Since When Is “White” an Ethnicity?
July 9, 2006
Recently, a friend was telling me about a wedding he attended where the groom was Persian and the bride was “white.” It struck me as odd that he used an ethnicity to describe one half of the couple and a color to talk about the other. When I asked him more about the bride, he said, “Oh, yeah, she’s from England.”
I couldn’t understand how anyone could rob another person of a critical part of their identity by describing them simply by their skin color. To add insult to injury, the person who was described as “Persian” was just as fair skinned as his bride. I was dumbfounded.
A few days later, I was filling out a government form and one of the questions asked me to check a box to describe myself. My choices:
Caucasian
Hispanic
Black
Native American
Pacific Islander
Other
Did they want to know where I was from? Did they want to know where my parents were from? Did they want to know what color I was? Did they want to know what culture I grew up in?
At that moment, I realized the problem was not with my friend or any one individual, this race vs. ethnicity vs. nationality conflict was endemic to American society.
I still don’t know what the answer is, or the “right” way to describe someone, but I do know that limiting that description to someone’s skin color feels wrong.
Technorati Tags: Culture, Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Racism, Discrimination
Comments»
Try being Jewish. Most Jews see it as our ethnicity and not just religion. On some of the census materials it expressly says we can’t use that as our ethnicity.
And please — Jews weren’t considered “white” until the the mid to late 20th century! No, I’m not kidding — check out this book.
Why “caucasion” instead of European? I can’t believe that it says “Black” that tells you nothing. That could be African, Carribean, or any number of regions of the world.
I know!! I can’t even imagine throwing a religion that is considered an ethnicity into the mix. Oy vey!
Your point about race - also well taken! That is exactly the lack of consistency I’m talking about. It’s so confusing, not to mention disrespectful.
And to be very clear (again, for people who don’t know me), I’m not making any sort of “PC” argument here. I just think we should pick a way to describe people and be consistent.
Well, I just realized that I don’t really have a choice in that selection! Would it be “other” ?! I’m definitely NOT a “Pacific Islander”, even though Japan is in the Pacific and it IS an island, I don’t think that’s what it’s suppose to mean… SO confusing!
I’m with you on this Laura, and especially Carly on the “Black” category. Here in Miami, we have Carribean blacks that range from so many heritage, we always have to point out “where” they’re from.
Also, even though Bruce would fall under the “Hispanic” category, there are SO many different types of hispanics, it would be wrong AND impossible to categorize them all-in-one! Even though they all speak Spanish, their culture, mannerism, values are all so different. Ah, this makes me very upset…
[…] In July Laura asked, “Since when is White an Ethnicity?” I think Laura was tapping into something uglier than she realized. Now when you go and read her story, don’t believe that I think the census bureau is racist or that Laura was claiming that. But, she really was beginning the conversation of growing resurging problem in our society — acceptable bigotry and racism. […]