments and special interests groups wants you to feel.

its not that its just we have crap rythym and cant rap...

Firstly, I am not White. With that in mind, I think it is discriminatory to make Whites feel ashamed of being White. That is no less discriminatory than any other racism. I believe that it is the "PC" climate to berate Whites. Now it is the "in" thing. There are bigots amongst every single race and ethnicity but, unfortunately for Whites, Whites have been associated, unilaterally, with racism. This, boys and girls, is a STEREOTYPE of Whites. I know that I can walk around with a t-shirt that says "Gypsy pride!" and, other than people asking me to read their palms or calling me a thief, nobody is going to tell me that I am a racist. If a White walks around with a t-shirt that says "White pride!" they are automatically labelled as racist. People do not get something: pride in one's race is just that... pride in one's race. Where it becomes bigotry is when someone says that THEIR race (or whatever) is better than another person's.

It is because blacks have captured culture, and so many white people have become intwined in black culture that they wish they were black, and do not want to be white. Eg. Wigger, Wangster (whatever the kids these days call them)

There is no need to be ashamed of anything we are as a circumstance of birth. we are who we are. I am ashamed of some of the things that people have done and that is the good kind of shame that prompts me to see that it doesn't happen again. No one has ever tried to force me to be ashamed of anything that I am. I am sorry that you feel that pressure. It is absent in my life and experience.

Probably because of all the pain white people have put upon other ethnic groups over the centuries.The sins of the fathers visited on the sons.

I see people attacking this question, but it IS a VALID question. White people are "supposed" to feel ashamed because of an oppressive past. Well, here's news for you: I am not my ancestors. Get the hell over it. I'm half native american, half white. Should I be oppressing myself for both being an oppressor and my people having been oppressed?

Runaway leftism in the news media and Hollywood.

Because we all want to be treated equally. Think about that.

We are forced to be ashamed because all of another races excuses go back to slavery. Weren't their families slaves in africa first and wouldn't they still be if they were not purchased and taken to the good old USA. If they are not happy here they might want to thinkabout going back to the motherland if they think it would be better than it is here

ummm im white and ive never felt any shame or felt like i should feel shame for being so

Just b/c you are white, you should not feel that way. There are stereotypes and there are people that validate the stereotypes by their ignorant actions. But if that's not you, then don't feel ashamed b/c of them. So remember, not every black man is a criminal, not every southern white man is a bigot, and not every muslim is a terrorist. We need to learn to appreciate each other for our differences. It's those few minority group in EVERY race that act so irresponsbly and stupid that they give that stereotype. But if could come together and point them out, then we can learn to embrace each other regardless of our racial differences and those stereotypes will go away.

I only feel like that when I say Im a Republican

Because asking us politely didn't seem to work. Like one person commented, it's the 'in' thing nowadays to hammer the fact that white people have oppressed so many in the past, that we should be ashamed. Being a white American, I can say that slavery is and was the most reprehensible part of our history. It's been over 140+ years ago that slavery was abolished, but the seeds of racism are still firmly planted. Growing up in the 70's, I don't remember the black/white water fountains, restaurants, hotels, etc., but I do remember when racist comments were freely used on TV and movies. (think Archie Bunker). While censorship of suggestive language and sexual situations on TV has relaxed in recent times, the use of racial slurs is not tolerated by the American people anymore, and rightfully so. What it boils down to is that as a white person myself, I haven't felt discrimination on any level that I would deem offensive. Sure there are words like 'honky, cracker, whitey', etc., but with no historical baggage to precede them, I rarely take offense, do you? It's like white society has yet to pay for what our forefathers did. I don't think it's up to white people to decide when the race card will be a thing of the past. But, hopefully, having just elected Barack Obama as our new POTUS, we can show that our racist past is just that.....past.