# What are you?



## jpeirpont (Mar 16, 2004)

Way's discussion about the terms oriental and Asian made me curious. We have many ethnicity's,culture and nationalities on here and I'd like to know what do you define yourself as.
For example I see myself a simply as Black, while there are many valid points disputing the idea of referring to yourself by race instead of nationality or ethnicity, it is what makes me most comfortable. If pressed I tend to say Black American, very rare is it that I refer to myself simply as American.


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

White, German (Bavarian, to be specific) ancestry. I can actually speak and understand quite a bit of German. My home town, Frankenmuth, MI, emphasizes the German heritage more than most places, or at least it did when we were children.


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## Thracozaag (Sep 5, 2002)

Japanese/Welsh/Swedish (even had blonde hair/blue eyes as a baby); I'm all mixed up.

koji


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## Albert (Feb 15, 2006)

Northern German


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## arbitrage (Jan 13, 2006)

FBR... Full Blooded Romanian. Which means I am a mutt.


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## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

25% - Czech (Moravian to be exact, though that side of my family resides in Slovakia - go figure!)

25% - Hungarian (the source of my temper perhaps?)

25% Irish (see note above)

25% Swiss Romande (I suppose with the above mix, some neutrality is needed)

Karl


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## Mark from Plano (Jan 29, 2007)

In today's world of ethnicity identification I find myself without a team to play on. While my last name is German it is not my heritage and only a tiny fraction of my bloodline. I must go back 4 generations to find my first immigrant and at least 9 to find them in any numbers. Of the 16 ancestors in my 4th prior generation only 1 is identifiably German. There are Welsh, Irish, English, French Hugonauts (by way of Holland) and any number that I am yet to identify to a particular ethnicity. I am a Western European stew; a product of the melting pot (at least in its narrower 19th Century meaning). My wife is the same; hence so are our children.

Several years ago my son's grade school had a "Diversity Day" where they asked each student to dress in the clothing of their nationality and to bring a food from their native culture. My son, in consultation with my wife selected Ireland. Why not? He has red hair and it's as good as any I guess. Select one from the grab bag.

I have no other identifiable culture. I am American or I am nothing. I prefer to be American.


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## jpeirpont (Mar 16, 2004)

Karl89 said:


> 25% - Czech (Moravian to be exact, though that side of my family resides in Slovakia - go figure!)
> 
> 25% - Hungarian (the source of my temper perhaps?)
> 
> ...


I've never heard of this group. Would you mind giving me some background.


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## jpeirpont (Mar 16, 2004)

Mark from Plano said:


> In today's world of ethnicity identification I find myself without a team to play on. While my last name is German it is not my heritage and only a tiny fraction of my bloodline. I must go back 4 generations to find my first immigrant and at least 9 to find them in any numbers. Of the 16 ancestors in my 4th prior generation only 1 is identifiably German. There are Welsh, Irish, English, French Hugonauts (by way of Holland) and any number that I am yet to identify to a particular ethnicity. I am a Western European stew; a product of the melting pot (at least in its narrower 19th Century meaning). My wife is the same; hence so are our children.
> 
> Several years ago my son's grade school had a "Diversity Day" where they asked each student to dress in the clothing of their nationality and to bring a food from their native culture. My son, in consultation with my wife selected Ireland. Why not? It's as good as any I guess. Select one from the grab bag.
> 
> I have no other identifiable culture. I am American or I am nothing. I prefer to be American.


I understand. Due to slavery I'm not entirely sure what tribe my ancestors are from(which bothers me terribly) so in some I have no idea what I really am. I do know my grandmothers grandmother was a freeperson in Norwich CT and a Ashanti (tribe from current day Ghana) aside from that no idea of the likely numerous tribes in my blood line.


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## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

jpeirpont,

Sure, its just the French speaking part of Switzerland, situated around Geneva and a few surrounding Cantons. Switzerland is about 65% German speaking, 30% French and 5% Italian, with a few hundred thousand speaking Romansh, which essentially a patois of Latin, German and Italian.

Karl


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## agnash (Jul 24, 2006)

*You tell me,as I've never been able to figure it out*

Biologically, I am a mix of English, Irish, Scottish, and German (that I know of). My Mother's mother was biologically Irish and German, but was raised in an Italian home. My mother's family was Catholic, my father's was Southern Baptist. My stepmother is Cajun and my stepfather is black.

I am fairly certain I am American.


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## jpeirpont (Mar 16, 2004)

Karl89 said:


> jpeirpont,
> 
> Sure, its just the French speaking part of Switzerland, situated around Geneva and a few surrounding Cantons. Switzerland is about 65% German speaking, 30% French and 5% Italian, with a few hundred thousand speaking Romansh, which essentially a patois of Latin, German and Italian.
> 
> Karl


Thank you Karl89. I'd love to hear that spoken it sounds very interesting.


