I’m part Cree and I have black hair. I’m also very pale. I was mistaken once for being Italian.
I got stopped in the Diamond District by a Lubovicher who point blank asked me if I kept kosher. I told him I wasn’t Jewish, but he didn’t believe me. I’ve got Slavic looks, so I suppose I could be mistaken for someone who was a Slavic Jew. Hasn’t happened before or since. Or maybe this guy was stopping everyone and asking if they kept kosher.
I had a friend of indeterminate ethnicity (you couldn’t tell what she was by looking at her) who was born and raised in the USA. She had a speech impediment. She used to challenge people to guess where she was from by her “accent”. When they found out the truth they didn’t know whether it was polite to laugh or not.
I am caucasian, of several ancestral backgrounds. However, my olive skin, my dark brown hair, and my dark brown eyes get me mistaken for all kinds of different things. I grew up in Texas, and many people assumed I was at least part Mexican. When I wasn’t Mexican, I was Jewish. Since I moved to Northern Michigan, people have asked if I was Native American. I’ve even been asked if I’ve got middle eastern blood. Wow.
In case anyone is wondering, I look like this.
My father, who is French Canadian, lives part of each year in Houston. On numerous occasions, he has been mistaken for Mexican (often by real Mexicans).
I’m Irish/Canadian but on several occasions I have had people think I’m Jewish.
I don’t think I’ve ever bee mistaken for anything other than American. Maybe Canadian a few times, but that’s not saying much. I suppose that’s what I get for being white (but not super-white), dark blond, and blue eyes. Nothing that screams any particualr ethnicity. Which makes sense, cause I am just a bog ol’ European Mutt. A good chunk English, a fair amount French, but beyond that, I have no clue.
I have an ex girlfriend who is ALWAYS mistaken for either full of half Hispanic/Latino. She’s 1/8 Native American, and everything else is just mixed Euro. But that 1/8 comes through a suprisingly high amount in her hair (long, dark, and straight) and offsets her skin tone enough so that it doesn’t look Native American, but does look Hispanic/Latino.
My brother must look like alot of you folks. Always being mistaken for Italian, Latino, Jewish…
He’s got dark skin and dark hair. I have light skin and light hair. Oy! He gets it from his Slovak blood.
One summer we went to a wedding in Athens, GA which (at least the part where we were) is fairly white and upscale. My bro had found a cool black fedora in a vintage shop earlier that day, so he wore it with his tux at the reception.
All the rich good-ol-boys and their stuffy wives were buzzing about quite a bit that my friend had invited an Orthodox Jew (dark-skinned fellow in a hat) to his wedding.
I got mistaken for a German by a German guy when I was in England many years ago. And when I was in the Netherlands visiting a penpal, one of her friends kept forgetting that I was American and would speak to me in Dutch, and only remember when I gave her a blank stare, but I’m not sure that counts.
Mostly people hear me speak and assume I’m from somewhere other than Boston because I pronounce the letter ‘r.’ Even when I was in high school, a kid I’d known since kindergarten asked where I was from. What I think is funny is that everyone who asks seems to have a different opinion of where I sound like I’m from - I’ve heard NYC, Canada, Detroit, somewhere in the South - and almost invariably, the person has never actually been to the place they’re guessing. Only once did I get a somewhat authoritative opinion, when a friend who was originally from here but grew up in Oregon before moving back thought I had a Pacific Northwest accent.
One time I was hanging out with a friend and a couple of Hispanic guys walked by and said something about us in Spanish. I was stupid and took French in school because I already knew some, so I had no clue what they said. But these guys got an earful from my friend, who despite her light skin, green eyes and (dyed) red hair, was born in Puerto Rico and lived there till she was 15. She never did tell me what exactly they or she said, but the look on the guys’ faces was priceless still.
As far as the race and prejudice thing, one of the best statements I’ve ever heard was a woman in the poetry slam at Lollapalooza in Raleigh in '94. She was very attractive, with long, straight dark brown hair, dark eyes, and light olive skin, and so could pass for a number of different ethnicities, especially as she was multilingual to boot. I wish I could recall the whole thing because it was just amazing to hear her do all the voices, but basically it was a dialogue between herself and someone mistaking her for Italian, Argentine, French, etc, and exclaiming over how exotic she was. In the last line she said that she was Puerto Rican, and the other person’s reaction was a disgusted, “Oh, you’re a spic.” I just wish I could do justice to how powerful it sounded coming from her. And while I don’t remember her name, I hope life has been very, very good to her, because she totally rocked.
I’m Korean, but so many Chinese people mistake me for Chinese. I don’t know why. Other Koreans tell me I look Korean, but Chinese people tell me I look Chinese. 
