Wasn't it Teddy Roosevelt that said there is no place in this world for a hyphenated American, We are all Americans, or we are nothing?
I used to do phone surveys. We always had to ask demographics questions at the end. I did one with an elderly black women in South Chicago who answered the race question, American. I asked, " would that be African American, Asian American etc, etc, etc." She said "Well I've never been to Africa, or Asia, or none of those places. But I live here. So I'm an American. Color of my skin don't mean a damn thing to me, shouldn't mean a damn thing to anybody else neither. You answer that question how I told you. AMERICAN!" I told her that's how I felt too. I was 24, she was 82. WTF is white pride? It's a pussified version of white power. Do not get skin color and ethnicity confused. I am of Scottish and Norwegian descent. Of this I am proud. No one will make me ashamed no matter how hard they try. My great, great, grandfather fought for the Confederacy, was captured at Cold Harbor and killed in a train wreck in Elmyra, NY. I will never be ashamed of him, or the cause of states rights. He wasn't a slave owner, hell he was barely a land owner. But he faught for what he thought was right. For that I am proud. Am I proud of the lack of melanin in my skin? Nope. Do I think its silly for others to be proud of the high content in theirs? Yep. But you see they were made to feel inferior for a couple hundered years, at least, because of the color of their skin. Some say 400 years, but I think thats a bit of a stretch. That's gonna put a chip on anyboby's shoulder. Hell the Scot's are still "kinda pissed, but not really" at the English over stuff that happened almost 1,000 years ago.
As far as affirmitive action goes, check this theory out. Ok, you gotta guy who won't hire blacks. So then the Government steps in and says, "you have to hire x number of blacks" now does this guy want merit based hiring, or quota based? Remember he didn't want to hire them in the first place. You get the point? Affirmitive action helps the white racist as much as the black racist.