Question About Ethnic Identity

[Anastasia13]

If you are 1/4 of some ethnic group and you did not grow up around a lot of people of that group, is it possible to rightfully say that you are (that ethnic group)-American?

[Paladin D]

[quote name='Light and Truth' post='1813113' date='Mar 21 2009, 04:41 AM']If you are 1/4 of some ethnic group and you did not grow up around a lot of people of that group, is it possible to rightfully say that you are (that ethnic group)-American?[/quote]

I can't see why not, it's technically in your blood. It could be a little misleading if you leave the rest out (unless you don't have any knowledge of the others). I usually say I'm "mostly Polish", yet again I did grow up around with a lot of family who were Polish-Americans.

Edited March 21, 2009 by Paladin D

[Luigi]

I consider the question of ethnic identity based on genetics to be off-point. It's based on a very old assumption that one's blood/genes control one's character - the Irish are hot-headed, the Scots are thrifty, the Germans are hard-working, the Spanish are X, the Italians are Y, and the Lithuanians are Z. These are all stereotypes.

They are not accurate predictors of a person's cahracter. Every nation has people of every character type.

However, we can develop cultural identities. I know a guy whose father is Scottish and whose mother is Italian. The mother set the tone of the family and my friend grew up hearing & speaking Italian (his immigrant grandmother lived in the house), his mother cooked Italian food, the family visited relatives in Italy regularly, there was a lot of Italian music in the house, the children have Italian names (with English equivalents), and so on. My friend is "culturally Italian" even though genetically he is only half Italian (and half Scottish). If his father had set the tone in the house, my friend would be "culturally Scottish" even though he is only half Scottish (and half Italian) genetically.

And there are plenty of people, especially children of immigrants (whether in this country or any other) who give up their original cultural identity - people who prefer to think of themselves as Americans rather than as Italian-Americans or Italians-in-America. They adopt the dominant culture of the country the move to and more or less consciously dissociate themselves from their home culture.

Another problem with defining ourselves by our genetic heritage is the movement of people through time and space - there are a lot of "Russians" living in Lithuania, the Irish are really a combination of Celts-English-French-Danes, Guatemalans might be "Spanish" or "Mayan" and the list goes on forever. And within any given country, the people see distinctions between themselves, too - before Europeans ever arrived in the Americas, the Native Americans drew sharp distinctions between Sioux, Crow, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and so forth.

So defining oneself by where one's grandparents immigrated from is kind of pointless. Who you have chosen to be culturally is more indicative of who you are.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Light and Truth' post='1813113' date='Mar 21 2009, 04:41 AM']If you are 1/4 of some ethnic group and you did not grow up around a lot of people of that group, is it possible to rightfully say that you are (that ethnic group)-American?[/quote]
You DNA doesn't change just because you were not exposed to that particular culture as a child.

[CatherineM]

I identify myself as Irish Catholic. It was the culture I was raised in. My father was full-blood, and I take after him much more than I do my black hair, dark eyes, olive skinned mother. My mom is mostly English and French, but a real miss-mass, and culturally she is Southern Belle more than anything. I think people should identify themselves with what they are comfortable with. In some ways, how we feel about our ethnicity can be as impressed on us as our gender is. I also identify myself as an Okie, or an Army brat depending on the context. What you call yourself should be up to you.

[Luigi]

No, that's true. And from a medical perspective, there are certain tendencies to be aware of - sickle cell anemia in people of African descent, Tay-Sachs in people of Jewish descent, that kind of thing. But in terms of character traits, I don't see any cause & effect connection to genetics.

[Lilllabettt]

[quote name='Luigi' post='1813301' date='Mar 21 2009, 03:01 PM']Another problem with defining ourselves by our genetic heritage is the movement of people through time and space - there are a lot of "Russians" living in Lithuania, the Irish are really a combination of Celts-English-French-Danes, Guatemalans might be "Spanish" or "Mayan" and the list goes on forever.[/quote]


Yes. My uncle and all that side of the family immigrated in the 1950s via Austria. They are from Romania, actually, but they are very insistent that they are not Slavs.

So they say "we are German." Although none of them are really from Germany, the country.

[puellapaschalis]

Genetically I'm half Filipino, but what I consider myself to be has changed over the years. I'm probably more Filipino now because I have much more contact with my Filipino family than before (although the "culture" bit has always been there to some extent, usually in the form of food - to be expected).

[Winchester]

[quote name='Light and Truth' post='1813113' date='Mar 21 2009, 03:41 AM']If you are 1/4 of some ethnic group and you did not grow up around a lot of people of that group, is it possible to rightfully say that you are (that ethnic group)-American?[/quote]
Yes, you can tell horrible jokes about them and then claim membership. I do it all the time.

[Hassan]

[quote name='Winchester' post='1813655' date='Mar 22 2009, 12:33 AM']Yes, you can tell horrible jokes about them and then claim membership. I do it all the time.[/quote]

[Anastasia13]

On a related note, can I consider myself Lebanese American if my great grandmother grew up there but was not ethnically Arab or is that too much of a stretch? (She was an Armenian who immigrated to Lebanon as a very young child from the Ottoman Empire during/after the Armenian genocide.)

[Arpy]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' date='21 March 2009 - 01:27 PM' timestamp='1237670821' post='1813421']
Genetically I'm half Filipino, but what I consider myself to be has changed over the years. I'm probably more Filipino now because I have much more contact with my Filipino family than before (although the "culture" bit has always been there to some extent, usually in the form of food - to be expected).
[/quote]
I love Filipino food.
[quote name='Winchester' date='21 March 2009 - 08:33 PM' timestamp='1237696437' post='1813655']
Yes, you can tell horrible jokes about them and then claim membership. I do it all the time.
[/quote]
Agreed.

[CatherineM]

[quote name='Light and Truth' date='13 January 2010 - 12:13 AM' timestamp='1263363196' post='2035950']
On a related note, can I consider myself Lebanese American if my great grandmother grew up there but was not ethnically Arab or is that too much of a stretch? (She was an Armenian who immigrated to Lebanon as a very young child from the Ottoman Empire during/after the Armenian genocide.)
[/quote]
I make kolaches. That's a Czech thing. My mom's dad's family always said they were Czech, Bohemian specifically. We did grow up around a lot of them with festivals and things. As I've done genealogy, I've discovered no Czech blood yet. The ones who said they were Czech all came from Switzerland. It's possible they were refugees there, but that was so long ago, that it doesn't seem culturally significant to me anyway. I suspect they found themselves in a farming community in Kansas where a lot of Czechs had settled, and acculturated. Sometimes I act more like a Mexican because I was raised around a lot of them, my godparents included. We are bits and pieces of everything we experience in our lives. A couple more generations of global inbreeding, and I'm not sure any of us will know truly what we are.

[Saint Therese]

Can you claim to be Klingon-American?

[Era Might]

If you were to go back to the country of your ancestry, would you "fit in" there? I think that probably will help to answer your question about identity. Having done so myself recently, I certainly was keenly aware of being a Gringo. But you can love your family's ethnicity without directly "identifying" with it.