Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am biracial (black father)(white mother) I don't identify with one over the other. I may be classified under societies laws or whatever as black but I am just me.
Anyway, are you ever mistaken for a race/ethnicity/ancestry that you are not?
A girl also said that I looked Puerto Rican, which is understandable. Most Puerto Ricans are of European descent, mostly Spanish. I'm a quarter French, and France borders Spain. Lots of Spaniards are olive skinned, brown-eyed, and dark-haired. But I'm still not Puerto Rican.
What about you?
I grew up in Maui and am native Polynesian/Hawai'ian. I have been told by various people I resemble native americans, puerto ricans, greeks and other swarthy types. My momma woulda slapped them up side their heads if she had the chance as she too was Polynesian. My husband is pure as snow white Irish from the Apalachian Mountains. My five children as medium brown skinned - and frequently mistaken for "cans" - Mexi & Puerto Ri.
Last time I showed people online pictures of me, people thought I looked either Australian or Swedish. One person also guessed New Zealand. It was because of my long blond hair and blue eyes. I live in Brazil. I'm actually a mixture of Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, German, and Italian. Polish is my predominant heritage.
The thing is, someone who is Australian could have those same ancestries in their family. Being Australian or Brazilian is more of a citizenship than an ethnicity per se. Both countries were created in the current forms by colonialism.
You are not the only White person who looks like they have minor Asian admixture. There are some people who thought Joseph Gordon Levitt, Miranda Cosgrove, Justin Long, and Olivia Wilde has some Far East in their family tree, but they actually don't.
How do we know for sure that they don't? They may or may not have far East in their admixture. Olivia Wilde's family(English) lived in various Asian colonies (including HK) so she may very well have some Asian in her.
Even if she officially doesn't, one thing research into family history and dna told me is that the story is very often not necessarily what happened. Particularly if you question the story and do research into it.
Judging from the posts, it would appear that most folks are the stereotypical "Heinz 57," a mixture of several ethnic backgrounds. I've traced our family back to Spain, they went to Mexico, then came north with the Don Onate expedition to New Mexico in 1598 or so. I have no illusions about my bloodline, it's totally mixed at this point. Our family members have the range of looking like pure Native Americans to having blonde hair, blue eyes and darn near being albino in skin color. We identify as Hispanic, regardless of where we fall on the color spectrum.
Are you ever mistaken for a race/ehtnicity/ancestry
Actually its happened a few times for me. When I was in Hawaii I had long dark hair and got a tan quickly( I am Spanish/Mexican American). People insisted I was Hawaiian when shopping and would ask me to assist them lol!! One got upset and thought I was lying!!
Another time I had a tight permanent and a co-worker thought I was African American as herself!! That was back in the day when we all tried to get as dark as we could! Usually when I had the tight perm which I loved I was questioned about my ethnicity, it was fun though.
I'm Puerto Rican/Italian. It's a popular mix where I'm from. People usually can tell I'm PR but I'm sure if I went out of state people would guess differently.
I'm Irish with dark hair and greenish eyes but have been casually asked before if I was Polish, Italian, Jewish, Costa Rican (in CR) and Puerto Rican (in PR) LOL.
Interesting thread...goes to show that a lot of what is perceive to be constricted/solid (our definitions of race and ethnicity) are rather fluid. I mean, most of our national backgrounds (whether Irish, American, Mexican or German) are creations of the last hundred years, and before that people associated with completely different ethnic groups that mostly associated them with a particular village/town/clan. Many of our modern nations are mixes of all these, now forgotten by most, ethnic groups and other populations that migrated or conquered.
As for me, I'm Mexican (100%) and my ancestry includes French-Nicaraguan, Eastern European, Spanish, Amerindian and Japanese. Some people have confused me (I have a pic in my profile) for Iberian or Italian, but much more often I get lots of people who think I am North African/Arab or Turk. Every once in a while I get Pakistani/Northern Indian. Essentially, I seem to have a West Asian/North African look to me. For the most part, it seems that quite a bit of Mexicans do. I live in an area that has both a high concentration of Latinos (mostly Mexican) and Middle Easterners (Syrian/Armenian/Palestinian and Persian) and often I've confused one for the other (until, that is, they started speaking their native language).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Are you ever mistaken for a race/ehtnicity/ancestry
