Posted: Sat 27 Jun 2009 00:26 Post subject: What ethnicity would you guess that I am?
I am mixed, but I'm curious to see what strangers think my ethnicit(ies) are just by looking at me. I have heard different things, and I really don't know how to categorize myself. I feel one race, but I think I am judged as another. I also am curious to see which features are dominant of my heritage (mostly my nose). Please forgive/excuse my vanity!
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I will probably delete these eventually, since I don't really want my photos on the internet, lol. I'm just curious what people who have studied race would view me as.
Last edited by sillyface on Mon 21 Sep 2009 08:14; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 05 Apr 2006 {Posts: 300 } Location: Chatsworth, CA
Posted: Sat 27 Jun 2009 02:38 Post subject:
Here in LA, first guess would be Latina, that is Mexican American. Depending on what part of town you're in, people would definitely start speaking to you in Spanish first.
Second guess would be Armenian.
After that maybe Arab or Persian. Arab more than Persian, I think. I've seen some Pacific Islanders who kind of have your look, so that could be a possibility, hapa, maybe.
So maybe your look is just generic Angeleno. What a lot of us look like now, maybe what most of us will look like in the future.
Here. people who look like you, who identify as black American, take pains to let other black identified people know that they're not Latino.
Depending on the angle, I might think you were Italian or Puerto Rican or Persian (Iranian). However, in the picture in the grey tee, you totally remind me of many New Orleans Creoles. So, I'd also guess that you might be mixed with black and white.
Joined: 10 Jun 2009 {Posts: 21 } Location: OH, USA
Posted: Sat 27 Jun 2009 14:34 Post subject:
Honey, you look a lot like one of my sons classmates who is Greek on both sides, as far as we know. Of course we think of her as a white girl, but she would be of Mediterranean descend. The thing to understand is that we all, as human beings, have some mixture of race and/or culture no matter what we might think we are. The best way to find out what you are all about would be to have you Admixture (overall) DNA tested. And remember you have the right to identify yourself by any of the cultures you are made up of, or simply by what you feel you "appear to be"... that's the way I go. I hope this will help.
This is a DNA testing company we have used several times:
Thank you so much for all your responses and help!
Which of my features are making you guess certain races? (i.e. skull shape, cheekbones, nose, etc.) I get Egyptian/Middle Eastern a lot, as well as Indian and Persian, but I cannot seem to figure out why, since I have observed longer, straighter, more "caucasian" looking noses on these people.
Each of you have guessed at least one of the ethnicities in my heritage, though!
I definitely want to get that DNA testing, but I doubt my parents will want to pay for it. lol.. maybe when I have a career settled on my own.
Joined: 10 Jun 2009 {Posts: 21 } Location: OH, USA
Posted: Mon 29 Jun 2009 12:41 Post subject:
sillyface wrote:
Thank you so much for all your responses and help!
Which of my features are making you guess certain races? (i.e. skull shape, cheekbones, nose, etc.) I get Egyptian/Middle Eastern a lot, as well as Indian and Persian, but I cannot seem to figure out why, since I have observed longer, straighter, more "caucasian" looking noses on these people.
Each of you have guessed at least one of the ethnicities in my heritage, though!
I definitely want to get that DNA testing, but I doubt my parents will want to pay for it. lol.. maybe when I have a career settled on my own.
Well, sillyface, first I don't think you have a silly face. You are very pretty. I made my assumptions simply by your overall look...your nose and any of your other features do not stand out as those that could not be Caucasian, you just look like you, a white girl, with a European Mediterranean ancestry, which could include Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, etc.
Are you just curious, hmm, or is this bothering you for some reason? And yes, a DNA test is at least $200.
"However, in the picture in the grey tee, you totally remind me of many New Orleans Creoles. [/quote] quote is from Other.
Looks like so many I personally know....typical.
If I saw you in a bunch of N.O. traditional Blacks (Creoles), yeah.Typical.If you were with all Whites,passing ,Jewish or WA.
POINT- ethincity is in the eye of the beholder.
