View Full Version : What is your ethinic background?
sxybrat07
03-12-2007, 10:21 AM
I'm adopted, so I have to go off what I'm told, I'm scandinavian and irish. Pale as can be lol.
sunnie
03-12-2007, 10:37 AM
what is a sephardic jew?
A Jew that was kicked out of Spain during the inquisition...refers to Jews from the Iberian penninsula, North Morocco, etc.
But to say a black sephardic jew is kind of a misrepresentation, because sepharidic roots are in Spain.
TheSexKitten
03-12-2007, 11:38 AM
I'm Russian, Welsh, and english with some Mongolian and North African mixed in somehwere with my Dad's mom and mom's dad, respectively.
But in all truthfulness: white. :D
vidadiva
03-12-2007, 12:20 PM
I'm Venezuelan and Trinidadian.
AristtaRoxxx
03-12-2007, 06:00 PM
I am Black, Italian, Native American (Chippewa Tribe), English and Irish. I hate it when people just refer to me as black because I am sooooo much more then that. It is like if you are part black you are all black.
Katrine
03-12-2007, 07:32 PM
Oh, I'm also part jewish on my dad's side (Ukraine). Go jews! I so wanted to be jewish when I was younger until I realized I don't count and would have to work for it. Bah, forget that. Atheism is for the lazy. :) But it is a part of my ethnicity.
jaizaine
03-12-2007, 07:39 PM
I am a white Australian.
I was born here and so was my mother. My dad was born in Scotland. My mum's grandmother was born in England.
People usually confuse my background, they are always surprised when I say I have a Scottish background. I get Italian or French a lot.
Since you put Native American-(indigenous) and White-(euro) in separate groups, I had to pick "mixed race but I don't look mixed" because I have both in my background. I look white. I don't know my full heritage because my mom was adopted so I have no idea about her side. I always just say I'm a mutt ;D
I bet if everyone born in North America knew their full hertiage, 100% would be mixed race of some sort another. If you really start tracing things back, I truly believe there is no true 100% pure ethnicity anymore. Except maybe in some of the most remote tribal areas...
This is why I don't really like racial talk so much - we're all mixed somehow.
I'm a mutt, too. We have so many different ones...German, Irish, and I can't even remember what else...
I have Indian in there, too, but it's such a small amount (1/16 or 1/32 divided fraction-wise) that it's pretty much negligible when saying what I am. :P
So I just put "white."
Sunshine73
03-13-2007, 05:27 PM
Mostly Ukrainian & a little Slovak.
ThrottleNBottle
03-15-2007, 02:15 AM
I'm Korean, American, Italian. Korean explains the eyes, American explains the heart, and Italian explains the temper!
mollyzmoon
03-15-2007, 09:19 AM
My great aunt looks up roots and stuff. From her I learned my greatgrandfather was an Amish rumspringa runaway. Hee, to think I coulda been Amish.
Otherwise I'm German (my dad was born there to a german mom, but his dad was from Canada), Polish, a little Scottish, and French Canadian (included in there is Metis, which is half white, half Native American)
...my grandma told us all she was part Metis, but she was crazy...I don't burn in the sun though, which you would expect from someone so white. And my mom and brother look way darker (so did grandma come to think of it)...so I choose to believe the Metis story, to account for my ability to tan and not burn. When I get really tan, I've had customers ask me if I'm Brazillian, lol. So you never know I guess.
sassysummer
03-15-2007, 09:45 AM
i'm a big time mutt, lol
english
french
german
indian (american and canadian..Choctaw, Micmac, Cherokee, and some others i can't remember)
wee bit o the irish, haha
swedish
and some others i can't think of right now
i actually have a quite a bit of indian in me...but i'm one of the few, especially from my dads side, that don't look it. my cousins all have that beautiful indian skin tone and black hair...me, blonde (born red though), pale with freckles! lol
brazilian
03-15-2007, 12:26 PM
I am Italian, Portuguese, African and Native Brazilian Indian. Born and raised in Brazil and never really thought about my race before moving to the USA since in Brazil we are just Brazilians;D .
