# What is your race? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666 "2011-04-08T15:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/41 "2011-04-09T04:29:19Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > Hmmmmm, the SDMB population is not all that racially diverse. Surprising. I wonder why. Well, so far, we’re actually not all that different from the demographics of the United States. [Demographics of the United States - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States) Compared to the U.S. overall, whites and Asians (lumping East Asians and Indians) are slightly overrepresented here and blacks and Hispanics slightly underrepresented. ---
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/42 "2011-04-09T04:44:24Z")
But here we aren’t in the U.S. We are in the world, aren’t we? ---
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/43 "2011-04-09T04:46:54Z")
> [@missred](#): > > I think that would make us white. 😛 > > Other than the g-g-g-gandmother who was Cherokee, I’m an Irish-German-Polish mutt. Like **Brynda** , the lightest shade of makeup and sunscreen just shy of protecting from nuclear holocost suit my skin shade. A person has 2 parent, 4 great parents 8 g-g … etc. A wonder why every single American has only 1 Cherokee ancestor, and forget that they inherit Amerindian blood from **SEVERAL** branches of theirs family tree. Besides, why it is always Cherokee? Not a single Cree, Apache, Mohawk there? ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/44 "2011-04-09T04:52:52Z")
People say I look like Norwegian black metal musician/convicted killer [Varg Vikernes](http://www.google.com/images?q=Varg+Vikernes&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1920&bih=977), so I’m pretty sure I’m white. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/45 "2011-04-09T04:55:06Z")
Now, **VarlosZ** , I’ve always thought that the concept of races is incredibly ludicrous, and the fixation on it definitely a staple of racist societies, but I must say your own race divisions are verging on the downright lunatic. Just one example: _Arab (???)_ Even after giving i a long hard thought and a meaningful glance, I just cant make out why you thought you had to put three question marks after Arab…(so I went for another kind of marks). ---
**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/46 "2011-04-09T05:19:14Z")
I chose “mixed race/other” but quite frankly if you saw me walking down the street you’d see a pale, doughy guy with dark hair. WASP-ish if not wasp-like. I am approximately 3/8ths Cherokee as one great-grandparent was full-blooded Cherokee and her husband was 50/50 Cherokee/French from Arkansas. These were my mom’s maternal grandparents. Her mom looked indian, and you could tell mom was part Indian due to her cheekbones and coloration. I, rather unfortunately, inherited my father’s mostly Irish complexion. My hair isn’t red, but there are some reddish highlights. If you ignore percentages (hard to verify in most cases) I’m Scottish, French, English, Dutch. Irish and Cherokee. > [@pinguin](#): > > A person has 2 parent, 4 great parents 8 g-g … etc. > > A wonder why every single American has only 1 Cherokee ancestor, and forget that they inherit Amerindian blood from **SEVERAL** branches of theirs family tree. > > Besides, why it is always Cherokee? Not a single Cree, Apache, Mohawk there? In my family we can identify which ancestors (plural) were Cherokee via family history, though it was, until almost the '90s, a deep, dark family secret. I suspect that many families just pick Cherokee because that’s the only tribe they know anything about, and their families were better at keeping such things secret. After all, not so long ago American Indians were considered "inferior"and weren’t always extended the same courtesies as “Natural-Born 'Mericans”. It really hasn’t been all that long since the days when being “non-white” meant you were a second-class citizen who “shouldn’t get uppity if he knows what’s good for him.” I’m not surprised that Whites are over-represented here, but I am surprised to see so few others. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/47 "2011-04-09T05:21:45Z")
> [@pinguin](#): > > A person has 2 parent, 4 great parents 8 g-g … etc. > > A wonder why every single American has only 1 Cherokee ancestor, and forget that they inherit Amerindian blood from **SEVERAL** branches of theirs family tree. > > Besides, why it is always Cherokee? Not a single Cree, Apache, Mohawk there? Why do Peruvians generalize so much? Not one of them seems to not do that. :rolleyes: I have some quite distant Mnicoujou ancestry, as it happens, on my mother’s side and some closer, but still distant Choctaw on my father’s side. But I’m white. Oh so very white. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/48 "2011-04-09T05:29:17Z")
The Space Race. I’m a Cold War kind of guy. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/49 "2011-04-09T05:32:00Z")
Also why do people IMHO seem to over represent a group that is a relatively small part of their make up (and likely a non-existent part of their upbringing)? Very odd. Whilst you may be 1/8th Cherokeee I’m guessing that it is relatively meaningless to how you have been raised and it demeans the 7/8ths who are probably boring Europeans. Just an observation. ---