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## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

Jpeirpont,

Well it won't really hear it spoken in too many places. You'd have to go to the Canton Grison and probably hike into some pretty remote spots - though I think there exists a Romansh radio and television station. Check out this link for more info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graubünden

Karl


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

*Good Thread*

Interesting idea to post this jp.

If the question seems to be culturally based, I will usually reply I am an anglo-Canadian. If it seems more genetic, I'll say I'm Northern European, as the Nordic blood mixed with Celtic that flows through my veins is pretty obvious. If people are looking where my immediately traceable ancestors are from, I'll reply Scotland.

So really, I do not have one single pat answer.


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## Frank aka The Minotaur (Nov 12, 2004)

Second generation Italian and Sicilian descent.


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## globetrotter (Dec 30, 2004)

hmmmm..... in Israel, I was an "anglo". in america, I guess I am a "jew", even though I am agnostic. . for most of my life, I was an "expat". my fathers family has been in the US going back to the Mayflower (one thread), and are of English descent. my mothers family came from the polish/russian border area to canada in the 30's. 

while I consider myself an american, I am not sure that is the first thing that pops into my mind. ditto jew. 

hard to say.


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## JRR (Feb 11, 2006)

*Genealogy is fun*

While I have an Italian last name, don't look one. (blondish hair)

Most people think I am an Italian/Irish mix, since that is a common combo in Cleveland (where I grew up)

However, the breakdown is

25% Italian (Palermo Sicilian)

25% German (Bavarian)

25% Dutch (Friesland)

25% English (Lancashire, other mixes I haven't been able to figure out)*

*This clan settled in rural Virginia, then OK before it was a state.

Basically an American mutt!


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## jbmcb (Sep 7, 2005)

German, Irish, and a whole bunch of other stuff, probably. I don't pay much attention, or much care.



forsbergacct2000 said:


> My home town, Frankenmuth, MI, emphasizes the German heritage more than most places, or at least it did when we were children.


Yep, they still do. They can also stay well dressed with BB, Orvis and RL outlet stores nearby.


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## Mike Petrik (Jul 5, 2005)

50% Dalmatian Croat and 50% Czech.


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## Tom Bell-Drier (Mar 1, 2006)

with the diversity posted in this thread ,I feel somewhat boring in stating English thats it just English.
although my surname comes from France we have no french blood in our familly for at least the last 6 generations according to the familly bible, so it must emminate back in to history maybe the Hugonaughts fleeing France to England or maybe just a travelling French guy who decided to settle in England.


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## Laxplayer (Apr 26, 2006)

Irish, both my dad and mom's family. I'm sure there is other mixed in, but they have always said they were Irish. My wife's family is German/Irish, a pretty common combination in St. Louis. Born an Irish-Catholic, now I'm an Irish-Lutheran.


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

JP- As you may know, genetic mapping by physical anthropologists is filing in a world map of who we are. A recent programme took several prominent black americans and traced their 'roots.' Oprah Winfrey was positive she was a Zulu and learned different. Oprah still pours money into her controversial school in SA, so there you go. The same method was used to identify the Ice mummy Oetzi to a small italian village mere miles from his discovery site. All of our various means for defining lineages, clans,nations are at best clumsy and at worse dangerous junk science like the morphological formulae of Nazi Germany. My best friend Jo Jo from Detroit was the only black guy on Kodiak island and I was the only guy wiling to room with him. So he starts calling me the N word! And we defined ourtselves as roommates, coast guardsmen, americans. Of course, I was a black shoe and he a brown shoe aviator. One of the high endurance cutters arrived and another black kid fom L.A. was aboard. I seriously think some pheromone alerted them; that, or the loud jazz coming from our room. Jo Jo vanished and I felt a little abandoned. He stormed in late at night swearing about black trash from Los Angeles, paused and apologised. " Hey N-, I forgot your from the greater L.A. area." For what it's worth, My ethnic ancestry is mostly irish and a mix of; scottish,english,french,dutch,german, one unknown ( he was found unconscious in a small boat full of salt water at my friesian ancestors mill pond. For years he would walk down to the sea and stand there crying.) My culture is west coast californian american, which means I have a patois of fods, religions and holidays and can celebrate Cinco de Mayo by having vegetarian Thai food during a orthodox meat fasting period. Of course, if reparations for slavery become real I have a few vague letters from the same pile of documents my family presented for tribal enrollment and oil rights. Jo Jo will vouch for the cultural aspect.The wierdest incident of all though? My blood type has some indian markers that helped matched me to a California indian girl with luekemia. I donated bone marrow and she survived.


