# Are you ethnic? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 23, 2020, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086 "2020-07-23T07:53:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/81 "2020-07-23T15:29:05Z")
Not at all. If it weren’t for 23andme, I would have no idea of my ethnic heritage at all, other than “white.” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/82 "2020-07-23T16:03:57Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > If you just want to argue that Ethnicity is a social construct perpetuated by the patriarchy could you start your own thread? A separate, but equal thread! ---
**Author:** ![kswiss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@kswiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kswiss)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/83 "2020-07-23T17:59:35Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I think if you’d asked the question originally in that form we’d probably have a different thread. It’s the business about your having no ethnicity that sidetracked things. Everybody’s got an ethnicity. It is however true that some people try to keep at least part of their ancestors’ ethnicity, while other people don’t but instead assimilate into whatever they’re surrounded by. I don’t recall ever saying I don’t have an ethicinity, I think I mentioned my Irish-German heritage several times. I said I have no cultural link or concept of being particularly Irish or German, whereas some people, such as people members of the Sons of Norway, might enjoy some vague kinship and enjoy the cultural traditions of that ethnicity. Many people, at least in America, are an Amalgamation of various ethnicities/cultural traditions. I thought it a rather innocent question, to ask whether some people still identify in any meaningful way with their ancestral traditions or have become generic hot dog eating but not kielbasa eating American. While you are Ashkenazi descent and its important to you, I am of Irish-German descent and its not important to me. Some people of Irish descent, probably went crazy over Riverdance, enrolled their kids in Irish dance lessons, wear kiss me I’m Irish shirts, purchased their family crest of arms from some geaneolgy site. ---
**Author:** ![kswiss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@kswiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kswiss)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/84 "2020-07-23T18:10:04Z")
All ethnicities have contributed to the American nationality. I am having a hard time understanding the hostility to this question. ---
**Author:** ![kswiss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@kswiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kswiss)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/85 "2020-07-23T18:34:21Z")
I am an avowed atheist, but some reason I enjoy getting together with my extended family on December 25th., having a big dinner, and exchanging presents. And most if not all us are somewhere on the spectrum between non-practicing Catholic and avowed atheist. I think that’s the Irish Catholic culture we grew up in. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/86 "2020-07-23T19:16:57Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > I don’t recall ever saying I don’t have an ethicinity > [@kswiss](#): > > what keeps you ethnic rather than generic racial category. That implies that it’s possible to have no ethnicity. You didn’t say ‘what keeps you feeling part of the ethnicity of your ancestors’, you said ‘what keeps you ethnic’ as if it were possible not to be; and you certainly appear to be opposing “generic racial category” to “ethnic” as if it were possible to have only one of them. > [@kswiss](#): > > I believe in my OP, I identified as a person of Irish-German descent who now views himself as a generic white American. I was curious as to other Americans of various ethnicities viewed themselves and how they may or may not relate to their heritage. > > I do not view “American” as an ethnicity. That also reads to me as if you’re denying having any ethnicity. Maybe it’s just the way in which you’re phrasing things. > [@kswiss](#): > > to ask whether some people still identify in any meaningful way with their ancestral traditions or have become generic hot dog eating but not kielbasa eating American. “generic hot dog eating but not kielbasa eating American” reads to me as a partial description of an ethnicity. (Though it’s my impression that that particular ethnicity has been gradually broadening its eating habits.) > [@kswiss](#): > > All ethnicities have contributed to the American nationality. I am having a hard time understanding the hostility to this question. If you mean me, I’m not trying to be hostile. I’m trying to be explanatory. Everybody is part of a culture. Seeing one’s own culture as ‘generic’ and other cultures as ‘ethnic’ is a form of othering; though often not a deliberate one. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/87 "2020-07-23T19:55:56Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Oh, I can’t let this one pass. Here’s a slice of British culture I’m sure even **Novelty\_Bobble** can get behind. We would _never_ put a British flag in our offices. So who buys all the Brit flags for sale online, including desktop ones, at dozens of companies? Pretty sure it’s not the Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/88 "2020-07-23T20:01:13Z")
I think this counts, although some may not. I identify as Texan. I am a 6th generation Texan, although I don’t live there anymore. One of my ancestors was an Alamo defender. I have further traced my ancestry back to pre-revolutionary America and to Switzerland in the middle ages. But I most identify with my Texas ancestry. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/89 "2020-07-23T20:11:58Z")
And yet another thread that could have been fun is totally hijacked by people that can’t seem to help trying to appear above the teeming millions instead of answering the simple question in the OP. **kswiss** , to answer your actual question my family is Russian on one side and German on the other. I do nothing Russian,but drink beer like a German. Which is pretty much what my parents did, minus the beer part. Although I’m an atheist Jew, I do celebrate many of the holidays with friends simply because i enjoy them. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/90 "2020-07-23T20:56:10Z")