POINT- you cannot tell who is what.I know many Black Amer.who really fall in that one drop rule because there was one drop,maybe two,LOL,and they do not look BA and do not go as BA.They pass as WM.IF they look the other end of the Creole spectrum,Latin/Hispanic or Polyensian-Hawaiian-Samoan,they pass as that.
I suppose it's both curiosity and that it has always somewhat bothered me. I feel like I don't really "belong" in society sometimes, lol.
So here's my true makeup. My mom is Puerto Rican, and my dad is Caucasian (half Italian and half Hungarian). I "feel" like I'm white, having grown up in a white society, predominantly white grade and middle school, and having mostly white friends. But I feel out of place when I'm in a restaurant where everyone is white, or where my friends' grandparents ask me where I'm from, like it's so obvious I'm from somewhere else. I've gotten asked "what are you" more times than I can remember, and while I used to like it/it never really bothered me, it's bothering me now.
Why does it matter? It doesn't. I went through a phase when I tried to be "more Puerto Rican" than I actually felt, trying to force myself to like rap and speak like I was not brought up speaking, just because I thought it was "cool" or the right thing for me to do. I thought if I identified with how I looked, or was perceived to look, then I'd feel like I belonged. I began rejecting my "caucasian" side. Now I just don't know what to feel. I've brought this up to my parents, and they don't understand at all. My dad says I'm just American, and my mom shares with me that she has felt similarly in some ways.
People ask me if I'm black because I have curly hair. If I'm not mistaken, most ethnicities have at least a few people with curly hair. It's so narrow-minded. I was called "that black girl" by my friend's grandmother when I was about 8 or 9. While I wasn't offended, (my parents asked me several times how I felt about the situation, but I said I just thought she was older so she couldn't see as well), I was confused. Then in high school, I went to a public school (as opposed to the predominantly white Catholic school I had gone to since Kindergarten), and a mixed Puerto Rican/black used to tease me for being too white, not wearing the right "black" clothes or sneakers, listening to the wrong music, etc. When I'm with my dad, at a store, countless people have assumed that I was next in line and not with my dad. When I go to a hotel with my dad and my mom can't come with us, I feel like everyone thinks we're dating, and it freaks me out.
It's all very confusing. I suppose I'm just trying to find my identity. I feel like I'm past the age where I should have already accepted myself (21 years old), and now I'm just. I don't know. Confused, haha. And the guys that I'm attracted to are never attracted to me, so I guess that bothers me too. It's always the guys with "ghetto mentality" who "holler" at me, whether they are black, white, hispanic, indian, or asian (did I miss any?). Forgive me if I sound prejudiced. I just simply am not attracted to this "ghetto/hood" subculture of men.
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Last edited by sillyface on Mon 21 Sep 2009 08:15; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 10 Jun 2009 {Posts: 21 } Location: OH, USA
Posted: Mon 29 Jun 2009 23:09 Post subject:
Well, thank goodness you are not attracted to this "ghetto/hood" subculture of men This shows mature thinking. I'm not sure why all of this questioning is happening to you...could it be where you live? Could it be your last name, which I assume is something non-Puerto Rican. Could it just be people knowing too much about you, or is it the way your mother looks? I can't tell that much about her from her early picture. She looks light skinned? There are white looking Puerto Ricans you know, of course mixed as so many people are. Be this true or not, I found it on a blog:
Puerto Ricans are partly White and part Native American.
There is some Black blood, but the majority are White and Native American.
The men usually look like tanned White people. Benicio Del Toro and Ricky Martin are both Puerto Rican.
Puerto Ricans consider themselves Mestizo, which is a mix between White and Native American.
Here is the link to my google search regarding Puerto Ricans:
Also, you should check out my website link. My maternal side comes from some crazy racial confusion. We have much Euro, some Native American, African & East Asian. My mother is white, I am white. Mixed whites, but white none the less. I speak to some experiences on my site that you might be able to relate to.
