How British are White Californians? (San Luis Obispo, Crest: moving, county, Irish)

[majoun]

Originally Posted by clongirl

White is a color, not a nationality. When I lived in Ireland there were Irish that were actually of Chinese and even African descent. They had Irish accents and all and considered themselves Irish since they were born there.

I saw "white" people in Europe all the time but they were not necessarily Irish or British for example. Brown in also a color but I've never heard anyone refer to themselves as a brown when referring to their ancestry.

"White" isn't even a color.
It means "of European ancestry and not Muslim". Algerians and Moroccans look like Europeans but are not labelled as "white" due to being from Muslim countries in Africa.

Race is an artificial construct anyways.

[esmith143]

Most of the Russians in CA today are NOT descendants of White Russian exiles but immigrants who came in the last 30 years. The kids of the Russian immigrants who came earlier blended into the great American melting pot.

FWIW, what's the income level of people of Hungarian ancestry in the state?

They blended in, but they still have unusually high incomes and they still report themselves as being of Russian ancestry. 5/6'th of people of Russian ancestry in California are native-born. Emigration from the Soviet Union was virtually nonexistent between ~1930 and 1980, so their parents had to come here before 1930.

Hungarians are near the top, below Russians but above Scots.

[KC6ZLV]

Originally Posted by esmith143

They ask questions during the census once every 10 years, and even then the full version that includes ancestry, household income, etc. is only given to a small percentage of population (I think it was 1 in 6 in 2000?), and they extrapolate results.

Census bureau is a bit weird in that they have a set of "ancestries" and a separate and distinct set of "ethnicities", and the assignment of people to one of the two categories is fairly arbitrary. For example, Iranians are an ancestry, but Chinese are an ethnicity. (And Jews are neither. They have an ancestry called "Israeli", but less than 0.1% of population of California claims it as their primary ancestry.)

In California, as KC6ZLV says correctly, as of the 2000 census, top 5 white ancestries are German, Irish, English, Italian, and French, in that order.

If you include nonwhites, Mexicans are way ahead of everyone, and Chinese and Filipinos are ahead of French.

Another interesting fact is that apparently the wealthiest ancestry of significant presence is Lithuanians (there were about 50 thousand of them in the state, with double the state average per capita income), closely followed by Russians (presumably, descendants of aristocrats who fled the country after the communist revolution in the early 20th century).

Among the immigrants from the British Isles, Scottish and Welsh people did the best for themselves, per capita incomes of around $38k, versus $35k for the English and $31k for the Irish. Which is still well above average for the state. The only nonwhite group that does better than the Irish is the Japanese ($32k).

They do something called the American Community Survey. It is randomly sent to people. Not everyone gets one. I've received several. If I remember correctly, you declare race and ethnicity. So, I declared white, Russian, or Irish, or Russian and Irish, depending on how Russian or Irish I felt that year.

Except for the immigrants from Russia from 1990 to present, I think most of the Russian immigrants came into California from 1900 to 1917. Most of them didn't have anything in Russia, and didn't have anything when they arrived.

Originally Posted by clongirl

White is a color, not a nationality. When I lived in Ireland there were Irish that were actually of Chinese and even African descent. They had Irish accents and all and considered themselves Irish since they were born there.

I saw "white" people in Europe all the time but they were not necessarily Irish or British for example. Brown in also a color but I've never heard anyone refer to themselves as a brown when referring to their ancestry.

Where did I say white is a nationality?

We are talking about ethnicity and origin. Those people aren't of Irish origin, when referring to Irish ancestry.

I have a problem with "white." It implies all European-Americans have the same background. We should have the option to declare Swedish, Irish, Polish, German, or Dutch if other races can declare what Asian, African, or Latin American country of their ancestry.

Or maybe we should just go with white and "people of colour." Somehow I don't think the latter would go over too well.

[Snort]

I have a follow-up question or two or three:
How Yiddish are White Californians?
How skittish are White Californians?
How twittish are White Californians?......
.......
.....
..
.

[Gemdiver]

Originally Posted by clongirl

White is a color, not a nationality. When I lived in Ireland there were Irish that were actually of Chinese and even African descent. They had Irish accents and all and considered themselves Irish since they were born there.

I saw "white" people in Europe all the time but they were not necessarily Irish or British for example. Brown in also a color but I've never heard anyone refer to themselves as a brown when referring to their ancestry.

Isn't it weird that people of non-european descent can be considered "european" e.g. the chinese and africans being called "irish" or the turkish people in germany being called "german."

The British people in Hong Kong don't call themselves chinese and the Afrikaners in South Africa don't call themselves african even after being there for a long time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that these chinese and africans believe that their culture is inferior to Irish culture and that is why they want to be identified as "Irish."

[DMenscha]

Originally Posted by proudmommy

What don't they make computers in England?

Spoiler

Because they couldn't figure out a way to make them leak oil.

Too Funny!

[eureka1]

Originally Posted by Gemdiver

Isn't it weird that people of non-european descent can be considered "european" e.g. the chinese and africans being called "irish" or the turkish people in germany being called "german."

The British people in Hong Kong don't call themselves chinese and the Afrikaners in South Africa don't call themselves african even after being there for a long time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that these chinese and africans believe that their culture is inferior to Irish culture and that is why they want to be identified as "Irish."

You're confusing "nationality", which is a legal category, with "ethnicity". I have known hundreds of people of Chinese ethnicity and never ran into one who thought his/her culture was "inferior" to any other. Doubt it's true of Africans either. What is your source for this statement?

[bluenoter]

The British do consider themselves superior to all nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures. It's a British thing.

This thread makes me curious about the education system in California. Californians, of course, don't have the obesity rates of the South.

[mr bolo]

the majority of white Californians are a "HEINZ57" mixed race, they dont even know their true ancestory because of all the mixing, the last name has no meaning, it's like a black person with the last name Washington [no relation to Washington]

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by mr bolo

it's like a black person with the last name Washington [no relation to Washington]

Ya never know... sometimes those slave owners burned a little coal.