A few adults and fewer teens think I’m anti-social and that I have borderline personality disorder. One girl asked me if I took meds to keep my mind in check once. Ah, well. I’m not anti-social and I don’t have BPD. So, it’s all good. 
Dark eyes, dark hair, some First Nations blood, some French, Irish and Scottish.
In an Italian restaurant, I have been mistaken for Italian.
I have often been told, “Yes, I can see the French in you (?)”
When darkly tanned (yeah, I don’t burn, even in the Tropics), I could easily be First Nations.
But the very best, I was in Singapore, on ancestral grave tending day, and went with my Chinese friend and her aging mother to observe the obligations. It was, of course, blistering hot, and we were out in the full sun of the early afternoon. We had an umbrella to keep the sun off Mom. As I wasn’t really sure how to participate fully, I often took over the holding of the brelly whilst the two of them carried out the chores.
Once the process is over it is traditional to tip the groundskeeper of the cemetary that your relatives might be well tended throughout the year. While this was happening I was standing beside Mom holding the brelly and paying no mind as they conversed in Malay. After we departed we shared a laugh as she had been asking if her maid, (meaning me), was Iranian or Sri Lankan. I was quite tan as I’d been to the beach in the weeks previous. :eek:
I also travelled through south east Asia for several months with my favorite T shirt, a Detroit Tigers logo, I loved that shirt and wore it all the time. It was only after several months that someone pointed out they had assumed I was an American because of this. Talk about slow, it had never even crossed my mind.
Also while travelling I was once or twice mistaken for my husbands daughter instead of his wife. Yeah, I won’t be forgetting that anytime soon 
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But the most common thing I am mistaken for is a daughter. I am the primary caregiver to my Mother In Law. A lot of people come and go from our home and you should see their faces when I correct the assumption that I am her daughter. Seriously, you’re doctors and nurses and casemanagers, it surely can’t be all that shocking.
Hispanic…most often Puerto Rico. Even by other Indians. My father is pretty standard Indian looking but my mother is very unusual (yellow skinned, light-eyed) and looks more Iranian which is usually what she and my sister get mistaken for. I’m a mix of my parents (mom’s features, mixed golden brown skin tone) so I’ve had all sorts of questions even from my own “people.”
Other than that I’m constantly mistaken for a bloody college intern around my job. Which was flattering the first ten times but by the time the 10th director asks you if you’re here on a summer internship from college it’s a bit hard to take the bite out of your voice when you say “actually, I happen to be the new attorney.”
I’m a white American, brown hair and hazel eyes, and raised in Ohio. Strangely, I’ve never been mistaken for non-Caucasian. 
As for speaking: in England I’ve been mistaken for Canadian and Australian. In France, when speaking French I’ve been mistaken for Belgian, German, English, and Irish.
Most Europeans (nearly all of my foreign travel has been in Europe) don’t guess I’m American, but this probably has more to do with stereotypes (I speak softly, never wear baseball caps, etc.) than with my looks or accent.
People don’t realize I’m of Jewish descent until I tell them. i don’t know why, though – Iv’e got the honker.
My (Jewish) dad’s nickname back in the '80’s was Juan after Juan Epstein of Welcome Back, Kotter. During one period of his career he used to travel frequently to Baja California and his papers would get serious scrutiny at the immigration checkpoints to make sure he wasn’t a Mexican trying to sneak over the border. Of course, that’s when he had a shaggy Is-fro and droopy mustasche, which he ain’t got no more.
–Cliffy
I’m mainly German and Irish, the dark hair and eyes version of both (my sister got the strawberry blonde hair and blue-green eyes, the lucky poot). I bought myself some dark blonde hair and it’s curly, so that muddles things even more. It’s all combined to make me look like your generic white person. It’s sort of like nobody knows where I’m from, but it’s not there, wherever *there * is.
I speak fluent spanish and so people are surprised to see the gringa speak spanish. They *never * think I might be from spain because my features and accent aren’t right. I’m mistaken for a native Mexican when I speak spanish on the phone, but one look and the illusion is shattered. I’m just a very generically-white person.
In a thread on ethnic makeup I mentioned that I get mistaken for all kinds of things. Apparently, I look like everything. I’ve been taken for French, Irish, Italian, Persian, Puerto Rican, and Jewish. I am a Western European mutt with a couple tribes of Native American thrown in for good measure. The French and Irish aren’t too far back in the mix, so those are reasonable guesses, but I’ve got absolutely no Italian, Middle Eastern, Jewish, or Hispanic blood in that cocktail for at least the last four generations, which is as much of my ancestry as I know with any clarity. It’s especially funny that so many people guess at a Mediterranean origin when none of my relatives come from that area at all.
A guy came up to me and spoke to me in Irish Gaelic once. I apologized and said that I didn’t understand him. I did recognize it, but I know nothing more than a couple of greetings in that language. When I went to visit relatives in Ontario I constantly had people speaking French to me. I understand no French.
