Do you have an ethnic identity?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Reading about the Mafia, and in particular Joseph Colombo’s Italian-American Civil Rights League, today started me wondering about ethnicity.

Over the years, I’ve known people who strongly, or not quite so, asserted their Italian, German, Jamaican, whatever roots.

I know of there being neighborhoods separated by ethnic divides in our (U.S.) older, northeastern cities. That’s not the case in my part of the woods.

There are enclaves of more recent immigrants here, particularily Asian and Central Americans. But that does not affect me.
With that preface, let me attempt to attack the question.
If race is to be considered as part of the equation, well then, I would be considered a white guy by most. But I don’t think of myself as a white guy - that never really enters my perception. My grandparents on my Dad’s side were ethnic Swedes from Finland who emmigrated to Canada, where my Dad was born. Frankly, nothing I can identify as Swedish or Finnish culture was transmitted to me as a developing child. The same can be said of my Mom’s ethnic roots (English and German).

I grew up in Texas, and I’m somewhat of a booster of the place, but I don’t easily fit the stereotype of a Texan (never owned any cowboy boots, don’t drive a pickup truck, don’t hunt).

So, AFAICT, I don’t have an identifiable ethnicity. I’m just a guy who grew up in a big city in a great state. Five years ago, when I responded to the census forms we all got, I described my ethnicity as American. Far from being just a wise-ass Republican reply, it was truly the best I could do.

So, do you belong to some identifiable ethnic group? Is that part of your own personal identity?

2

I’ve always described myself as white trash. My ancestors were Irish on my mother’s side of the family and French Canadian on my father’s side. As I grew up in an area where the ethnic diversity was around zero and these were essentially the only two ethnic groups around, my sense of ethnic identity was basically non-existent.

3

I am half-Italian on my father’s side. My dad is a first generation American. Two of his brothers were born in Italy. I have relatives in Italy that my dad and my younger brother have hung out with.

Thinking about it, I self-identify as Italian, especially to friends and acquaintances with Italian surnames. But that ethnic identity doesn’t MEAN anything to me, really. Maybe if I went to visit my relatives it would be different. I have a first cousin who runs a cheesemaking collective that makes Taleggio and stracciato. That would be fun, hanging out with him.

So my longwinded answer is yes but no.

4

Looking up my family tree, I’m English/Scot/German, but I don’t identify with any of those to any significant extent.
If someone insisted that I pick an ethnic identify, I’d have to go with Trekkie. :wink:

5

I’ve got four-quarters in my ethnic make-up. On dad’s side there’s Polish and Russian (the Jewish side :slight_smile: ), and on my mom’s there’s Italian and Danish.

Since dad’s side doesn’t know of any relatives/connections still in Eastern Europe (all of my great-grandparents on his side managed to get smuggled out of there during/before WWI), I don’t feel any specific connection to any one country over there, but I do consider myself significantly Eastern European Jew (culturally/ethnically).

On my mom’s side we still have connections (no, not those kind of connections) with the family (no, not that Family) in Italy, and in fact are going there this summer for the fourth family reunion during my lifetime (25 years). So, I still connect with that pretty strongly.

We don’t have any connection with any Danes, but we still honor a lot of traditions and recipies passed down through my grandmother.

So, to answer your question more directly, the answer is yes, and it’s mixed up quite a bit.

6

My last name comes from my X great grandfather who came Jamestown about 1610. That is pushing 400 years in America on that side. I don’t know of any ancestors that arrived after 1800 and all were probably earlier than that.

I am simply American with some very distant English and Scots-Irish roots.

7

English-Scottish with some Dutch German thrown in. I’m king of the lapsed Episcopalians! I’m as common as an old shoe. I’m an ethnic blancmange.

8

My forbears mainly came from Ireland and Scotland, but I wouldn’t describe myself as anything other than Australian.

9

When faced with a census form, I identify as white or Caucasian or whatever. Ethnically, I am Italian, Spanish, Swedish and German, but I was raised in a pretty ethnic Italian home (my stepfather is Italian, my Swedish/German father was absent) so when someone asks me, my first answer is that I’m Italian. I’m apparently Hispanic enough to qualify for certain grants and/or kinds of financial aid if I were to go back to school, but I would feel really stupid doing that.

10

Not really. I will root for the Slovak (I’m 25% My grandma was born there.) team during things like the Olympics unless they’re up against the Americans.

Another quarter is German/Italian but I’ve no special interest there beyond the original towns.

