is whiteness an ethnic identity?

[wum]

Originally Posted by lou_belle

My ancestory is from Sweden, Norway and Scotland...I would never call myself canadian...it's actually never even crossed my mind. Canada seems to have ties to people of darker ethnic groups..natives are really the only ones that are truly canadian~

i thought you were Jewish

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by lou_belle

Sidekick??? how can you say that you don't consider it fair to say you're of Scottish enthnicity because you've lost your ability to identify with the Scots? It's fairly technical...you're Scottish! The culture you find yourself practicing...white canadian...in my opinion, comes with a feeling of emptiness. You'll always have roots deep in Scotland. I bet your perspective would change if you actually went to Scotland, the minute a person has a chance to belong, they'll take it. You'll be telling everyone over there that your Scottish canadian..no doubt*
Hmm...that's why people over here tend to call themselves Canadian...they just want to belong..but I personally would opt to be a little more insightful than to be woven into the melting pot with no real tradition or culture. Think about how fun it would be to finally meet people that live where your families ORIGINATEs from* The older ethnic variaties from Europe are more colorful and hold more true connections than that of modern day American/Canadians, don't sell yourself short..you ARE Scotish Canadian~

i find it pretty presumptuous for you to tell me what my ethnicity is. maybe you're not understanding the difference between family background and my own personal ethnicity. yes, it's true that many many years ago...probably over 100, parts of my mom's side of the family originated in Scotland. however, i don't have ANY ties whatsoever to the scottish culture.

if i went over to Scotland, i would be interested in their culture, that's for sure. but i would be interested in the way that i would be interested in any foreign culture...i wouldn't all of a sudden proclaim...oh i'm home! my scottish people! now i can start practicing my REAL culture.

my real identity is as a white canadian. just because you have strong ties to your cultural background, doesn't mean i have to have strong ties to mine. europe isn't the only place that whites can have culture and identity. just because a long time ago some of my ancestors were born in scotland, doesn't make me scottish. i probably have ancestors from parts of africa too, or germany or wherever, but this doesn't mean that i am a part of those ethnic groups.

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by k-pryde

anyhow what course is this? film?

this is for an ethnic relations class i'm taking at UBC. it's pretty interesting stuff, but it's also very wishy-washy sometimes because the definitions of what constitute an ethnic group are very fuzzy and can get mixed up in nationality, background heritage, visible racial distinctions and so forth.

once you start to look around it's very easy to see how 'whiteness' dominates many forms of our lives (like you pointed out with media) just because it has been unconsciously labelled as the 'standard' way of living.

[acidic_liquid]

I find it interesting that the poll results are exactly 50/50 (as of this post anyway). I guess this question isn't black or white (no pun intended :D).

[djmarkpaul]

Originally Posted by 3507321C

The White race is the least Racially Conscious race there is.

We have been stripped of any culture or pride because of the race game.

You can scream Black Power, Jew power whatever power you like........

as long as its not white power, that is now a hate crime.

All we're taught in School is Nazi holocaust this Slavery that.

Nothing positive is ever shown about whites.

One day we'll all be Goobacks (See Southpark).

Word to everyone's mom. Most don't realize the downside of the melting pot, what a waste of diversity.

[wum]

^ when it gets to be like Brazil i imagine all the white people will be living in gated-communities like in SoCal :D:

[lou_belle]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

i find it pretty presumptuous for you to tell me what my ethnicity is. maybe you're not understanding the difference between family background and my own personal ethnicity. yes, it's true that many many years ago...probably over 100, parts of my mom's side of the family originated in Scotland. however, i don't have ANY ties whatsoever to the scottish culture.

if i went over to Scotland, i would be interested in their culture, that's for sure. but i would be interested in the way that i would be interested in any foreign culture...i wouldn't all of a sudden proclaim...oh i'm home! my scottish people! now i can start practicing my REAL culture.

my real identity is as a white canadian. just because you have strong ties to your cultural background, doesn't mean i have to have strong ties to mine. europe isn't the only place that whites can have culture and identity. just because a long time ago some of my ancestors were born in scotland, doesn't make me scottish. i probably have ancestors from parts of africa too, or germany or wherever, but this doesn't mean that i am a part of those ethnic groups.

presumptuous?...you said you were Scotish, but you felt like you're ethnicity is white/canadian..and I said, don't sell yourself short. Keep Canada they way it was meant to be, a multi-ethnic country. If you wanna call yourself white/canadian..then can you tell me what your traditions are that are so different from your true ancestory? What have you gained by dropping your historical roots in the garbage by calling yourself white, not Scottish?

