is whiteness an ethnic identity?

[sidekick]

i'm doing a research paper on white identity for my ethnic relations class and i was interested to see what peoples' opinions were on this one.

basically the question is asking this: if you are a white canadian, do you consider yourself to be part of an ethnic grouping?

i'm not using this poll for my paper or anything, i was just curious to see the response.

[Silverwinged]

Define ethnic grouping.

I mean, I think that white people ARE an ethnic grouping... (we all came from Europe after all) Therefore everyone in Canada has had family members that have immigrated here...

See where I'm trying to go with this?

[mapleleaf4ever]

Well we've got White People, but there are also sub-groups to that. Just like there's Asians... but Koreans, Vietnamese, Japanese etc. So why would we be any different?

[sidekick]

ethnic grouping:

a collection of people distinguished, by others or by themselves, primarily on the basis of cultural characteristics (common language, customs, religion, etc..)

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by Silverwinged

Define ethnic grouping.

I mean, I think that white people ARE an ethnic grouping... (we all came from Europe after all) Therefore everyone in Canada has had family members that have immigrated here...

See where I'm trying to go with this?

yeah, i totally see that. however, ethnic identity is more fluid than just your background. your ethnic identity is supposed to be the group that you identify yourself with.

for example, i come from a scottish background, but i would not consider that to be my ethnicity.

[Silverwinged]

Hrm. Having that said, kind of brings back the idea of the melting pot (or melding pot; to each his own) where everyone just kind of conforms together.
Thats Canada today... But I identifiy myself as being a White Canadian...

In other words, I'm a fence sitter.

[sidekick]

what really got me thinking about this topic was a webpage i came across where i was asked what my ethnicity was and was given these choices to choose from:

Korean/Japanese
Chinese
Black/African
East Indian
Latin/Hispanic
Middle Eastern
Native American
Pacific Islander
Northern European
Southern European
Eastern European
Other

i had no idea what to choose out of that list, so i just put myself as other. but it really got me thinking.

[mapleleaf4ever]

Hmm... I guess that list is going by the fact that there isn't technically "Native White North Americans". Sure I was born here, but I'm descended from Slavs and the United Kingdom so I'd put Northern European.

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by Silverwinged

But I identifiy myself as being a White Canadian...

yeah, i would say i do as well. but then i was reading all these articles about people being asked what they believe white identity to be and the most popular respone was something like this: "white is just white, it's nothing really."

it's like we're the ethnic grouping that doesn't even know what it is. i mean, lots of people still have ties to their european heritage and identify themselves as coming from that ethnicity, but where does that leave the families that have been in canada so long that they don't have any cultural ties to their european background. those are the people that answered that their ethnicity is just "nothing really."

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by mapleleaf4ever

Hmm... I guess that list is going by the fact that there isn't technically "Native White North Americans". Sure I was born here, but I'm descended from Slavs and the United Kingdom so I'd put Northern European.

sure that would be your background, but what if you didn't identify at all with that culture? like i said before...my whole family is from scotland, but i'll be damned if i know anything about what it means to be scottish.

[Joanne]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

yeah, i totally see that. however, ethnic identity is more fluid than just your background. your ethnic identity is supposed to be the group that you identify yourself with.

for example, i come from a scottish background, but i would not consider that to be my ethnicity.

so by that definition, would a wigger technically be able to say that his ethinicity is black?

--Joanne :P

[mapleleaf4ever]

lol that's what it feels like to be proudly Canadian I suppose.

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by bananasinpjs

so by that definition, would a wigger technically be able to say that his ethinicity is black?

--Joanne :P

that's actually one of the things that was discussed in class. if you take the question another way...what about an asian family that has been in canada for so long that they do not identify with their asian culture anymore...would you deny them the ability to say that they are canadian?

for example, colin powell has both black and irish ancestry...if he were to identify with his irish ancestry and none of his black ancestry is it still right to call him black? or are you then just labelling him under 'race' because of his colour?

edit: i'm not sure that came out clear. this stuff is like philosophy of ethnicity. :s

[wum]

yay! we exist!

[miss.myra]

It's all about your descent, yo.


I could just be a white girl, but I'll always identify myself with my background which is Scottish/Northern European.

[sidekick]

this whole paper has allowed me to look at things i never would have seen before. like i was reading this one article on 'white privilege'. so basically, all the privileges that white people enjoy in our society that we don't even realize we get most of the time, just because we're white.

one of the really interesting ones was band-aids that are labelled 'flesh' coloured are made in a peachy colour for white skin. there aren't any black or brown band-aids that are labelled 'flesh' coloured.

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

It's all about your descent, yo.


I could just be a white girl, but I'll always identify myself with my background which is Scottish/Northern European.

what if i don't identify with that background? i'm like fifth or sixth generation canadian...what does that make my ethnicty? white canadian?

[wum]

^ don't listen to that NWO Marxist garbage. move on to the better stuff :)

Abolish the White Race

[...]

John and I decided that it was time to launch a journal to document that civil war. The result was Race Traitor, whose first issue appeared in the fall of 1992 with the slogan "Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity" on its cover. The aim was to chronicle and analyze the making, remaking, and unmaking of whiteness. My book on the Irish was the story of how people for whom whiteness had no meaning learned its rules and adapted their behavior to take advantage of them; Race Traitor was an attempt to run the film backwards, to explore how people who had been brought up as white might become unwhite....

http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/0902135.html

[miss.myra]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

what if i don't identify with that background? i'm like fifth or sixth generation canadian...what does that make my ethnicty? white canadian?

Because that is WHAT I am. I'm only a 3rd Generation Canadian (I think anyways, Grandparents from both sides are from europe). I look different physically than someone from southern or eastern europe, my family has different traditions, that is what builds my ethnicity, my family's history. What is the use in having no pride in where you come from? I certainly don't just want to be another 'white canadian' .

Just like a lot of people in Malaysia are Asian, but they're not all 'malaysian', some of them are chinese, some of them are indian, some of them are indigenous, etc. etc.

[wum]

both sides of my family hails from Götaland. there's a tribal rivalry between the Goths and Svears in Sweden and the ppl tend to be proud of it (we're the better looking ones). I also drink mead out of a horn and eat Gravlax. :D:

[miss.myra]

Mead tastes awful. You're forgiven though, Swedish guys are so incredibly hot.

[esoter1c]

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).

[wum]

^ that's cuz we'd make the other races feel bad :(

[wum]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

Mead tastes awful. You're forgiven though, Swedish guys are so incredibly hot.

i've never heard that before

[miss.myra]

^ Liar.