The quarter on my dad’s dad’s side is all southern all before 1700. Mostly English, Scottish and Cherokee, but some others down around the 0.1% to 0.3%. Nothing really connects me to them beyond my interest in genealogy.

The last quarter is unknown to me. He was a local boy (I’m in Hawaii) born here is all I know. Judging from my mother’s looks there’s definately quite a bit of Hawaiian. I’d have more affinity with that if I lived somewhere else.

Really that’s all just basic interest in genealogy beyond those people I know and have met.

11

I self-identify as Greek (my mother is completely Greek, she betrayed the family by marrying a guy who was half Irish and half European mongrel :slight_smile: ), but it’s not really something that matters to me in everyday life… especially since I don’t have the obviously Greek surname of my mother’s side, or even the Irish one, but the Euro unidentifiable all the way. When push comes to shove, I’m just another American white boy.

12

Too ethnically mixed. I have known ancestors from England, Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland, France, Wales, Northern Ireland, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany, and Luxembourg, and could, possibly, have ancestors from elsewhere (around a quarter of my heritage is not traceable, due to adoption). Some arrived in the 1600’s, while my paternal great-grandfather arrived here circa 1905.

Due to this, I have no ethnic identity whatsoever.

13

Throw a dart at a map of Europe and yeah, we came from there.

Some of my relatives on a couple of sides have done extensive digging but we seem to be such well-mixed mutts it seems pointless to try and identify with any particular ancestral branch.

14

As with you , Ringo, if race is considered part of the equation, then I’m a white chick. I’m pretty darn pale.

My mother is Puerto Rican, born in Ponce, raised in New York City. My father is French Canadian, born and raised in central Louisiana.

Since my sisters and I were raised near our mother’s family (a fairly large family, my mother was the only sibling of 7 to not marry another Puerto Rican, making my sisters and I the only ‘mixed’ kids among our first cousins), the Puerto Rican heritage, culture, foods, etc., is what we have come to identify with most. We did get a good dose of Cajun/Southern heritage from Dad, but, not being around that side of the family, it was just never as formidable a presence as Mom’s Puerto Rican heritage. She’s always been intensely proud of her heritage, and she passed that down to her children. Heck, she passed it down to her grandchildren (my children), who are 1/4 this, 1/4 that, etc., yet proudly proclaim themselves part Puerto Rican if asked.

I consider myself Puerto Rican, though I don’t even speak Spanish. I can understand my mother and my family very well when they speak, and I can get the gist of a conversation in general, but I’ve never been totally comfortable speaking it.

Might be time to sign up for some classes.

15

All I know for certain is that I am a quarter-Italian on my mother’s side (her father was an immigrant and her maiden name is Belline) and 1/16th Cherokee on my father’s side and aside from that (and my Irish last name – Deaver), I have no real idea what my ethnic background is although I supposedly have some German in my background and considering the geographic history of my father’s family, probably some African blood as well.

Which is all just a roundabout way of saying I’m an American with no real ethnic identity.

Growing up, I was always fascinated with Italy and still have a special place in my heart for it though.

16

My ancestors are all from England, Scotland and Wales. I’m a white guy from a long line of white people. I have the most common of all English names. I am in fact a generic white guy. Where I grew up, there were only white people, like us, or from Europe and Scandinavia. We never saw a black person until 1973. I am a Canadian living in America. Other than at times like this when I’m asked about it, I never think about it.

17

Ethnic? Not so much. My nationality and (in particular) my sexual orientation are more important sources of identification.

18

All my grandparents came from England*. I’m about as boring white-bread Anglo as they get. However, I have no English accent or anything (being born here in Canada), just a taste for steak-and-kidney pie and Monty Python, so I call myself Canadian.

[sub]Not just Britain or the UK, but England*. I do know the difference.
**Come to think of it, in the polyglot multi-ethnic mixing-bowl that is Toronto, maybe that is unusual…[/sub]

19

Cherokee(maybe),scottish,irish,welsh…whatever…

When I was younger, I looked a lot more Cherokee than I am…I got called things like chief, wagon burner, prarie nigger etc…which I found odd at the time, since I never really considered myself any kind of ethinic group. Don’t get it so much any more…But back then I got people all the time asking me “what sort of injun are you anyway?” I usually told them Hekowi just to shut em up. Finally I did some digging in my family history.

20

psycat, you and I are in a similar way. I’m also Puerto Rican and don’t speak the language. My father was my link, but he died awhile ago.

I don’t identify very much because of it. I’m also rather dark as well, and it’s very embarrassing to counter the Spanish language with an, “No hablo espanol, I guess.” :dubious: