My Ethnicity...........?

Question

Well,i don't intend to sound racist,but,this question has been bothering for a while.

My father was ''half'' english(from his mother) and german(from his father),his father's grandmother was dutch and his mother's father was irish,and about my mother,she was born in Brazil but her father was a part italian from palermo and portuguese....

My hair is dark brown almost black and smooth...my eyes are medium brown,i'm about 1.87 height....i really would appreciate some help....but thanks anyway...

Answer 1

Well...are you looking for you ethnicity or your so-called "race"? I think people have different answers for what defines ethnicity. I personally usually associate "ethnicity" with my nationality, which is Caribbean- American. My 'ethnic' background to me comes from the foods I ate growing up, the music I listened to, the traditional dancing, etc, which was primarily from the Caribbean since my immediate family is from the islands. Still, I'm American because I was born and raised in the States and I consider myself more 'American' than 'West Indian'.

I don't really like the term "race" (because it's a social construct, blah blah blah,) but because we as people haven't been able to move beyond seeing "race" yet, it's sometimes easier and more politically correct to use the term. So, from your parents you have English, German, Dutch, Irish, Italian and Portuguese heritage. You could just say that you are 'white' of various European heritages (multi-ethnic maybe?), but at the same time I have a few Italian friends who don't consider themselves, along with other Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Greek ("Mediterranean" people) 'white'. I guess you have to figure out whether you consider your Italian and Portuguese heritage as 'white' in the same sense that you consider Dutch and German people 'white'.

When people ask me "what are you?" or "what ethnicity are you?" I usually say West-Indian American or Caribbean-American. Usually what they're after (but afraid to ask straight out for fear or being un-politically correct) is what 'race' am I. If they press then I'll say what 'race' my less immediate family members (my "ancestors") were: "Black" from Angola, Sierra Leone, "White" from Wales, Sweden, England, Scotland & Argentina, and "Native" from the Kalinago & supposedly the Cherokee.

That's my two cents. Sorry if it's a little confusing :/

PS - If your mom was born in Brazil, you could possibly throw "Brazilian" into your heritage also, although it might be pushing it a little if lets say she was the only one of her family born there and she was raised eating foods specifically from Italy and Portugal, speaking only Italian, etc. Was her mother Brazilian? Besides, most Brazilians are mixed-up anyway and have various degrees of European and African heritage anyway, right?

Bottom line is you're the one who has to decide how you're going to identify and no one else has the right to tell you otherwise.