I always choose "other" for goverment forms and always tell people that I am multiracial since I want to embrace all sides of my heritage.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1621/8187499/15317758/231966607.jpg
J.A.'S BEAUTY
03-15-2007, 12:48 PM
JAMAICAN! Both my parents are from Jamaica; but, both their parents are of mixed background or immigrated to Jamaica. Mom's side is european, Dad's is german, hispanic, and i think swedish......a mutt and I LOVE EET!LOL
LilSweetVixen
03-15-2007, 01:11 PM
I am Italian, Portuguese, African and Native Brazilian Indian. Born and raised in Brazil and never really thought about my race before moving to the USA since in Brazil we are just Brazilians;D .
Isso absolutamente não é verdadeiro menina. I've learned a lot about Brazil and it's pretty racist. They just have a Myth of a Racial Democracy where people think everyone's just Brazilian. But really they're mixing because everyone just wants to be white. And who can blame them? Why do interracial couples get glared at on the metro? Why do people in restaurants drop their forks and stare at nonwhites? Why is there affirmative action and the Movimento Negro there if you're all just Brazilian? Mas você é muito bonita de qualquer jeito e acho que o brasil é um país maravilhoso.
Isolabella
03-15-2007, 01:29 PM
Chippewa, Cherokee and French Canadian.
brazilian
03-15-2007, 10:23 PM
Isso absolutamente não é verdadeiro menina. I've learned a lot about Brazil and it's pretty racist. They just have a Myth of a Racial Democracy where people think everyone's just Brazilian. But really they're mixing because everyone just wants to be white. And who can blame them? Why do interracial couples get glared at on the metro? Why do people in restaurants drop their forks and stare at nonwhites? Why is there affirmative action and the Movimento Negro there if you're all just Brazilian? Mas você é muito bonita de qualquer jeito e acho que o brasil é um país maravilhoso.
Not a myth for me since my whole family is very diverse. I or any of them suffered any type of discrimination. My sibblings range from a mulato brother, a parda sister and a moreno brother. Myself, in Brazil am considered branca or morena clara. My dad is Italian/African and my grandmother is negra with a white mother as well.
I have suffered discrimination in the USA as well because I am married to an white American guy. The word "interracial" was created in the USA. Brazil has a huge number multiracial people unlike the USA where they want everyone that has a drop of black blood to classify themselves as black. Did you know Halle berry mother is white? But people insist in classify her as African-american and not biracial.
We do not want to be white in Brazil we want to be recognized as multiracial people. The movement Negro was created for those of pure African descent the feel that they need their own space to celebrate their culture and feel the a small percentage of the Brazilian elite mostly descending from Germans discriminate against them.
The proof that racism is very small part of our society is the miscegnation of our people. True racist disaprove interracial relationships or "mixed" kids since mixed is the oposite of "pure race". The racist society is pretty much shown in the US where they have neighborhoods with only white, only blacks, only asians and so on. That doesn't exist in Brazil.
Also Interracial is a very ugly word. Interracial marriage only would exist if a human is marrying a horse or a dog. Since they belong to a different race.
We are all one race. The human race!
Lola Rose
03-15-2007, 10:26 PM
Russian and middle eastern!
flickad
03-15-2007, 10:32 PM
I'm of Polish descent, which makes me white, obviously. Most people think I'm Greek or Italian though. I dye my hair dark (it's naturally mousy) and I guess the European features coupled with that confuse people.
virgoamm
03-15-2007, 10:35 PM
Irish, Polish, Dutch and German. In other words-Mutt!
Embyr
03-15-2007, 10:49 PM
interesting thread. I am half Irish (thank you dad) with a Dutch last name (this actually goes back to my ancestor who came over with Peter Stuyvesant in the late 1600's... some of the first dutch settlers here... very cool) my mom's side.. Latvian and Hungarian... she's where the Jewish part comes from.
I don't get mistaken for anything... I'm as white as a dirty cop's bag of goodies. }:D sorry. but if i want to amuse people, I tell them what it all boils down to.. I'm an Irish Jew.
cameronfl
03-16-2007, 10:02 AM
Did you know Halle berry mother is white? But people insist in classify her as African-american and not biracial.
Actually she does that to herself..which is one of the things that has always annoyed me about her. She completely identifies as a black woman and hardly ever mentions her anglo side. Even though her black father abandoned her when she was a baby and her white mother sacrificed everythingto raise her and support her. to me to JUST identify with her fathers heritage is thumbing her nose at all her mother did for her.
Sorry to go off...I cant fucking stand Halle Berry. She just irritates me....
