# Eh. . . old pic: guess the ethnicity **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079 "2010-10-05T02:48:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/21 "2010-10-05T19:09:07Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m pretty sure the man isn’t black. He seems to have pretty straight hair. You haven’t seen my family. Hair texture, follicle shape, and length are not indicators of ethnicity, at least not complete indicators. They could both be black. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/22 "2010-10-05T19:18:27Z")
The old guy looks just like my father-in-law. French-Canadian/Norman/Bohemian. (Bohemian? Weren’t they Slavs? I don’t even know!) ---
**Author:** ![CWN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@CWN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWN)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/23 "2010-10-05T19:23:45Z")
> [@descamisado](#): > > Arrrgghhh!!! > > I hate certain photo links are blocked here at work and this photo is getting the best of my curiosity. > > Can someone embed the photo in an email and send it to the address listed in my profile? Please!?!?!? You have mail ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/24 "2010-10-05T19:26:25Z")
Thank you, Kind Stranger! ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/25 "2010-10-05T19:29:14Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > > [@tdn](#): > > > > I’m pretty sure the man isn’t black. He seems to have pretty straight hair. > > You haven’t seen my family. Hair texture, follicle shape, and length are not indicators of ethnicity, at least not complete indicators. They could both be black. Interesting. Did not know that. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/26 "2010-10-05T19:47:36Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > I think it’s a yorkie. > > 😃 > > If you mean the dude, then he’s obviously a bearded napkin-lapper. Or a mix of Asian and white. My first thought was “African-American.” But it’s ambiguous in this shot. He does seem to have a “European” nose. The woman is of northern European stock, I think the man probably is as well. These folks look a lot like the white hill people I come from. Those are–well, those are _my_ eyebrows/lids. And they’re not dark-skinned. Probably with roots in Northern/Middle Europe. If the guy is part black, he’s still part European. ---
**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:** [October 5, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/27 "2010-10-05T19:56:40Z")
I’m actually thinking some of the more Asian parts of the Russian Empire. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/28 "2010-10-05T19:56:48Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > I’m getting a definite [Pete Postlethwaite](http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/entertainment/theatre/images/pete_postlethwaite_270.jpg) vibe. I don’t think his nose indicates African descent. The man in Snake-Hips’s photo even has a sharply ridged nose. Look at the light. They’re very probably Nords, or some other blend of “Caucasoid.” ---
**Author:** ![kim\_jung\_il](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@kim\_jung\_il](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kim_jung_il)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/29 "2010-10-06T04:48:14Z")
The man looks Hungarian, the woman looks Armenian. (I have no idea) ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/30 "2010-10-06T04:53:38Z")
They both look European to me. Beyond that, I’m stumped. ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/31 "2010-10-06T15:00:09Z")
If I had to guess, I might say that they were Volga Germans, although the wife has something of a slavic look to her. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/32 "2010-10-06T15:11:29Z")
The woman looks a _lot_ like a former co-worker’s mom. If not for the vintage of the photo, I’d say it was her! (Although the woman I met is shorter.) They were from Latvia, but Galina’s heritage is “White Russian” (as I was told very emphatically). ETA: What does “white Russian” in that emphatic way mean anyway? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/33 "2010-10-06T15:27:08Z")
“White Russian” is sort of like Belarusian. [White Russia - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Russia) ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/34 "2010-10-06T15:31:17Z")
Just look like plain, old, midwestern white folks. I am white, FTR ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/35 "2010-10-06T16:05:16Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > “White Russian” is sort of like Belarusian. [White Russia - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Russia) Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Normal\_Phase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Normal\_Phase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Normal_Phase)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/36 "2010-10-06T16:31:23Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I see Austrian, Dutch, Swedish, or possibly as far east as Lithuania, Beloruse, Ukraine-ish. They eyes and cheekbones on the woman have that germanic/eastern european look. Not so much southern influenced with montenegro/turkey/greek, but more northern but not quite russian. This, from the woman. Definitely northern Europe. The man has an atypically wide nose, but as it would seem likely he’s from the same place as the woman, he probably is too. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/37 "2010-10-06T19:52:26Z")
Woman looks 100% white (could be Irish with that forehead), man looks ‘mixed’ to me. Part white and part Asian or Native American, is my guess. Or he could just be from one of those areas where most people look to be a mix of Asian/white (mostly parts of Russia and many countries bordering it). ---
**Author:** ![Waxwinged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@Waxwinged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waxwinged)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/38 "2010-10-06T20:06:49Z")
That be them melungeons, yarr. > **[Melungeon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon)** > > Melungeons (/məˈlʌndʒənz/ mə-LUN-jənz) (sometimes also spelled Malungeans, Melangeans, Melungeans, Melungins) are a group of people from Appalachia who predominantly descend from Northern or Central European women and sub-Saharan African men. Their ancestors were likely brought to Virginia as indentured servants in the mid-17th century. > Initially, a generalized pejorative racial slur, Melungeon became associated with 40 families living in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Neighboring Melung... ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/39 "2010-10-08T06:30:32Z")
Swedish, I think. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079/40 "2010-10-08T06:50:29Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m pretty sure the man isn’t black. He seems to have pretty straight hair. He looks a bit like my great-grandfather, who was half black and half portuguese via the Azores. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eh-old-pic-guess-the-ethnicity/556079.md?page=3)