# Caucasian a group of Vikings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009 "2014-06-30T15:20:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/21 "2014-07-01T14:54:50Z")
According to the OP, using the wrong term on the wrong person will be considered fighting words. I’d say that implies a need to be ultra-careful. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/22 "2014-07-01T14:59:55Z")
The OP is misremembering a five minute lecture he received “years ago”. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/23 "2014-07-01T15:01:58Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > According to the OP, using the wrong term on the wrong person will be considered fighting words. For the three terms mentioned, I question that assertion. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/24 "2014-07-01T15:29:34Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > Sorry, I missed orientation day. > > Also, not so much willfully ignorant as just apathetic. This is not something I’ve ever encountered, and it has no bearing whatsoever on my life. **Moderator Note** In the future, then, keep such ignorant remarks out of General Questions, There’s no need for you to post on a subject you know nothing about. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/25 "2014-07-01T15:45:23Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > I think the boss was just trying to make a point in an ironic fashion - you have to be ultra-careful about using the terms “Latino”, “Hispanic”, or “Mexican”, but it’s OK to refer to all whites, whether their descent is Anglo-Saxon, German, Irish, Italian, Scandinavian, Polish…as “Caucasian”? It’s OK to lump him in the same category as marauding Vikings? > > At least, that’s my take on his reaction. This was the point I was trying to make. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/26 "2014-07-01T16:03:02Z")
No you weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/27 "2014-07-01T16:09:06Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > I think the boss was just trying to make a point in an ironic fashion - you have to be ultra-careful about using the terms “Latino”, “Hispanic”, or “Mexican”, but it’s OK to refer to all whites, whether their descent is Anglo-Saxon, German, Irish, Italian, Scandinavian, Polish…as “Caucasian”? It’s OK to lump him in the same category as marauding Vikings? > > At least, that’s my take on his reaction. The problem with these offenderati is they want to have it both ways. They want their ethnic group to be given more respect. And they want to not have to care about any other ethnic group. Statements like _“I don’t care if somebody calls me a redneck so why should you care if somebody calls you a wetback?”_ or _“I understand the differences between being a Latino and a Hispanic and I would appreciate if you would acknowledge the differences between being Irish and Scandinavian.”_ are at least consistent. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/28 "2014-07-01T17:18:43Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > I’m rather certain that people from Spain do not consider themselves “Hispanic,” and Americans who are of direct Spanish ancestry (including descendants of the original Spanish settlers of California and the American Southwest) have a different term for themselves, which slips my mind at the moment. > > ETA: [Hispano](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanos) Do I and every Spaniard I met in the US need to hand in our passports? We, even the Basque independentist, did not consider ourselves _Hispanoamericanos_ (Latinos) since duh, we were missing the -americanos part, but when someone asked whether we were Hispanics, our answers were along the lines of “the original article!” Do you also not consider people from England as Anglos? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/29 "2014-07-01T17:20:26Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > This was the point I was trying to make. Your post indicated nothing of the kind. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/30 "2014-07-01T21:15:36Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > Damn, Colibri beat me to it. As he observes, the Vikings settled all over the place, France and England included. France and England ? Pfff, that’s, like, right next door. Vikings and Northmen went much further than that. Try Portugal and Spain. The Kingdom of Sicily ? Vikings originally hired by the Lombards to fight off Saracen incursions, who then decided “this is nice place, we take now”. [Along with most of Southern Italy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_southern_Italy). Vikings also settled in and around Constantinople & Greece - they were the red hot, high-speed badasses of their day and everyone knew their reputation, so they were often hired as bodyguards for high ranking people who valued their continued existence. Cue the [Varangian Guard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangian_Guard). They also set up shop in Novgorod and founded Kievan Rus’. Which would become Russia a looong time later. And of course there’s Vinland, their little ill-fated colony in North America (Newfoundland), after a pit stop in Greenland. Because only a Scandinavian would land on the shores of fricking Greenland and go “swank digs, lovely weather, let’s live here”. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/31 "2014-07-02T03:11:51Z")
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation “49 CFR Part 26”. “‘Hispanic Americans,’ which includes persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Central or South American, or other Spanish or Portuguese culture or origin, regardless of race;” so to them I assume that means Brazilians are Hispanic along with Spaniards and Portuguese. Other government agencies have different definitions. Even I qualify under that definition if you go back about 15 generations. At least one of my greats that far back was the ruler of one of the parts of what is now Spain (assuming no bastards or errors in records along the way). ---
**Author:** ![Mapache](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@Mapache](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mapache)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/32 "2014-07-22T05:07:12Z")
A lot of Mexicans aren’t Hispanic at all, including most of my neighbors, who are Zapotecs and Mixtecs. Some of them probably have some Spanish ancestors, but they don’t think of themselves as Mestizos, although they eat a lot of Mestizo food (and drink a lot of Coke and Mescal). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/33 "2014-07-22T08:40:46Z")
The Vikings raided places in a huge area at various times. This doesn’t mean that everybody from all the places that they raided is descended from them or that they occupied those territories for any significant time. It appears that they may have briefly reached central Asia. The Vikings weren’t a single group who went on united missions. In any case, calling the people of central Asia the descendants of Vikings is nonsense. You might want to start from here on Vikings: > **[Vikings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings)** > > Chronological history > Vikings is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, Volga Bulgaria, the Middle East, and North America. In their countries of origin, and some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Vi... ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009/34 "2014-07-22T08:54:42Z")
I have read (somewhere, long ago) that Viking slaves were traded as far as western China. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caucasian-a-group-of-vikings/692009.md?page=1)