AkashaM
03-16-2007, 12:37 PM
Actually she does that to herself..which is one of the things that has always annoyed me about her. She completely identifies as a black woman and hardly ever mentions her anglo side. Even though her black father abandoned her when she was a baby and her white mother sacrificed everythingto raise her and support her. to me to JUST identify with her fathers heritage is thumbing her nose at all her mother did for her.
Sorry to go off...I cant fucking stand Halle Berry. She just irritates me....
Alot of ppl who have one black parent and one white parent often identify as black because that's how they look (and therefore treated that way). While I rarely have seen halle berry interviewed about anything, i do remember she was on some talk show with her mom, so who's to say where she stands.
Some bi-racial/multiracial people avoid the subject all together, like Vin desel, who refuses to say exactly what his ethinicity is. I think thats a career smart move if you can get away with it.
Halle berry cant get away with making people guess---to the world, she looks black and therefore she is.
cameronfl
03-16-2007, 02:39 PM
Halle berry cant get away with making people guess---to the world, she looks black and therefore she is.
IMO...even more reason to either not bring up your race at all or emphasize both parts of your heritage. Instead of constantly calling yourself a black woman.
just my opinion....
mnlopez
03-16-2007, 06:41 PM
Im Mexican, and i love it. Latinas are really sexy!!!
cinammonkisses
03-16-2007, 07:02 PM
Actually she does that to herself..which is one of the things that has always annoyed me about her. She completely identifies as a black woman and hardly ever mentions her anglo side. Even though her black father abandoned her when she was a baby and her white mother sacrificed everythingto raise her and support her. to me to JUST identify with her fathers heritage is thumbing her nose at all her mother did for her.
Sorry to go off...I cant fucking stand Halle Berry. She just irritates me....
Personally, I love Halle Berry. You're right, she doesn't really market herself as biracial because when people think of biracial people, they think fair skin, light eyes etc. Halle markets herself as a black woman bc in my eyes she is. Hell, my father is biracial and he considers himself black..why you ask: Because when he walks down the street blacks and whites consider him a black man.
My point is this: When Halle is in majority white magazines they are rarely asking her for her makeup tips or her hairstyling ideas. Why, because she does not look like them. That's like putting Fergie from BEP's in Essence and asking her what makeup colors she's using for the spring season. ::) Why would that be important to the prodominately black/latina readers of Essence? She doesn't "look" the part.
Ok, so that's my whole take as to why Halle markets herself the way she does.
brazilian
03-16-2007, 07:10 PM
Actually she does that to herself..which is one of the things that has always annoyed me about her. She completely identifies as a black woman and hardly ever mentions her anglo side. Even though her black father abandoned her when she was a baby and her white mother sacrificed everythingto raise her and support her. to me to JUST identify with her fathers heritage is thumbing her nose at all her mother did for her.
Sorry to go off...I cant fucking stand Halle Berry. She just irritates me....
I agree with you.
brazilian
03-16-2007, 07:12 PM
Alot of ppl who have one black parent and one white parent often identify as black because that's how they look (and therefore treated that way). While I rarely have seen halle berry interviewed about anything, i do remember she was on some talk show with her mom, so who's to say where she stands.
Some bi-racial/multiracial people avoid the subject all together, like Vin desel, who refuses to say exactly what his ethinicity is. I think thats a career smart move if you can get away with it.
Halle berry cant get away with making people guess---to the world, she looks black and therefore she is.
She doesn't not look black. At least not to me. She has very caucasian features to her face as well her skin tone. She looks very biracial. But for americans anyone that is not white is indeed black.
Black for me is someone like Alek Wek.
brazilian
03-16-2007, 07:14 PM
IMO...even more reason to either not bring up your race at all or emphasize both parts of your heritage. Instead of constantly calling yourself a black woman.
just my opinion....
Here's an article about that from Project Race, an multiracial/biracial organization. Also read on Glamour magazine feedback about her cover, people were pretty pissed off.
It seems that everyone watched the Academy Awards Sunday night. We gawked at the dresses and jewelry, laughed with Whoopi, and cheered Randy Newman when he finally won an award. Most people probably remarked about what a fine person Sidney Portier is and how much he's done for black actors. Many cried along with Halle Berry, as she acknowledged herself as the first black actress to get the best actress award. It's all so wonderful for blacks, but what about multiracial people and interracial families? Judging from the letters members sent to us following the awards, there is much concern.
