# New verbal garbage: "European American" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 13, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098 "2005-10-13T17:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/41 "2005-10-14T17:25:17Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > It’s ironic that some want to refer to caucasian-Americans as European-Americans, when a simple look at the map can tell you that the namesake, the Caucasus, is NOT in Europe. Because I said so. Look at the friggin map!!! nitpick: You don’t consider Europe to end at the Urals? Specifically, at the obelisk near Ekaterinburg? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/42 "2005-10-14T17:29:41Z")
I wouldn’t mind being called a European American… if it meant I could work and live over there. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/43 "2005-10-14T20:38:59Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > nitpick: > > You don’t consider Europe to end at the Urals? > Specifically, at the obelisk near Ekaterinburg? I, personally, don’t. I’m sort of conflicted about the Latvia Lithuania and Estonia, but it’s pretty clear to me that Russia, and most of Belarus and the Ukraine, is in Asia. The best way to describe how I feel about it psychologically is that Europe ends at the Dneipr and follows the Russian border up to the Gulf of Finland. In fact, I just got out my World Almanac and turned to a page with countries in Asia in color, and the countries next to them in grey. I said to myself “ahhh! It’s weird to have a map of only Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian counties!” When in fact upon further perusal it was a map of “all” the countries in Asia. The point being, the border between Europe and Asia is stupid and nonsensical. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/44 "2005-10-14T20:50:25Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Look at the friggin map!!! Europe ends in Poland! Culturally AND racially! (East Slavs have a distinctly different look from central slavs and Germans.) This is a joke, isn’t it? Or are you really telling us that Greeks, Finns and Irish look ‘alike’, but that East Slavs are obviously different from all Europeans? ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/45 "2005-10-14T22:29:50Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > This is a joke, isn’t it? Or are you really telling us that Greeks, Finns and Irish look ‘alike’, but that East Slavs are obviously different from all Europeans? Waaaaaiit a second… are **you** saying that all Greeks look alike? Or all Finns? Or all Irish? What about all that immigration and movement between countries? And who are you to decide what labels are attached to what people? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/46 "2005-10-14T22:42:07Z")
> [@YaWanna](#): > > Waaaaaiit a second… are **you** saying that all Greeks look alike? Or all Finns? Or all Irish? What about all that immigration and movement between countries? > > And who are you to decide what labels are attached to what people? :dubious: THIS is a joke, please god tell me it is? Isn’t it? Am I not able to take the piss at all in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/47 "2005-10-14T23:05:41Z")
OK, I admit it was a very snarky, juvenile joke at your expense. But I sooooo enjoyed the reaction, it was almost worth it. Besides, you practically handed me the opportunity, gift-wrapped. I can resist anything except temptation… ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/48 "2005-10-15T02:18:00Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > This is a joke, isn’t it? Or are you really telling us that Greeks, Finns and Irish look ‘alike’, but that East Slavs are obviously different from all Europeans? Not so much different from Middle and South Slavs, but not the same, either. But the racial _combined with_ the geographic dividing line (i.e. end of the European Peninsula) is enough to make me think that Asia starts further West. As well, the oriental features apparent on many folk from the south steppes adds to this effect, as I’m sure some racial descendants of the Mongols and Tatars certainly live west of the Urals, or am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098/49 "2005-10-15T03:36:27Z")
In my little family we like to refer to ourselves as “American-mutts.” What else are you going to call a group that is descended from: English, Irish, Norwegian, French, Germans and just enough Native American that half of us get great tans (the other half burn if they go out in the noon day sun for 5 minutes 🆒 ). When I fill out the forms that ask for nationality, I write in American. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-verbal-garbage-european-american/326098.md?page=2)