Doesn’t the census have an ‘other’ box where you can write in something that doesn’t fit the categories, like Ashkenazi or Kashubian or Greenlandic or whatever?
This sounds like a debate we had in Intro to Sociology over weather “Jewish” was a religion or an ethnicity (it’s both).
The regular census doesn’t actually ask any of those questions. It asks you what your race/ethnicity is, but in very general terms. (Black, White, Asian, American Indian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic of Any Race.) I’m assuming Eva Luna got picked for the more detailed questionnaire. I’m surprised that they only wanted one country of origin. I’m pretty sure most Americans are descended from people from multiple countries. I’m only a third generation American, and I’m still descended from people from four different countries.
Don’t make an issue of it, or she’ll take her Bal- and go home.
Well, this was a few years back, and I think it was for the American Community Survey or whatever the more detailed survey was called. This was a phone interview; I never even got a written questionnaire in the mail (or it went AWOL), so an enumerator followed up with me. I don’t remember what the exact wording was. The enumerator was laughing her head off by the end of our conversation.
Seriously, Ashkenazi is certainly a concrete ethnic identity shared by millions of Americans, many of whom are nonpracticing Jews (such as me). Why is it not a choice on the Census?
No, no, no! It was the firefighter with the trigger text finger that was finnish…
Here’s a real Latvian joke:
A Latvian was walking down a street in Riga when he noticed a crowd had gathered up ahead. When he reached the crowd, he asked someone there what was going on.
The man told him, “It’s so sad. A brick fell off that building and killed a man on the street here.”
The Latvian shook his head. “Yes, that is sad. There are so few Latvians left in Latvia, and now one has died so tragically.”
The man replied, “Oh, it wasn’t a Latvian that was killed. It was a Russian. Still, it’s so sad.”
The Latvian nodded. “Yes, that is sad. There are so many Russians in Latvia that a brick can’t fall off a building without hitting one.”
Now I’m thinking about Inguna Butane and Eliza Vinokurova making out. Hot Latvian-on-Latvian action.
Is your lesbian boyfriend one of them Russian spys?
None of the above. He broke up with me tonight. 
I had to check your profile, SaxFace. For a moment, I thought you might be an excellent saxophonist of Latvian origin who now lives and plays in Montreal. His name is Janis Steprans.
There has been so much drift on this thread that I guess apologies for causing it to drift further might be unnecessary.
Mississippienne, I’m sorry the romance didn’t work out.
Just as well. I’m tired of the motherfuckin’ communist lezbens on my motherfuckin’ fellow mississipians, anyway.
Sorry it didn’t work out.
Jesus you just can’t catch a break.
Sorry to hear about the breakup. At least he wasn’t Latverian. That would have been messy.
That’s true. Although I never met her, I once spoke to her husband and a good friend of mine knows her well. In fact, my friend is either now or just was in Latvia to help celebrate her 50th anniversary. Both she and her husband were professors in one or the other French universities in Montreal.
The OP reminds me that I have met a male Lesbian. He owns a Greek restaurant in town called Molivos, named after his native village on the isle of Lesbos.