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Living here in America, people tend to refer to non-white people as their specific nationalities and races, but then they mush all of us Caucasian people into one huge vague mass. Does it bug anyone else that it seems like white people aren't supposed to identify themselves as being Hungarian or Welsh or whatever? We're supposed to call someone a Chinese-American (for instance) even if that person has been here for 4 generations, only speaks English, and acts more American than most people. For white people though, most people say only American. Even without naming a country, we could still refer to sections of Europe by saying Mediterranean, Scandinavian etc.

This isn't just in conversation; on censuses it's the same. The end result is that it sounds like us white people have a blank heritage and other people get credit for their genes and family-traditions. What do you guys think? Does the word "white" cover our history like liquid paper?

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Get me off this Disciplinary Committee so I can play any FF except for FF8!!!

White people are just white people it seems to me yes. But Does that really matter? What we identify ourselves as should in our PC word have no effect on our sociatal positions anyhow i thought. Although this is a lie the fact remains that other colored skin people(oddly worded) Still have to refer to themselves as African/asian/native as opposed to just american. It all goes back to white ethnocentrism. The fact is whites for many years owned these gorups, arguably they still do. However since we see ourselves as the almighty supremists we feel the pthe rcolored people need to identify themselves as a sub class of american/british/ect.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

It's because white people for centuries have been the most numerous in most areas. They aren't asked to identify which nationality, like Welsh, German, etc, because they, relunctant as i am to say it, are all still the same colored skin. But there may be a changing of the guard in a the next decade. Hispanics have surpassed african-americans as the leading minority in the US. And statisticians say that within 10 years, they'll surpass caucasians as the leading race in America.
But nothing like this really matters to me. The last thing I judge someone on is the color of their skin.

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"When I turn the page
The corner bends into the perfect dog ear
As if the words knew I'd need them again
But at the time, I didn't see it."

~"This Ain't a Surfin' Movie" - Minus the Bear

The various European demoninations are so mixed now with most white people being 30% this, 20% that and so on. I'm sure once the current minorities blend into the mix they'll be considered plain old Americans, and our view of Americans will have changed as such. It's a very long process as you can see by African-Americans still being called African-Americans even though for most of them their families have been in the US for many generations. This sort of ethnic identification will occur until everyone in America looks the same (generally speaking) which will take many hundreds of years should this country last that long (assuming that conditions will remain as we have seen throughout the history of this country).

This post has been edited by i90east on 27th March 2004 16:26

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

if youre a legal citizen, dont hyphenate what you are. youre not irish-american, african-american, indian-american or any of that, youre american. period.

id rather be called white that irish-german-english-spanish-american anyway. i dont feel a need for people to know what i am, nobody cares. and id MUCH rather be called white that "caucasian", which is just ridiculous. black, white, asian, latino, theyre only offensive if you make them offensive. PC is ridiculous.


oh and sabin, my sincerest compliments on your newest cd.

This post has been edited by therandyrhoads on 27th March 2004 20:15

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You watch the world exploding every single night
Dancing in the sun, a newborn in the light
Say goodbye to gravity and say goodbye to death
Hello to eternity and live for every breath

Your time will come...

Well... I think that referring to someone as "white" is just a way of helping to classify people... At the same token, there are thousands of different ethnic groups within Africa but we don't separate out Swahili from Ethiopians. At the same time, Native American is a pretty large umbrella over the hundreds of tribes that were once prevalent, but we still put the Cherokee in the same basket as the Arapaho. It's pretty much a matter of convenience for terms of filling out applications and such. People with certain heritages still maintain many family and cultural traditions, and I would say the white ones are still very prevalent: Fat Tuesday, St. Patricks Day, etc. I certainly don't like being lumped into a large group with other people, but for the sake of convenience it is necessary. I would hope that the person reading the application would take more into consideration than the box I checked for race.

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"Hit hard, hit first, hit often."

--Adm. William "Bull" Halsey, USN

I kinda see what your saying Ejoty, and a few years ago I would have agreed with you. I used to look at myself as an Irish American, because of my family heritage. Recently, however, I've realized that I am better classified as a New Englander, I heritage I am proud of, and which is irrespective of race.

I'm so blended that you couldn't call me anything but white. It doesn't bother me. If I had to find the largest percentages, it'd be Irish and German, but again, it's very difficult to tell.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

No way. I'm not "White". If I'm any color I'm "Pink". I'm not a freakin' albino. But that aside, I don't like the way whites are all clumped together. I don't want to be associated with Irishman or Frenchman or Norwegians, not because I dislike them, but because it's not who I am. I'm of German-Italian heritage and I choose to be classified as such. I have just as much a common ancestory with a "white" Hungarian or Czech as I do with a Chinese person. That is to say, NONE. I am very proud of my heritage and I think it should not be considered as some great big "White" heritage and/or culture.

