Enough already! No more ethnic titles!

mfp1016

mfp1016

Member
Originally Posted by monkdaily
.... u cant just ignore race. some of that might sound ridiculous or cliche but how and why in such a culturally rich country as ours can u ignore ur or others heritage/race. i have aruments...
Ok fine! But from now on, everyone in the United States must recognize my German heritage. Whenever I fill out a form that asks for race, I expect there to be a "German-American" box for me to check, as you say, how can people ignore my right to racially differentiate myself from the rest of my countrymen. Forms are going to be so long now...oh boy, the DMV is going to be ridiculous.
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Originally Posted by mfp1016
Ok fine! But from now on, everyone in the United States must recognize my German heritage. Whenever I fill out a form that asks for race, I expect there to be a "German-American" box for me to check, as you say, how can people ignore my right to racially differentiate myself from the rest of my countrymen. Forms are going to be so long now...oh boy, the DMV is going to be ridiculous.

Unfortunately German is not a race, so any form that asks for race should only list races, not ethnic labels..
Luckily most of the time you have the option to select 'other' or 'prefer not to answer' boxes.
 
mfp1016

mfp1016

Member
Its as much a race as Mexican. Especially since Germanic tribes have occupied the Northern Alps for a few thousand years now. Mexicans on the other hand are mere infants in the race game, considering Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety-two, that makes Mexicans no more than 516 years old. So at this point I supposed I would ask you to define race, but I choose to pursue to more scholarly debates, Good Day Sir.
 
alix2.0

alix2.0

Active Member
then i would like to be reffered to as a northern irish-french-japanese-american. thats what i am, isnt it? but no ones going to call me that because its rediculous.
 
mfp1016

mfp1016

Member

Originally Posted by alix2.0
then i would like to be reffered to as a northern irish-french-japanese-american. thats what i am, isnt it? but no ones going to call me that because its rediculous.
Actually, Alix if you could throw on a few more, we want to make sure your heritage is as proud as ever!!!
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Originally Posted by mfp1016
Its as much a race as Mexican. Especially since Germanic tribes have occupied the Northern Alps for a few thousand years now. Mexicans on the other hand are mere infants in the race game, considering Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety-two, that makes Mexicans no more than 516 years old. So at this point I supposed I would ask you to define race, but I choose to pursue to more scholarly debates, Good Day Sir.

Again Mexican is not considered a race either. The Hispanic is not considered a race either. It is an ethnic group. So a form that asks for race should list any of those. Some information, used for demographic purposes will have a list of race/ethnic group and again, they generally offer the options of other or prefer not to answer.
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Originally Posted by mfp1016
I've seen Mexican-American on enough forms to prove my point. :)
Really? Listed under RACE? That is odd but if you say so.
 
monkdaily

monkdaily

Member
yeah it truly is crazy because either way u look at it race/ethnicticity on govt. documents only have like 6 choices so a large majority of people get lumped together. ie "alix2.0
then i would like to be reffered to as a northern irish-french-japanese-american"
there is no way to please everybody so u yourself have to pick what u want to be by what you look like and by what race people precive you to be. i recall a story of a white kid born a raised is south africa. so hes african is he not? but when he came to america to go to college and started filling out paper work he checked african but they came back and said no no no you have white skin.....so.
 
krista921

krista921

Member
but their not just american and i think alot of minoritys would be offended if they were striped of their title. alot of people have pride in their ethnicitys. why take that from them?
 
kerriann

kerriann

Member
Originally Posted by Krista921
but their not just american and i think alot of minoritys would be offended if they were striped of their title. alot of people have pride in their ethnicitys. why take that from them?
i can understand your point in being proud of your ethnicity but shouldn't we all be proud of our heritage? and on top of that, most of these labels as of late have been used in more of a negative manner to get this to swing to their favor
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by Krista921
but their not just american and i think alot of minoritys would be offended if they were striped of their title. alot of people have pride in their ethnicitys. why take that from them?

why? because they want equality.
have them stop thinking of themselves as minorities and they will take a huge step towards being "equal"
 
sigmachris

sigmachris

Active Member
This is a little off topic but a question I have asked a few times over the last few months with no real answer.
Say Ernie Els or Gary Player (white PGA golfers who were born and raised in South Africa) want to move to America and get citizenship for themselves and their families. When their kids go to apply for college could they check the African American box and be considered a minority? Both of these guys have been South Africans for generations.
 
salty blues

salty blues

Active Member
Originally Posted by SigmaChris
This is a little off topic but a question I have asked a few times over the last few months with no real answer.
Say Ernie Els or Gary Player (white PGA golfers who were born and raised in South Africa) want to move to America and get citizenship for themselves and their families. When their kids go to apply for college could they check the African American box and be considered a minority? Both of these guys have been South Africans for generations.
What if you come from South America to the US. Would you be called American-American?
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
Originally Posted by salty blues
What if you come from South America to the US. Would you be called American-American?

generally speaking most likely hispanic
 
mfp1016

mfp1016

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
why? because they want equality.
have them stop thinking of themselves as minorities and they will take a huge step towards being "equal"
Thats exactly right, thats why I have such a big issue with so many affirmative action type programs; they exacerabate the differences.
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Originally Posted by salty blues
What if you come from South America to the US. Would you be called American-American?
That just made me think about the term Mexican-American... which is kind of redundant since Mexico is in North America. How about we call everybody from the US, USians or UnitedStatesofAmericans...
 
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