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Thoughts on Ethnicity
By Rob | June 3, 2008
I’m going to ask you a question. Before you answer it, I want you to read the rest of this blog while thinking about it.
The question is this: What is your ethnicity?
It might seem like a simple enough question. I bet an answer popped into your head as soon as you finsihed reading it. It may be the correct answer. However, I want you to think about it for a moment.
What defines ethnicity? Is it the color of your skin? Is it where you live? Is it what language you speak? Is it where your ancestors are from? Is it something else?
It could be any of those. I guess it is really up to the individual to define the term for his or herself. I’ve been thinking about this question since I was involved in a discussion yesterday evening about this very topic.
My great-grandparents came over to the United States from Poland. They continued to speak the language when they arrived, and had children who spoke Polish. But those children also learned English which became their primary language.
As time went on, and generations were born to my family, the use of Polish diminished as did the Polish customs that the family had brought with them from their homeland. Soon, my generation was born any trace of the “old country” was all but gone. I suppose you can say that the family was “Americanized.”
So, here’s my second question: Am I Polish? Am I Polish-American? Or am I just American?
At what point does “American” become an ethnicity?
Those who come from Italy are italian. Those from France are French. Germans come from Germany. But, who are the people that come from America? Why do we put our ancestors’ ethnicities in front of “American” when we say who we are?
If I were to move to Italy and become a citizen, would I be considered American-Italian? Or Polish-Italian?
Where do we draw the line?
If I were to go back to Poland I would realize just how Polish I’m not. The same for an African-American who’s never been to Africa (not to mention that Africa’s aa continent, not a country so I’ve never understood the term African-American as it seems to apply to all blacks. Not every black person in America has roots in Africa.) How about an Asian American who’s never left the continental United States? Are they of the American ethnicity? Keep in mind, I’m talking ethnicity and not race.
It’s a good question to ask yourself, and I’m curious to hear opinions on this.
Topics: Rob, Uncategorized |
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I think a person’s ethnicity is whatever he or she chooses it to be, from whatever background he or she has. I used to call myself Asian, (embracing the 1/4th, probably just to stand out from the rest), but now I don’t worry about terms like that. I say that I’m a mutt, when asked. Any ethnicity I claim for my own is usually in terms of a family member. As in, “my grandfather was Japanese,” or “my father is from England.”
Maybe this is a cop-out, but I’ve found that it’s the easiest thing to be ethnic-neutral, if you will. Asian people don’t consider me Asian, so it makes no sense for me to claim that as my ethnicity. I don’t consider myself to be fully white, so I prefer not to use that term. It’s difficult to think that the least convoluted way to describe my ethnicity is to list everything off, but it seems to work for me.
I was actually thinking about this the other day, and I asked myself which ethnicity I would claim if I could only choose one. Perhaps surprisingly, (depending on how one looks at it), I decided that above all else, I am American. I’m willing to say that I have English, Welsh, Irish, Japanese or Swedish ancestors, (etc), but I am American. It may not be an ethnicity, but it is, above all, what I am.
But, again, (perhaps because I have such a difficult time defining my roots in relation to myself), I think that people can call themselves whatever they want to. Every group of people will view each individual differently, depending on ancestry and nationality. Who’s to say what’s right or wrong? America is the great melting pot, after all. People came here to define, (or redefine), themselves, and still have that right and ability.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:18 am
In 1972 I was fortunate to be traveling in Italy, studying art history. A person asked me “What is your nationality?” My response was “American.” But this was not what that person wanted. “What country are you from?” “The United States of America.” It was a surprise to that person that I answered the question with “American”. When are we going to be “Americans”? When are we going to stop with “hyphenated-American”? When we are citizens of the United States of America.If you are not a citizen, then you can be what ever country you name, e.g. Italian, Greek, French, etc. But if you have United States citizenship, you are American. Let’s stop with the need to name yourself as a hyphenated whatever. And I agree, Africa is a continent and not country. And I am not North American-American. Could we start a movement to accomplish this?
June 7th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
When I was a kid my dad used to tell me “when people ask you what nationality you are, you say AMERICAN”. It always struck me as a typical thing for my right wing, Fox watching, Bush voting dad would say. But he’s right. I look at my son, and he is so far removed from Ellis Island and the days when your heritage mattered– he’s an Italian-German-Irish-Welsh-Syrian-Lebanese-French American.
I think we can officially draw the line now.