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Blood & Fire

I don't mind how I'm called white, I am white. And I call black people black because at first glance I have no idea where they come from.

I hate being called Caucasian though. I never heard of the phrase before I came to this site, and it's offensive to me. It's like calling everyone who is black non-white. I'm not Cauc-asian. I'm white. Just my theory

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"Luck is my middle name. Mind you, my first name is Bad." - Rincewind

You can be as self-assertive as you like, just so long as you do what you’re told.” - Granny Weatherwax

"When Mr. Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend" - Sam Vimes to Detritus

Looking at it isnt skin color merely an evolutionary side effect of Where Your history orignated? Like black people came about due to the harsh sun and heat, that over the years turned them A dark brown. Whites are fair skinned due to the colder climates of europe. It seems as though the Origins of our people have turned into something different. we now classify crimes with black people, and being arrogant and cruel with whites. Cant we all just Knock it off? IF you can't be nice at least have the courtasy to ignore others, rather than start wars and murderous cults.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

Is there anyone who aint 'white' who popped in here to say something? Despite the walking on eggs scenario this is painting, I'm curious to see the non-white take on this.

For m'self, I never muched cared about the whole 'white out' situation america (or perhaps a large part of the world) is in. I kinda agree it has to do with the caucasian dominance that has lasted through most of our nation's history, or the world for that matter. After all, there was a time when Britain controlled a quarter of the world right? And that was just one european country. Pretty much an entire continent belonged to Spain, so that's all kinda reverbed back to our current racial situations I figure.

What it all boils down to is that I think as a result, I don't much care about my racial title. Kinda subconscious self confidence that I'm the race that is in control, so any profiling is essentially vaporous. I don't care the title I'm given since none of them take away from that subconscious sense of racial security. Even the term 'cracker' is a reference to an act of domination, not submittion.

So that's my take on it.

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Quote (Iggy @ 29th March 2004 10:29)

I don't mind how I'm called white, I am white. And I call black people black because at first glance I have no idea where they come from.

Those are my exact same thoughts. Although I'm not the color "white", I'm sure you'll be hard-pressed to find Africans who are completely "black". And so, for the sake of generalization, I call white people (including myself) white, and black people black. Besides, much as Nealio said, if you want to sort through my ancestry of German/Irish/English/Russian/Scottish/French/Polish, then go ahead, no loss on my time.

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Quote (Narratorway @ 29th March 2004 12:26)

Is there anyone who aint 'white' who popped in here to say something? Despite the walking on eggs scenario this is painting, I'm curious to see the non-white take on this.

a quick "non-white" take: honestly, i think people who complain about the word "white" and then things like "african-american," etc. are exaggerating (or perhaps simply being blind to) the situation to try to victimise themselves in the face of political corectness. i think it's pretty ignorant to say that all minorities are referred to by their "specific nationalities and races," and white people are just "caucasian." come on, i know you don't *really* believe that. blacks are "african-american." how specific is "african?" for the most part, asians simply "asian-american." people from south america, the carribean, and central american are ALL "latin(o)" (or "hispanic/white" or "hispanic/non-white") there's really no specificity until that person becomes "an esteemed (country)-american [author/scientist/other celebrity]," in which cases they are afforded specificity.

really, i don't think there is any big pc-conspiracy against whites here. in fact, my black friends have a joke. they say the only thing african about them is their skin colour (they much prefer "black" to "african-american"). i don't see anything wrong with caucasians being lumped into "white" when there is apparently no distinction between cuban and chilean, korean and vietnamese, and black american and ethiopian. not that i see anything wrong with not making those distinctions, either. like gerad says, it's a necessary convenience (would you rather fill out one choice out of 6 on your forms or search through a list of 500 countries and check all that you think you might have some ancestry from?). generally, when you get to know someone even just a little, you'll not only be able to make those distinctions for them personally, but you also won't even care. pc is a nasty tool that a lot of people use to try to make their race seem like victim of the system -- as though we're all inherently different anyway. be proud of being white. other people are proud enough of being asian, black, or latin.

Down with the Man! Up with Brown power! *raises fist* >.< \m/

*ahem* Yeahhhh, anyway...

While I'm half Mexican and half white (more specifically, German-Czech-<some other race here>), I don't really care how I'm classified. White, Latino, neither, both, it's all the same to me. Texan's probably a better classification, like Iain said. ^^;

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~Status Report~

* Completed... Dragon's Head
* Completed... Soldiers of the Empire: Disciples (release pending)
* In Progress/Undecided... Of Love and Betrayal
* Planning/Assembly... Where it all Began

Well, I try not to think in terms of specific groups. I just say we're all people. I try to explain my own origins, and people want to put me in one category and disregard the others. I'm white. I'm brown. I'm yellow. All my backgrounds listed: Mexican, English, German, Apache-Mescalero, Filipino, Flemish. I think one word sums me up pretty well; mestizo. Mestizo means being of Indian and European decent.