In the early 1990s, not long after the formation of Project RACE, I met Sidney Portier's daughter Pamela. She came to my home. We "clicked" as friends. She was very excited about Project RACE and told me she was certain her father would help us, after all he was married to a white woman and they had two biracial daughters-Pam's half-sisters. She called her father and asked him to speak out and help the multiracial movement. He turned her down cold. He said he would not get involved; it wasn't his problem and it certainly wasn't her problem. Pam sighed, said she was sorry, and then told me she would be going to Africa for a while. That was the last time I heard from her.
I remember wondering at the time how a father could not view the misclassification of his daughters as not his problem. How does a parent do that? Yes, I was naïve. I forgot that if your last name is "Portier," you don't have the same problems as the rest of us. I didn't realize then that if your father had fought race-based discrimination, he would not necessarily be understanding of the discrimination placed upon his children.
Then came Halle Berry, who considers herself to be black, not biracial. She told Barbara Walters that this is because her mother insisted she identify as black, since she would be "looked at" as black. Wow. Maybe her mother would have liked the "skin gradation chart" the U.S. Census Bureau was considering in the 1990s (yes, the 1990s), that would have really classified us all by skin color. I bet Halle has done everything her mother told her to do. Of course she has every right to classify herself as black. In fact, we stress that this is all about people having a choice of how they want to racially identify. What I have a problem with is her mother's reasoning that it matters more how other people view you than how you view yourself. That's the biggest buy-in to the "one-drop rule" (the belief that if you have one drop of black blood, you are black) that there can be. I'm starting to call it the "one-drip rule," because a drip is an annoying sound made by falling drops, and famous multiracial people one-by-one falling for the one-drop rule is certainly an annoying sound to my ears. It also annoyed me years ago when Lenny Kravitz said, "mixed people should realize we are all black and get over it." Again, he can choose what he wants, but he shouldn't place his choice on other people.
Famous multiracial people have been asked for years to become involved in the movement for a multiracial classification, and they have refused for years. Steve and Ruth White (whatever happened to them?) used to give some kind of award to multiracial celebrities, when they threw their own Hollywood party, but none of those celebrities agreed to become a spokesperson for our cause. They took the award and ran. This is just too volatile a cause for them. Too risky. They could alienate one of their races, and therefore risk losing some fans.
Even Tiger Woods declined involvement, and I really admire him in many other ways. I admire that he came out and told the media, fellow golfers, and fans that he's not only black, but he's "Cablinasian," (his term for "multiracial") and proud of it. Tiger was asked to testify about the importance of being allowed to claim more than one race on government forms, by the same congressional subcommittee my son and I testified before in 1997. He refused, but not because he was keeping his multiracial identity a secret. His name was bought up repeatedly in the hearings because he claims all of his heritage, which really did help the cause. Thank you, Tiger.
This isn't solely about racial classification. I think we all know that. The one-drop rule is not going to go away if we are "allowed" to check as many boxes as we want, or if we abolish all racial categories. Would that have stopped Denzel Washington or Halle Berry from calling themselves "African-Americans" at the Academy Awards? No.
Then what is this about? It's about getting the message through to parents, children, extended families, educators, politicians, the media, the medical community, other so-called advocates for multiracial children and adults, and many others that it's OK to classify yourself as multiracial. It's knowing that it's your right to reject basing your racial identity on what other people think you are. It's being aware that you can refuse to check the term "other," on forms. And it means that you are wise enough to know that when you use the "check all that apply" scheme, you will really be reallocated back to the minority box, and usually the black box.
It's also about knowing that Halle Berry doesn't determine the one-drop rule for my children no matter how many awards she wins.
Susan Graham
Executive Director
NatalieFRPhilly
03-16-2007, 09:50 PM
I'm a mix of German, Lithuanian, Polish, and Italian. I usually only say Italian or Italian and Polish because I don't really look Lithuanian or German, or I'm just lazy. I've been asked if I'm Jewish, Middle Eastern, Italian, or Hispanic (when I tan.)
I prefer to just say I'm a mixed American!
cinammonkisses
03-17-2007, 07:24 AM
She doesn't not look black. At least not to me. She has very caucasian features to her face as well her skin tone. She looks very biracial. But for americans anyone that is not white is indeed black.
Black for me is someone like Alek Wek.