Oddly enough, I have a double in Saudi Arabia. Several years ago my girlfriend of the time took me to a small party at a high school friend’s house. I was sitting on the couch when our hostess came in and she was shocked to see me.
“Rafi?” she exclaimed.
“Nope, I have no idea who Rafi is,” I replied.
She ran upstairs and brought down a picture of this guy, who had gone to school with her as an exchange student. She was so surprised because they were really good friends in school and she definitely did not expect Rafi to be sitting on her couch. I’ll be damned if we didn’t look almost exactly alike. There were enough differences that we wouldn’t quite be taken for twins if we stood next to each other, but we looked more alike than most brothers. The biggest difference was that I’ve got blue eyes, but some contacts would easily fix that. Weird.
I had a Lubavitcher in Brooklyn Heights (the 2 train at Clark St, to be specific) throw a card about his version of Judaism at me, which means he thought I was Jewish.
In Brighton Beach, I had a lady at some international market ask me something in Russian and then refuse to believe that I didn’t understand her.
At work, I’ve had people hear me speak Spanish (not fluent by any means, but if I hit a stretch of familiar words and concepts, I can sound it) and guess Colombian, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Spanish. It depends on how I pronounce some of the sounds, but my natural pronunciation is kinda Colombian and kinda Caribbean. Don’t know where they get Spanish, though.
I’ve also heard Iranian, Czech and Slovak, and one woman who insisted I must have had Ukranian grandparents somewhere.
I was also told I looked like a gut Deutschlander by a couple German tourists. They were the closest, because my heritage is 75% German and 25% Hungarian, rounding up.
IMO, I just look like a fat white American.
I majored in Japanese in college, and a number of times when I’d tell folks what I was studying, they’d ask, “Oh, are you Japanese?” or ask if I was half-Japanese. You can see why I found this sort of baffling.
My friend from Guam told me stories about how she would get yelled at in bodegas and hispanic businesses for “ignoring” people who spoke to her in Spanish, or told she was a stuck-up bitch who was denying her culture.
My accent is a curious mix of Dutch (native tongue), Brit (five years in Brighton, UK) and Irish (currently living in Ireland). I’m darker than your average Irish person but look generically European enough to pass for any of those. It’s funny who picks up on which bit of accent.
Irish people pick up on the British bit and not notice the Dutch as much. Though less so nowadays as I seem to be picking up Irish-isms.
Brits will pick up on the Dutch part usually. Though sometimes it is read as South African instead.
American tourists will just assume I’m Irish unless I tell them otherwise.
There are exceptions to these, but that’s how it usually seems to work.
Lookswise, when I was young and after three weeks in the south of France I was once taken for Turkish (Holland has a large Turkish population). Living in Ireland I’m never able to get anywhere near that kind of tan again.
And you missed your opportunity to leer and say, “Oh, I don’t get paid any money, but the lady of the house lets me sleep with her”
Everywhere outside of Wisconsin, people think I’m Canadian. In Milwaukee, where I grew up, people don’t hear my Wisconsin accent so much, and I’ve been asked several times where I’m from, based on how I talk. People have said that I have an accent that sounds like it might be British, German, Swiss or of some indefinable Western European derivation. Someone told me that I have a “precise” way of pronoucing words that makes me sound foreign. My brother and dad got similar questions, too, though not as much. So apparently I have some sort of family accent, plus I was in speech therapy when I was younger because I couldn’t pronouce “m,” “n,” “s” or “ing” sounds. Like I said, though, it’s only the folks in Wisconsin who hear the “foreign” accent; everyone picks up on the Northern Midwest accent and guesses Canadian. I’m a bit surprised I even managed to pick up that accent, as it’s so nasal, and I have problems pronouncing nasal sounds (hence the speech therapy for “m” and “n”). When I hear my voice in recordings, it sounds very thick and congested to me.
Everyone in my family is very, very Scottish looking. Pale, freckled skin, and green or blue eyes. My mum has red hair, my sisters have strawberry blonde hair. My sisters did gymnastics for ages, so they have these short, built-like-a-truck bodies (they’re very slender, but with a square muscular build… know what I mean?). Then there’s me: olive skin tone, long dark hair, hazel eyes, with an hourglass figure. And an Italian name. People look at me and my sister together - not only do they not think we’re related, they often don’t even think we’re of the same race. People do not believe me when I say I’ve got Scottish heritage. They guess Portueguese, Italian, Spanish, Mexican, and French. Once I even had someone guess Lebanese. And yes, I get people tossing all sorts of insults at me for “ignoring” them or just continuing to jabber on in whatever language since they “know” I speak it. So frustrating!