Whould you consider me white?

Question

Hi, i come from immigrant parents from a very tiny village in Poland. I recently found out that i'm about 25-50 percent gypsy(romani) i know im atleast 25 percent gypsy(from my grandma om my mothers side who is 50% gyspy) but i might actually be 50 percent because my grandfather(also on my moms side) is most likely half gypsy too(or at least part) because he was very tan but his mom was extremely light skin. He never knew his father but there were rumours in the village that his mom slept with a gypsy and got pregnant with him. So basically my question is do you consider me white or ethnic. I always thought i was full polish/white until i was talking with my mom a few days ago and she told me this. Right now im very confused and don't know what/who i am. I really what to hear other peoples opinion on this. thanks(sorry for the long post)

Answer 1

Gypsies aren't white, they are of Indian (Asian) descent, so you are mixed white and Indian/Gypsy.

Answer 2

Hey, I'm Polish too!  I would concider you white because you are 75% Polish.

Answer 3

I mean no disrespect by my answer here but does it really matter .to many people worry about wether they are a certain race.Just remember this God doesnt care what race you are and I don't care what race someone is.We are all brothers and sisters in gods eyes and we should except that and stop worrying about small things like what race we are.Also consider this ,we are all human beings with many different cultures and races in the pot with know one being better than anyone else.

I am sorry for the rant and remeber just love yourself and everyone around you and you will be fine.

Answer 4

The major racial groups are Caucasian, African and Asian.  It sounds like you fall into the Caucasian group, which is what is usually thought of as "white"

Answer 5

Honey I really don´t understand your concerning about who you are. Your asking this question shows me that you are a sort of racist that suddendly found some non pure blood (the gypsy blood) on her heritage.

That is why you are worried about not to be considered white.

Talking about racial clasifications is a hard task to do since almost all of us have mixtures, even if you believe  you are white, if you begin looking backwards in your ancester´s background you may find mixtures.

You could be white or "something else" depending of different criteria, if you asked to the guys who wrore the arianism theories of the n***s, you would be considered "someting else" since the n***s considered the slavians, the etnhicity of most eastern europeans like polish an inferior race.

So, do you realize?, You are polish and you considered yourself as a white person, but even whites have their clasification, depending of the insanities ones that in certain moment talk about racial clasifications.

Thus, you have to get rid of such prejudgements, I know white folks that say they have indian blood and they feel proud of it, but when observing at how they look I can not find the indian heritage, they just look like average white folks...

The message is be what ever you want to be, be happy and get rid of such prejudgments.

Answer 6

Every now and then we get a question about if certain types of people are white.  Actually, to really get down to it, nobody is.  If they were they would look like Casper.

What are called white or caucasian people come in various shades and pigmentations.

Don't be bothered by it. When you are filling out a form and it asked for your race, White, Black or Hispanic, go ahead and put white.  Actually Hispanic in many cases are white. Spanish are considered white. Many Hispanics have a mixture of American Indian or what is now called Native American.  I believe that is why they put them in a separate category.  When I was growing up we never heard of someone being called "brown."  I had a American Indian great great grandmother and I was born with red hair, blue eyes and I have a skin cancer type pigmentation.  

Schools push for a distinction so they can get additional federal funds.  Don't let them pressure you.  Racial identity is becoming too political.

Answer 7

I believe that everyone is ethnic. why? Because first of all there is no such place as "White" where white people come from. There is no country called "Causian" where Caucasians" come from.  You are ethnic. My family has African, Flemish, Chactow indian ancestry.  Enjoy your ethnicity!  We all come from Adam and Eve.

Answer 8

I would consider you white.  I don't think that the 25% gypsy would change a thing in your racial makeup.

Answer 9

There is no such thing as "white or ethnic".  "White" is a form of ethnicity.  You seem to believe that "gypsies" are not white, which is not correct.  If the rumor is that mom slept with a "gypsy", it could be just a way of saying that she got pregnant outside of marriage, and no one knows who the father was. It might be hard to define what country a gypsy comes from, but that doesn't make them "non white".  It is just a different COUNTRY (maybe), not a different race.

When you have various backgrounds from different countries (German, Polish, Swiss, fill in the blank), you can only determine a person's place of birth, to say what they were, AND it involves being able to identify many generations. For example.. you might think one ancestor is Russian.. until you find out that only one parent was from Russia and the other one actually was from Denmark.

What that means is that you cannot determine any fixed "percent" this or that, because it is ALWAYS subject to new information.  You certainly are still the same race, unless an ancestor was of a different RACE, not different place of birth. A person can be born in England and be "English" but ancestry from Africa would be the race.

And (finally) don't confuse yourself on nationality, either, which is a political thing.  If your parents came from Poland, but you were born in the US.. that makes you a US citizen, with Polish HERITAGE.  

Trying to figure percentages/ fractions, so forth can be a huge waste of time.. you cannot always come up with a solid "label" for anyone.

Answer 10

Who you are has nothing to do with your racial/ethnic heritage.  First, figure out why it seems important to you to be white.  I've known people who looked black, but had a white parent, so considered themselves white, regardless of what others thought. Explore your beliefs, values and goals.  That will tell you more about who you are than genetic history.  If all else fails, pursue genetic testing.  Though it may produce more questions than answers.

Answer 11

You are Polish, you are white, and you are of Romani descent. You can be more than one thing, we are all a mix.

Be proud of your ancestors. Let's hope in the future our descendents can be proud of us.