Question about heritage/ethnicity

[Renee750il]

Calling someone with Spaniard-type features "Mexican" at least around here will get you . . . well, you won't be regarded benignly. There's a huge schism between the "Hispanic/Latino" and the "mestizos."

Truthfully, I am in awe, seeing the people here who look so much like the portrayals of the Aztec and Mayan people in the old paintings. I think they are incredibly beautiful.

[Romy]

Originally Posted by Renee750il

Calling someone with Spaniard-type features "Mexican" at least around here will get you . . . well, you won't be regarded benignly. There's a huge schism between the "Hispanic/Latino" and the "mestizos."

Truthfully, I am in awe, seeing the people here who look so much like the portrayals of the Aztec and Mayan people in the old paintings. I think they are incredibly beautiful.

Oh definitely. When the old inlaws went on a cross country trip to New York they went for weeks without seeing any Hispanic people. Finally they saw some, ran up and were so excited and said, "It's so good to see other Mexicans!"

The other people were horrified and immediately corrected them. They were Costa Rican.

[Miakoda]

I'm Cherokee, Danish, and Scottish , with a teeny weenstie bit of German splashed into the Cherokee part. I just recently learned that a relative was Choctaw, but she was shunned by her tribe when she married my great uncle, and she died at 17 after delivering her first baby. So not much is known about her. While I could claim Native American on paper, because the government has me labeled as a certain qualifying percentage, I do not nor will I ever.

My hubby is from coonass Cajun land, but his dad's family carries a last name of Spanish origin (what would be labeled as Hispanic). His mom has lots of German and Idunnowhatelse behind her.

Honestly, I'd like to see all the race and ethnicity questions disappear from forms. It's annoying, and it serves to keep us (a general "us") in a divided frame of mind. All I do these days is answer whether I'm Hispanic/Latino or Not Hispanic/Latino or whether I'm African American or Not African American.

I have a hard time believing that race/ethnicity doesn't come into play in job and school aspects, seeing as how there are several questions regarding such information.

Learn people by their names and job/school qualifications. Who cares if they're black, white, brown, purple, polka-dotted or Hispanic, Latino, Native American or Higglytown Hero.

I'm so happy my parents referred people to me by their names and not by their race or ethnicity. I saw my friends as Ashley, Tosha, Lindsey, Ylla, Arti, Cornelius, Ryan, Scott, etc. it never occurred to me that "Oh! Mr. Percy Sledge is black!" (they lived behind us when I was young) or "Wow! Ylla is Spanish!" or "That's Arti. She's from India.". We were friends, and it never really occurred to me that I was supposed to think of them differently because we were different colors or because they and their parents spoke different languages.

While I somewhat understand the need for teaching that we're all different, yet the same, I think it's gone so far as to actually becoming a problem in itself.

I don't tell my boys that their cousin is darker because he's biracial and that's wonderfully ok. I tell them their cousin's name is Dillan.

My boys don't "see" skin color. They'll approach anyone and everyone and ask them their names before jabbering their ears off.

[Pops2]

Originally Posted by Romy

When you really sit down and think about it, the "brown" variety of Mexicans are native American. A lot of them just don't know what tribe. Some do. My kid's dad was Pasqua Yaqui, some are Mayan and they're aware of it, huichol, etc.

And plenty don't know. But they sure aren't of 100% Spanish descent either.

interesting side note, the name mexican (like apache) came from a neighbor (tlasclans I think) and it means enemy.

[sillysally]

Originally Posted by Fran101

Everyone always thinks I'm Mexican too maybe that's like the go to random race you're assigned if people don't know.

I always get mexican or morrocan.
Copper skin, dark hair, brown eyes. People tend to just guess.

Honestly, when I saw your pic for the first time I thought you were Indian (Asian).

[Pops2]

Originally Posted by sillysally

Honestly, when I saw your pic for the first time I thought you were Indian (Asian).

i just thought she was beautiful, ethnicity didn't even occur to me.

[Southpaw]

My sister looks like she could be Egyptian or from some other Middle Eastern country, but she is just as "white" as I am lol (which is pretty darn white haha), our ancestry is all European. But people make all sorts of weird guesses about her. Mexican, Egyptian, Iranian... it's funny.

I get people that think I'm Irish - fair skin, freckles, red hair. IF there is Irish in me, it's only a tiny amount.

So I'm basically beyond the point of trying to guess someone's ethnicity or heritage or what have you just by looking at them.

[Greenmagick]

When I was younger, in the summer especially, I used to get asked my ethnicity all the time...people usually guessed Native American, hispanic, or Indian....but there were a whole host of others too. Oh, Italian was common as well. I always got kind of funny looks when I replied "Mostly German and some French" though I do have a lot of other things as well...those are the main ones

[CharlieDog]

DH gets Arabic/Iranian sometimes, but he also gets Puerto Rican/Hispanic as well.

He's white/black though That doesn't get guessed nearly as often, surprisingly.

Most people guess I'm of German descent, but I actually don't have any German ancestors. Most of my dads family is from Britain, and my mothers family is Blackfoot Dutch and Irish/Scottish.