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Who's White?

#124
R. Laevinus said:
a fellow was trying to explain to me his view that 'white' is a term that can only be 'properly' applied to people of British, Irish or Scottish heritage. He argued that, for example, Russians aren't white; nor Italians.
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Well, he was a bit confused about his own identity, then. "British or Scottish" is like "Cheese or Cheddar".

But for us Brits, the correct term is "either slightly bluish pink or bright red" rather than "white", anyway :)
 
#126
My name, "Funky Ghost", was given to me by a black co worker ( and drummer ) who refuses to call me white because I can dance, I love to sing soul, and I love funk music. He has also said I'm an undercover brother... because I'm black on the inside. :D Ahhh he kills me.

I'm just your average American from Latvian and American Indian decent. I think we now live in the Amalgamated States of America. And I'm fine with that. More than fine.
 
#127
Funky Ghost said:
My name, "Funky Ghost", was given to me by a black co worker ( and drummer ) who refuses to call me white because I can dance, I love to sing soul, and I love funk music. He has also said I'm an undercover brother... because I'm black on the inside. :D Ahhh he kills me.

I'm just your average American from Latvian and American Indian decent. I think we now live in the Amalgamated States of America. And I'm fine with that. More than fine.
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Latvian and American Indian? Now there's a cool combo that you never see!
 
#130
Some of the strongest racial comments I've heard that weren't just ignorant spewings from a redneck were from Asians. At first I thought people were kidding, but now I just change the subject when it comes up. And most (but not all) of the hatred is for other Asians.
 
#131
Webtroll said:
Some of the strongest racial comments I've heard that weren't just ignorant spewings from a redneck were from Asians. At first I thought people were kidding, but now I just change the subject when it comes up. And most (but not all) of the hatred is for other Asians.
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Yeah, funny how that works, innit? In my personal experience, I have found that the most iffy racial prejudice - again, discounting morons of any colour - is from various Middle Eastern folks (including Southeast Asia) against each other. Sometimes they go on a white kick too, but mostly against each other.

Strange.
 
#132
R. Laevinus said:
Sometimes they go on a white kick too, but mostly against each other.
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My Nephews father in law (He's from Vietnam) has some pretty interesting views. I'm not sure if his disdain is for white people, or western culture in general, but Asians have lived in civilized societies for thousands of years, and we just barely have moved out of our caves.

He's not a bad guy really, once you figure out which subjects to avoid.
 
#135
There was some PBS documentary a few years back that talked about recent efforts to trace ancestry using peoples' DNA. The coolest thing was how many families of apparently different racial backgrounds were actually related to each other. (And the links weren't only unsavory relics of slavery, either.) There were a couple of unusual but very touching family reunions on that show.

I get the fact that common usage of terms like "white" and "black" are more related to cultural identity than to any strict scientific measure. But it still kinda bugs me that to be considered white you have to look like your entire gene pool came from Europe; whereas to be labeled black you only have to appear to have a tiny bit of Africa in you.

I wonder if that convention of racial identification is going to gradually fade, as the world gets more global and the melting pot gets continually stirred.

I liked that the PBS show highlighted that any notion of racial purity is kind of a delusion. Genes have been mingling and blending for as long as humans have been traveling and exploring -- i.e.: throughout history.
 
#137
pbasswil said:
There was some PBS documentary a few years back that talked about recent efforts to trace ancestry using peoples' DNA. The coolest thing was how many families of apparently different racial backgrounds were actually related to each other. (And the links weren't only unsavory relics of slavery, either.) There were a couple of unusual but very touching family reunions on that show.

I get the fact that common usage of terms like "white" and "black" are more related to cultural identity than to any strict scientific measure. But it still kinda bugs me that to be considered white you have to look like your entire gene pool came from Europe; whereas to be labeled black you only have to appear to have a tiny bit of Africa in you.

I wonder if that convention of racial identification is going to gradually fade, as the world gets more global and the melting pot gets continually stirred.

I liked that the PBS show highlighted that any notion of racial purity is kind of a delusion. Genes have been mingling and blending for a long as humans have been traveling and exploring -- i.e.: throughout history.
Click to expand...

My wife and I joined "23andme" which is a DNA testing offering.
Really really neat and really enlightening.
You would be absolutely surprised that what you "think you are" in terms of ethnicity and/or race, is only an illusion.

Until we joined, I was always told that my family is strictly of Polish and French origin - In my own bloodline, I learned that there is a lot of Ashkenazi Jewish, and Sardinian along with Polish, Russian, Czech and Romanian ancestry. Further to that, I have (non-white) blood relatives in Jamaica and Japan. Pretty damn cool!

Now my wife - she's bi-racial, Asian and Latina. He ancestry was supposed to be Chinese and (mostly) native Costa Rican (Bree Bree Indian), well....as it turns out, she's also white with a large amount of typical European genes AND she also has a large amount of African genes.

race, ethnicity....blah, what an asinine illusion it is sometimes.
 
#138
The way genetics work out is the damnest thing. Genetically, I am half-Comanche (from my mom - a full blood) and half-Irish (my father is a 1st generation American). He is a walking Irish sterotype - auburn hair, blue eyes, and fair as hell. If the man even looks at a picture of the sun he begins to burn. BTW, yes I am enrolled in the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, grew up in the culture, can speak my language, "look it", and all that stuff.

Funny thing, when the wife and I went to Ireland on vacation a few years back, not one of those guys over there mistook me for one of them. The thing that always amused me, though, was when my father would introduce me as his son to people who never knew my mom (my folks divorced when I was nine). You could see the very confused looks as the person looked upon this brown-eyed, brown-skinned dude with the long black hair. Used to crack me up.
 

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