[lou_belle]

I'm don't have strong ties to my ancestory...but that doesn't mean I don't know where I come from. My ethnicity is more interesting than white/canadian, because on christmas my family has a little swedish light thing that I got from ikea in their window;P Is that Swedish or what!? And just for the fuck of it...we celebrate on Christmas Eve like they do in Norway! See? It's not that hard~

[lou_belle]

Originally Posted by wum

i thought you were Jewish

Lori-"Hey dad, I'm converting to Judaism."
Dad-"What?! But you're a Protestant."
Lori-"Really?? A Protestant eh?...hmm...interesting..I don't remember that."
Dad-"What?! You don't remember when I pointed out the church your mom and I got married in everytime we drove by?!"

[wum]

whatever floats your boat

[lou_belle]

Yeah...my sixty foot cigarette boat;)

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by lou_belle

presumptuous?...you said you were Scotish, but you felt like you're ethnicity is white/canadian..and I said, don't sell yourself short. Keep Canada they way it was meant to be, a multi-ethnic country. If you wanna call yourself white/canadian..then can you tell me what your traditions are that are so different from your true ancestory? What have you gained by dropping your historical roots in the garbage by calling yourself white, not Scottish?

i never said i was scottish, you should read my posts a little more carefully. i said that my family has been in canada for a long time, but if you trace it back far enough (like 100 years or something like that) then you'll find that some scottish ancestry on my mom's side.

i don't know what traditions i have that are so different from my so-called 'true' ancestry because i don't know any scottish traditions.

[acidic_liquid]

My friend wrote a paper similar to this topic. She's half asian and half white (hehe) and she basically questioned her identity.

But anyway your post got me thinking. Is there such a thing as "Canadian" traditions? I mean, I don't even really know what a true Canadian identity is.

This is like Socials 11.

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by wum

^ are there different ethnic groups in Scotland?

They used to. They were called "Clans".

[lou_belle]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

i never said i was scottish, you should read my posts a little more carefully. i said that my family has been in canada for a long time, but if you trace it back far enough (like 100 years or something like that) then you'll find that some scottish ancestry on my mom's side.

i don't know what traditions i have that are so different from my so-called 'true' ancestry because i don't know any scottish traditions.

Co your a true Canadian eh?
A Canadian...you know...the Scottish, Irish, German, English, Brits that call themselves canadian after being away from their countries for A WHOLE ONE HUNDRED YEARS!!

Ethnicity to me is knowong who you truly are..knowing the history of your family. If after only one hundred years you've managed to disreguard the important of your grandparents birthplace then whatever...I guess you believe that your grandparents don't deserve recognition for the impact they had on your life today and how you live and make choices. If someone were to ask you what your ethnicity was..you wouldn't say Scottish Canadian? I'm assuming that this is what you're saying if you're just Canadian. If you can't manage to recollect in remembrance for that one in a million chance that someone asks what your ethnicity is...bwahahah* I can't seem to understand that a person would think that in 100 years everything that his family practiced would just disapear..
*I'm being serious now*..before you lose your grandparents, maybe you should talk with them a little more about traditions that you'd like to remember your ancestors by. It could just be your grandma's famous soup or something like that..but that's still "Scottish Soup" is it not?
*seriousness just ended*

[lou_belle]

Originally Posted by ebbomega

They used to. They were called "Clans".

yeah, like technically I'm "Jordy"..we were the rebels..

[wum]

Glaswegians look totally different than people from Edinburgh

[tvmann]

I think maybe I'm a "Euro-Canadian".

:)

[ja_raul]

quoted from the movie "Tommy Boy" : KILL WHITEY!