I'm all sorts of different things. But people see what I look like, and I'm automatically, Mexican (or sometimes, Indian, or even more rare, Pacific Islander). All my life I've tried to look at people for who they are, not their ethnic backgrounds.

I've had friends (and myself to a certain extent) who've been told they act too 'white'. What the hell is acting white anyways?

Another thing is you can't tell where a person is from just from skin colour. I've had people talk to me slowly or pretend that I'm not there because they didn't think I understood English. On the other hand, I get looked down upon for not speaking fluent Spanish (proficient yes, fluent no). My 'own people' feel that it's shameful that I'm not fluent in it. I think it's pretty damn amazing that five previous generations of my family have been speaking it (fluently) for this long (since many native languages die out by the third generation of Americans).

Many people can't comprehend that my (direct) family is NOT from Mexico. "What part of Mexico are you from?". I'm not from Mexico. "Well, what part are your parents from?" They're not from Mexico; my dad was born in Washington on the Yakima indian reservation and my mom was born in the state of New Mexico. "What about the rest of your family?" Any family that I may have in Mexico are very distantly related, and I don't know where they are. I'm a sixth generation American (previous to that, Texas/Colorado/New Mexico WAS part of Mexico).

My point: society in general puts too much emphasis on 'the race card'. treat me just like you would treat any other person. i don't want special admission practices, special job opportunies, etc. i'd hope my personality, likes, dislikes, are more important to y'all than what my ethnic background is.

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kame, tortue, tortuga, schildkröte, tartaruga, turtle

"Arthur Dent?"
"Yes."
"Arthur Philip Dent?"
"Yes."
"You're a total knee biter."

America is forced to be politicaly correct yet we forget about a large group of people and just call them "white". When anyone asks me what I am though I don't say American (not that I am not proud of America and glad to be a citizen) but "American" can mean anything! We have Latin-Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and "whitey". So when asked what I am I reply with my herritage (scottish and itallian) which is much more descriptive than saying "I am from America." Because when you think about it America is where everbody comes together.

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There is a time and a place for everything, and I am niether

Well I believe this is a horrible backlash from white people running the show for so many years. In some ways we still do, it's unfortunate. I think what he is trying to say is that white people in general don't have a month of pride in themselves, we can't unite without being a seemingly racist group, we cannot participate in any government system unless we want to get called "the man." it is all because the idea of white pride has been shattered my Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, and a percentage (a rich elite few) of slave owners so many years ago. The scars are deep because ancestors encouraged a catylist of racism to this day. Don't trust a (insert the following: White, Black, Asain, American Indian, Latino, Pacific Islander)

I, like many others, do not judge others by thier skin. I judge them by thier actions and thier beliefs. This has never let me down as I have earned friends that are of all races, sexual orentations and of both sexes.

Oh by the way, St. Patrick's day is actually a Saint's day making it a Catholic observation with a sidecart holiday for Irishmen only.

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At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

While I don't mind be called white, most people consider me Irish. Both my mothers parents and my fathers parents were born and rasied in Ireland and the only thing stopping me from being 100% Irish is that I was born in Latham NY. At least in my town people are identified by their race. Thats probably because we are mostly Irish and Italian, with maybe 10 African American Familys. Personally I would prefer it if white people were identified with their correct nationality rather then white or caucasian.

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<Nealio> Seymour sounds like evil Winnie the Pooh

I appreciate your opinons on this one, guys.

It doesn't bug me one bit if a German person (for example) living in the US doesn't feel German because he/she has had no contact with Germany or its culture, but I am glad when someone, like The Raging Newbie, identifies with his heritage. To respond to gozaru, I do feel that the term "white" takes away specificity because, and here's a trick, people usually don't say it but instead imply it. Since I'm white, people just say I'm American, so it does bug me that someone else will be something-else-hyphen American. Hence the other person does get more specificity than me.

The way I see it, in the past women had virtually no power, so men told them they were fairer and yadda yadda as a consolation prize. Now white males and female still have most of the wealth here in the US so we give other people the consolation prize of specificity. In this process though, we efface our heritage.

I say we should have a European Pride Month. I'll cook pirogis on Slav week and wear a Kilt on British Isles week.

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Get me off this Disciplinary Committee so I can play any FF except for FF8!!!

Quote (Ejoty @ 2nd April 2004 23:21)

Now white males and female still have most of the wealth here in the US

Yeah, I'm just rollin' in dough. I have bed sheets made from $100 bills, and a solid gold toothbrush.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Kame's post reminded me of this. I figure it relates to the topic...well the middle panel at least.



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