I have the same caucasian features, but when I approach a customer I am looked at as BLACK first, STRIPPER second. "She looks very biracial" yea right..You're right, for many Americans anyone who is not white and has a drop of that black blood is black. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this. Also, being black should not be identified as how prominent your features are.
cameronfl
03-17-2007, 07:31 AM
I have the same caucasian features, but when I approach a customer I am looked at as BLACK first, STRIPPER second. "She looks very biracial" yea right..You're right, for many Americans anyone who is not white and has a drop of that black blood is black. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this. Also, being black should not be identified as how prominent your features are.
So why would you want to help that thinking along? Why wouldnt you want to do your small part to change the "one drop" thinking by saying ..I'm not black..I'm biracial. I realize it's probably easier to just let it go....so i suppose its just taking the easier way so you dont have to go through the explanation over and over. But I would think that changing that racist one drop crap would be worth it.
But then, I'm not biracial so i guess I just dont get it.
Svetlana
03-17-2007, 07:36 AM
I'm Irish, Italian and Native American (choctaw-cherokee).. but people tell me I look some sort of Asian all the time.
cinammonkisses
03-17-2007, 07:37 AM
So why would you want to help that thinking along? Why wouldnt you want to do your small part to change the "one drop" thinking by saying ..I'm not black..I'm biracial. I realize it's probably easier to just let it go....so i suppose its just taking the easier way so you dont have to go through the explanation over and over. But I would think that changing that racist one drop crap would be worth it.
But then, I'm not biracial so i guess I just dont get it.
Well, on papers and forms etc, I fill out that I'm black. When I meet someone they ask me, "what are you, you must be mixed with something" and yes I tell them what I'm mixed with.
But lets say I'm at work and approach a customer. If he tells me, "oh sorry I dont' like black girls" (which has been said to me) telling him, "oh I'm not black I'm biracial" will just make the douche laugh at me. He wouldn't give a dam if I were black, biracial mixed with white, asian, or whatever. When he looks at me i'm Black.
Whether we want to admit it or not, color is the first thing people notice with personality coming in at a close second.
lilhotmama
03-17-2007, 07:50 AM
Im actual 1/2 mexican and 1/2 white (irish). Just like you Zabrina. Everyone thinks Im Italian, Indian, so I play on that to sound more exotic. I will say Im Italian, Mexican and french. It mind boggles em for some reason.
CupCake
03-22-2007, 04:06 PM
I'm biracial and I've always had a problem filling out forms asking for my race....because I identify with all races I am made up of....Croatian/African American/French and Proud!:o)
BTW were are the croatian strippers on here lolz?;D
short skirts
03-22-2007, 04:08 PM
English and French for me.....that I know of anyway.
sun child
03-22-2007, 04:22 PM
I am Icelandic and Cherokee. There might be some Scottish and Irish in there, too.
Vyanka
03-22-2007, 04:29 PM
Both my parents are from Puerto Rico. And I was born & raised in the U.S. :)
I don't look latina at all, well....unless I turn around. ;D Ppl often think i'm European or sometimes Brazilian. But if anything, I think I can blend in with alot of ethnicities depending where i'm at.
DominicaBella
03-22-2007, 07:28 PM
My real dad is Dominican.My mom is 1/2 Puerto Rican 1/2 Black.
jasmine
03-23-2007, 06:12 AM
I picked mixed, but don't look it. I look white as they get, but I'm a mix of Cherokee, Apache, small smidge African American and half Irish. Unfortunately Irish from my daddy is the only thing that decided to express itself so I'm pale as a ghost instead of nice and golden like mom.
scarlett_vancouver
03-23-2007, 06:19 AM
I'm Whitey McWhite-White...Norwegian and French. Apparently I look very Russian, or so I'm constantly told.
hannah83
03-23-2007, 06:54 AM
I'm Polish and Russian, and a teeny tiny bit Scottish and Dutch.
Djoser
03-23-2007, 07:05 AM
I'm English, with some French and German.
But I'm a very Nordic-looking English type. People always ask me if I'm German, or say I look like a Russian hitman (just started getting that one a couple years ago). The Nordic, blonde Russian type, I think they mean. But Vikings did infiltrate into Russia, and supposedly the name 'Rus' is a Viking name.
Since the French are basically German laid on top of a Celtic backing, and the aboriginal English (except Wales in particular) were swamped by successive waves of German (Angles, Saxons, etc.) and Viking invaders, culminating in the Norman Conquest by Viking descendants from France, it's hardly surprising.