# ethnic backrounds **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 17, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291 "2009-07-17T01:41:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Honesty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f04885/32.png) [@Honesty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honesty)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/61 "2009-07-20T22:03:25Z")
> [@costa](#): > > i get irritated(easy i guess)when people describe them selves as "irish americans,german american,african americans etc.my self i des cribe my self as an American of greek and english backround.if you put your other country first,go on back there,and see how many of those citizens want to takeyour place.Africans americans who would last a week in that climate.well my spleen is vented. I agree with this. We can start with Vital Statistics and the Census. There is no reason why the government, local or federal, needs to know what ethnicity I am. Stop asking me to tell my race on applications, standardized exams, and to get a license. Stop police officers from writing whether they think I’m black or not after a traffic stop, and prevent doctors from putting what they think my race is on my medical file and let me designate what ethnicity I am. Perhaps the reason we’re fixated on ethnicity because the government is always hounding us darkies to reveal our ethnicity at every roadbend. . ---
**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 20, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/62 "2009-07-20T23:18:30Z")
> [@Honesty](#): > > I agree with this. We can start with Vital Statistics and the Census. There is no reason why the government, local or federal, needs to know what ethnicity I am. Actually, it does, if you want voting districts to be drawn properly. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/63 "2009-07-21T00:59:55Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Actually, it does, if you want voting districts to be drawn properly. How would race matter for voting districts? ---
**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 21, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/64 "2009-07-21T01:36:54Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > How would race matter for voting districts? Because the [Voting Rights Act of 1965](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act) required redistricting to correct the gerrymandering used to disenfranchise blacks in the South and elsewhere. Some states have taken it a step further (arguably) and specifically designed certain “majority minority” districts to ensure that specific racial or ethnic groups are represented. Basically, if you aren’t drawing voting districts (which have to be redrawn frequently to reflect shifting demographics) to make sure minorities aren’t disenfranchised, somebody will be drawing them to make sure they _are_ being disenfranchised, goes the thinking. It’s a fairly controversial idea, especially in the South, where some states are still subject to preclearance - meaning the Justice Department has to approve any redistricting to make sure they aren’t deliberately marginalizing black people. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/65 "2009-07-21T02:17:07Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Because the [URL=“[Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act)”]… deliberately marginalizing **black people**. Ahem! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/66 "2009-07-21T05:32:56Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > When at university I roomed with all foreign students. > > I totally understand what ‘Indian Indians’ are. > > One roommate was Chinese and curious about our Indians. She couldn’t just call them Indians as Indians, for all of Asia, meant peoples from India. So she referred to them, as Red Indians. > > Which caused me to howl with laughter. Red Indians, it still makes me giggle. And once back in Asia, her friends did indeed want to know, “Had she met any red Indians?” > > We quickly taught her the politically correct (for Canada) lingo, First Nations peoples. Red Indians was also the name I was taught for Native American Indians when I was growing up. And no, that wasn’t in “the east” ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/67 "2009-07-21T12:10:36Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > (Note that Scotch-Irish is a uniquely American term and has little to nothing to do with Scotch ancestry.) Scotch-Irish? Sounds like a blended whisky. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/68 "2009-07-21T13:50:45Z")
> [@Honesty](#): > > I agree with this. We can start with Vital Statistics and the Census. There is no reason why the government, local or federal, needs to know what ethnicity I am. Stop asking me to tell my race on applications, standardized exams, and to get a license. Stop police officers from writing whether they think I’m black or not after a traffic stop, and prevent doctors from putting what they think my race is on my medical file and let me designate what ethnicity I am. Perhaps the reason we’re fixated on ethnicity because the government is always hounding us darkies to reveal our ethnicity at every roadbend. It’s also important in evaluating companies for racial discrimination. The racial/ethnic makeup of the staff should roughly reflect the racial/ethnic makeup of the surrounding population that might be expected to work at that particular place (after considering any relevant factors that might affect that.) Example from when I worked at a pharma firm in central NJ. We had many “laboratory types” on staff in all sorts of roles. There is a huge number of Indians with the appropriate skill sets within say a half-hour commuting radius of the building. Consequently, we had many Indians working in the labs. If we had very few or no Indians there, then that would probably indicate discriminatory hiring practices. ---
**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 21, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/69 "2009-07-21T13:53:12Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Ahem! > > 😛 Huh? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/70 "2009-07-21T14:20:27Z")
> [@costa](#): > > **ethnic backrounds** I like big ethnic backrounds and I cannot lie . . . ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/71 "2009-07-21T14:35:41Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Huh? You said “black people” instead of some silly multi-label. Just being silly myself. As for the real gist of the discussion, I don’t care much what self labels people put on themselves. But I will reserve to myself the right to ignore what I consider to be over the top. (Such as French Blacks being referred to in an American newscast as African Americans.) Gerrymandering might make an interesting GD thread … ---
**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 21, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/72 "2009-07-21T15:04:04Z")
Oh, I see. Well, in truth, the law is there to protect black people, since they were the ones getting fucked. There are majority-minority districts for other ethnic and racial groups, though - certain Amerindian tribes, native Hawaiians, Chinese, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/73 "2009-07-21T15:44:53Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > (Note that Scotch-Irish is a uniquely American term and has little to nothing to do with Scotch ancestry.) Amusingly, “Scotch” as an ancestry is pretty much a uniquely American term as well. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/74 "2009-07-21T16:29:41Z")
Scotch-Irish has almost no Scots blood at all. > **[Scotch-Irish Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American)** > > 977,075 (0.3%) "Scotch-Irish" alone > 2021 estimates, self-reported > Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) Americans are American descendants of Ulster Protestants who emigrated from Ulster (Ireland's northernmost province) to America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their ancestors had originally migrated to Ulster mainly from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England in the 17th century. In the 2017 American Community Survey, 5.39 million (1.7% of the population) reported Scottish ancestry, an add... It’s simply a term adopted to separate the pre-existing Irish from those johnny-come-lately sorts who were dirty catholics. I don’t know anyone who claims “Scotch” as an ancestry. (nb: note my ancestors showed up 1698-1700ish, in New Hampshire.) ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/75 "2009-07-21T16:48:57Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > There are literally hundreds or even thousands of psychology studies that back up the fact that size is more important to our brains than is color. Were these studies about porn? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291/76 "2009-07-21T21:31:02Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Were these studies about porn? Yeah, and we’ll need some cites, too. You know, just for our own research. Like we can’t find any porn on the net. Shucks, all I have to do is run a search engine for “french auto parts” and I get dozens of porn hits. For “french,” “parts,” and for “auto.” Unless I set the filters, of course. Then I get [usedcitroenparts.com](http://usedcitroenparts.com). Which is kind of a porn site … :dubious: (maybe I just need more fiber in my diet) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-backrounds/503291.md?page=3)