**Author:** ![pinguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac8455/32.png) [@pinguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinguin)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/50 "2011-04-09T05:43:09Z")
> [@Gleena](#): > > Why do Peruvians generalize so much? Not one of them seems to not do that. :rolleyes: > > I have some quite distant Mnicoujou ancestry, as it happens, on my mother’s side and some closer, but still distant Choctaw on my father’s side. > > But I’m white. Oh so very white. Who is the Peruvian? I doubt you are white. There aren’t whites among humans, actually. Have you ever seen a person who is actually white like a paper? I haven’t. In any case, saying “whites” is mixing pears with apples. What can have in common a Swedish with an Albanian? or a Sicilian with a Russian? I wonder. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/51 "2011-04-09T06:00:01Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Even after giving i a long hard thought and a meaningful glance, I just cant make out why you thought you had to put three question marks after Arab…(so I went for another kind of marks). Because I don’t recall ever seeing that as an option on any such poll, don’t know with whom people of Arab descent are typically lumped in, etc. Like I said, the poll is obviously flawed. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/52 "2011-04-09T06:23:59Z")
I’m an American. If you are asking about skin color, I get sunburned easily. So, I didnt’ vote. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/53 "2011-04-09T06:30:09Z")
I agree with Donald Glover’s (of Community fame) opinion that race has nothing to do with who you are or who your ancestor’s are. It’s all about how people view you. As he put it so eloquently, “If you saw Barack Obama stealing your car stereo, you wouldn’t yell out ‘Hey, that mixed guy is stealing my stereo!’” ---
**Author:** ![A.Gwilliam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@A.Gwilliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Gwilliam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/54 "2011-04-09T09:52:23Z")
> [@A.Gwilliam](#): > > White British. > > Also English! 🙂 Since we’re all fine-tuning our racial ancestry, I’ll add that I’m also a small part Welsh, a slightly larger part Scots, and 1/8 Irish. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/55 "2011-04-09T10:37:58Z")
I am so anglosaxon/western european pasty white I probably glow in the dark. Historically I am welsh, manx, scots, english, german, swiss, alsatian and a very tiny miniscule amount of french. I will amend this by saying that I understand that Roman auxilliary troops from various non european regions were stationed in and retired in european communities as well as merchant personnel moving around did leaven europe with non european genetics. There may be levantine, north african or subsaharan genetics mixed in, but the admixture is either so long ago or too small to make much difference. I consider myself human, not caucasion. Racial divisions are meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/56 "2011-04-09T11:54:20Z")
There aren’t any 100% Maori anywhere in the world anymore, so though I am technically less than half Maori (3/8 in fact) that still puts me at a comparatively high percentage of Maori blood than a lot of others who identify as Maori. But I think I’d have to say I’m mixed European/Maori with the Europe part being English. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/57 "2011-04-09T16:15:42Z")
> [@pinguin](#): > > A person has 2 parent, 4 great parents 8 g-g … etc. > > A wonder why every single American has only 1 Cherokee ancestor, and forget that they inherit Amerindian blood from **SEVERAL** branches of theirs family tree. > > Besides, why it is always Cherokee? Not a single Cree, Apache, Mohawk there? One Cherokee ancestor is all that has been confirmed during genealogical research. Although she was listed on the census as Cherokee, there may or may not have been and admixture there, as happend many times among different tribes living in the same area or after Europeans began settling. Why Cherokee? Most of us with AmerIndian ancestry (especially in minute portions like me) have ancestors who began their lives in the US in the southeast, where it was one of the larger tribes. Given the size of families in that time and westward migration, the Cherokees spread their DNA around a bit more. In addition, some smaller tribes were obliterated and/or absorbed into other tribes and the documentation isn’t as good, so identifying an ancestor as belonging to one of them is more difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/58 "2011-04-09T16:16:57Z")
I don’t mean to be overly pedantic, but “Hispanic” isn’t a race. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/59 "2011-04-09T16:33:10Z")
There is only one race: human. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666/60 "2011-04-09T16:35:43Z")
29, white, American, male. All I can say for certain is that I have Italian ancestors, with my maternal grandfather being an immigrant, though I supposedly have Cherokee, German, and Irish ancestry as well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-race/577666.md?page=4)