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## JRR (Feb 11, 2006)

Laxplayer said:


> Irish, both my dad and mom's family. I'm sure there is other mixed in, but they have always said they were Irish. My wife's family is German/Irish, a pretty common combination in St. Louis. Born an Irish-Catholic, now I'm an Irish-Lutheran.


LP,

I am the reverse of your religion switch.

I grew up an "Italian" Methodist. Converted to Catholism before I got married to a German-Polish gal.

Cheers


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## omairp (Aug 21, 2006)

100% Pakistani background. But it someone says South Asian, or East Indian that's perfectly ok too (Pakistan and India were the same country only 50-some years ago anyway.)

Its funny because in North America when people say Asian, they're usually referring to people from the far east and pacific rim, not East Indian. In the UK when they say Asian, they almost always mean East Indian.


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

I had this TA who thought oriental was a racial slur. I pointed out there were three defining terms and the west was occidental, a word new to him. When his equally lacking math skills caught up he asked what the third term was. I looked at him and said 'accidental.'


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

I'm A white,jewish polish guy even though I don't speak any Polish whatsoever.I'm of Jewish decent.


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## StevenRocks (May 24, 2005)

I'm black.


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## JLibourel (Jun 13, 2004)

White, plain and simple.


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## medwards (Feb 6, 2005)

Moderator.


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## MrRogers (Dec 10, 2005)

100% italian

MrR


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

medwards said:


> Moderator.


Is your type allowed here? :devil:


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## Kav (Jun 19, 2005)

A family of those kind moved into my apt complex a month ago. You know ( whispers- moderators.) People actualy stayed with their clothing in the laundryroom for fear it would get stolen. 3 more missing cat notices went up. And although I explained once again coyotes, owls and street traffic were tough on cats allowed to roam this one woman stood outside the moderator's window teary eyed as an unfamiliar smell of ethnic food wafted out. Of course, we all know these people move here for the prestigous mailing address and run shady business ventures from livingrooms at day with a dozen countrymen sleeping there at night. Things finally exploded when one grandmother moderator talked really bad spanish to Larry the lead maintenance man and offered him leftover taco bell.Larry was mad enough, missing his baseball to unplug the sink jammed with rice yet again. Larry is Samoan. All the moderators mysteriously vanished overnight without a forwarding address. Larry had a celebratory Luau in the recreation room. I avoided the roast pig.


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

I'm pretty much a "Heinz 57" of Northern Europe...

German
French
Welsh
Scottish


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## Artisan Fan (Jul 21, 2006)

White of Welsh ancestry.


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## riveroaks (Jan 1, 2007)

100% stud :aportnoy:


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## Silverado Squatter (Jul 19, 2005)

I am an American mutt.

In descending order of predominance, Scots-Irish, Swiss-Italian, Hawaiian, Scottish, English, German and New England Puritan.


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

I'm an American male,plain and simple.


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## 16128 (Feb 8, 2005)

100% good old American. 

- 50% Slovakian (my maternal grandparents immigrated)
- the other 50% is an indeterminate admixture of English/Scottish/Dutch 

I'm married to an Irish man (well, Irish-American, but everyone came from Ireland.)


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## Rocker (Oct 29, 2004)

I just consider myself American. When it comes to filling in government forms, census, questionaires, applications etc. I always mark "Other." I don't think the government should ask or know my ethnic background. It really shouldn't be any of the government's business.


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## Geoff Gander (Apr 4, 2007)

I usually write "Caucasian"* whenever I have to fill out those forms. However, in truth I'm...

50% English (father was born in London)
25% French (my maternal grandmother was from Quebec)
12.5% German (from the other side of my mother's family)
12.5% American (ditto)

In life, generally, I consider myself English, though.

Geoff

* Even though true Caucasians are from the Caucasus Mountains...


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

...more often than not, I tell people that I'm an American...if they want the ethnic breakdown, then I tell them...
I'm Cuban...well Taíno to be more specific (we were there long before Columbus)...
German...and actually lately, there's been some contention within my German side of the family that we may actually be Jewish...
Welsh...eh...what're'ya gonna do???
Eastern European...Romanian...I think, nobody's quite sure though, because this came from my grandfather, and this part of his background was always kind of a mystery...I remember he would always say that his family "came from gypsies"...
and just a bit of Chinese...

People kind of have a hard time guessing what I am, more often than not if beople dont think I'm full blooded Latino, they'll assume that I'm Italian...either way, I'll kick somebody's @$$ in dominoes...


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## Claybuster (Aug 29, 2007)

Scotch-Irish


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## Howard (Dec 7, 2004)

Polish/Jewish


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## KenR (Jun 22, 2005)

Second generation Italian. Last name is Calabrian, but I also have ancestors from Naples and Bari. However, my last name translates loosely to "Son of Redmund". So.......if you want to go back far enough, Visigoth? :icon_smile:


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