Around here (outer suburbs of Cleveland) everyone seems to be either Italian or Eastern European. Mostly Polish but also a lot of Czech and Slovak. People of my parents’ generations are for the most part first- or second-generation Americans. They still call each other “wops” or “polacks.” There are still cultural clubs around, and ethnic churches like Ukranian, Russian, Macedonian, Polish and Italian. Lots of cultural restaurants and businesses (like bakeries and meat markets). Personally I am 50% Slovak, 25% Czech and 25%. We celebrate mostly the Slovak part (mom is 100% Slovak). Dad’s grandma was Czech/Bohemian so he got some Czech influence from her. From what I can tell, around here, if your family didn’t get to the US until the 20th century, you know your heritage and are “ethnic.” And most likely Eastern Europrean or maybe Italian. If your family got here in the 19th century or before, you might not know your ancestry, or it’s very “mutt.” ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/91 "2020-07-24T00:08:47Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > why is this controversal? kswiss, my first reaction to the post headline was confusion / negative too. Although the dictionary meaning of ethnic relates to country of origin, in the American white vernacular, it’s code for Not white. For example : if you go to a grocery store : Ethnic groceries implies non-white groceries I.e. you won’t find Italian or French stuff in those aisles. Ethnic restaurants imply non white restaurants : Italian, French etc are not ethnic. Ethnic art, ethnic clothes, ethnic jewelry, … all imply non-white. ---
**Author:** ![kswiss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ccd318/32.png) [@kswiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kswiss)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/92 "2020-07-24T00:24:06Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > kswiss, my first reaction to the post headline was confusion / negative too. > > Although the dictionary meaning of ethnic relates to country of origin, in the American white vernacular, it’s code for Not white. For example : if you go to a grocery store : Ethnic groceries implies non-white groceries I.e. you won’t find Italian or French stuff in those aisles. Ethnic restaurants imply non white restaurants : Italian, French etc are not ethnic. Ethnic art, ethnic clothes, ethnic jewelry, … all imply non-white. While other nations around the world ethnicity and nationality are synomous, I don’t think it so in America. Swedes live in Sweden, maybe some ethnic Norwegians live in Sweden too, but they identify as Norwegian. They have different traditions, maybe speak Norwegian at home or speak Swedish with a Norwegian accent. Swiss is not a ethnicity, some Swiss are German or French etc. They may be all unified as citizens of Switzerland but of different ethnic groups/traditions. Your assumption that Ethnic means non-white is pretty telling of where you are coming from. In fact in the OP, I specifically mentioned that my initial question was of “white” or European Americans if they maintained there ethnic traditions, which would include Italians, French, Irish, Germans, Poles, Greeks, and every other ethnic group in Europe (or white people as you say). ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/93 "2020-07-24T03:51:47Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > I am having a hard time understanding the hostility to this question. There’s no hostility on my part, I’m just trying to follow what you’re saying. If lots of people are confused with your position I think you should consider whether your position is actually consistent and coherent. You said that people who identify as British are not ethnic: _"Brit is a nationality._ _So you are not ethnic"_ But you’ve also explicitly said that American is a nationality to you, and the whole premise of the thread seems to be that you’re cool with someone identifying as American and also being ethnic. It doesn’t make any sense. So, please don’t take it personally, please don’t respond with a rhetorical question, just try to address the issue. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/94 "2020-07-24T05:05:01Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > Your assumption that Ethnic means non-white is pretty telling of where you are coming from Can you explain what you mean by this ? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/95 "2020-07-24T05:27:42Z")
Three of my grandparents fled to America to escape ethnic repression. Even though they were white and so were their oppressors. Two were Lithuanians facing death at the hands of the Russian empire, and one’s family escaped the genocide of the Irish potato famine. I’ve also been on maybe a hundred buses on which I was the only white passenger, which makes one feel sorta ethnic. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/96 "2020-07-24T07:16:32Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > escaped the genocide of the Irish potato famine Nitpick: I don’t think it’s normally considered a genocide, that is, a deliberate attempt to wipe out a population. It could have been: the actions of the British may have been motivated by malice. But they also could have just been incompetent. AIUI the matter isn’t settled among historians. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/97 "2020-07-24T07:39:17Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > So who buys all the Brit flags for sale online, including desktop ones, at dozens of companies? Pretty sure it’s not the Irish. Oh, silly me, there’s online shops selling flags, so of course we must put them in our offices. I know this is going to blow your mind, but we don’t put flags in schools either. Or police stations. Or on poles outside our houses. My MP doesn’t even have one in her office. Crazy, huh? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/98 "2020-07-24T07:44:30Z")
> [@kswiss](#): > > I think that was called World War 2. Millions of people died. Errr, I was comparing the British Act of Union of 1707 with the Unification of Germany in 1871, but yeah, World War 2 was bad, man. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/99 "2020-07-24T07:46:14Z")
I am a generic White person from the South. The funny thing is White people tend to think we do not have a racial or ethnic identity. All you other people do. But in my case, there is a bit of a story. My paternal grandfather used to tease my dad that we had Black blood in the family. (We have a traditional “Black name.”) Further my father was truly convinced his mom was 25% Native American. So I did a DNA test. Half Polish (my mom) half Scot-Irish. The thing is, as a White Southerner, you would figure I would be pleased. Really I am sort of disappointed. I am boring. But I did learn that my grandad really like to tell tall tales and my father believed them. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2020, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/100 "2020-07-24T07:50:37Z")
People who say they don’t have an ethnicity are like people who say they don’t have an accent. It’s bullshit, of course - everyone speaks with an accent, just like everyone has an ethnicity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086.md?page=6)