Be what you want to be, be confident, be yourself ! Don't settle for anything less than what you want and deserve as an intelligent and beautiful young woman. Maybe eventully a move to a different environment (college, neighborhood, city, state, etc) would be good for you
Last edited by sbt on Tue 30 Jun 2009 01:12; edited 1 time in total
I have no idea about all this questioning either, lol. I was born and raised in central NJ, right in between Philly and NYC, so presumably pretty diverse! I go to college in FL, to a predom. white school.
My Puerto Rican family is very mixed. My grandmother has kinky hair, yet some of her sons were born with blonde, straight hair. My mother has wavy hair (as does my father). My mom is a little darker than me, actually; here is a picture of her on the left, my grandmother in the middle and my aunt to the right, with two cousins:
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My mom remembers no people of African descent in her immediate family, but I'm sure there is some ancestry there, due to the kinky hair in my grandmother and one of my uncles:
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(ah, the 70s, )
People have thought my mother is Filipino. People have considered my father's sister to be middle eastern. It's so strange. I suppose I am a mixture of everything. lol. Which I don't mind (I mean look at Adriana Lima, she's pretty much a mixture of all races, I think), except that I like things put in orderly fashions, and I cannot classify myself. And while many people hate labels, I don't, because they simplify complex issues for me. But that's just how my mind works.
Thank you again for all your help and insight!
Last edited by sillyface on Mon 21 Sep 2009 08:17; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Tue 30 Jun 2009 02:00 Post subject: Puerto Ricans
sbt wrote:
Well, thank goodness you are not attracted to this "ghetto/hood" subculture of men :!: This shows mature thinking. I'm not sure why all of this questioning is happening to you...could it be where you live? Could it be your last name, which I assume is something non-Puerto Rican. Could it just be people knowing too much about you, or is it the way your mother looks? I can't tell that much about her from her early picture. She looks light skinned? There are white looking Puerto Ricans you know, of course mixed as so many people are. Be this true or not, I found it on a blog:
Puerto Ricans are partly White and part Native American.
There is some Black blood, but the majority are White and Native American.
Actually, Puerto Ricans are nearly all of at least partial African ancestry (to various degrees). Both they and Dominicans can be called a "mulatto" people. Mexicans also have African ancestry to a lesser extent, because of the black and mulatto slaves in colonial Mexico. Downplaying the African ancestry is a polite way of avoiding the subject of "one drop" and the "black blood stigma."
The men usually look like tanned White people. Benicio Del Toro and Ricky Martin are both Puerto Rican.
Puerto Ricans consider themselves Mestizo, which is a mix between White and Native American.
Here is the link to my google search regarding Puerto Ricans:
Also, you should check out my website link. My maternal side comes from some crazy racial confusion. We have much Euro, some Native American, African & East Asian. My mother is white, I am white. Mixed whites, but white none the less. :D I speak to some experiences on my site that you might be able to relate to.
Be what you want to be, be confident, be yourself ! Don't settle for anything less than what you want and deserve as an intelligent and beautiful young woman. Maybe eventully a move to a different environment (college, neighborhood, city, state, etc) would be good for you :wink:
Where to start. As you know,I am always saying, I just don't get these confused people and their issues.
Now I am posting to a real life person,I'll explain myself.
Like sbt said,thanks for not going out with common hood ghetto trash guys be them White,Black,PuertoRican,whatever .Trash is trash.
I have many women,pretty,smart,good homes,the works go for trash and become trash. If you go with trash,you become trash.
I have seen many people in my ethnic group, BA,since Creole is not one,HATE their looks.They have serious trouble with being blondish,green-grey eyed,whatever, straight hair, fair,total WA features looking 100% WA.Sometimes people can be influenced by others questioning or hating what they are.It is like they have to proove something. WE ALL will have people TELL US what they think about our looks/ethnicity wise and/or our "ethnic attitude." First the thing I call that what "tude"someone will tell you act like or try to be.
"She think she White. You sound White. You an Oreo. SuperNigger.
Why you talk like that? Why are you friends all Black. Why did she/he marry a_________?
Then there are the questions.
"Are you related to______? Why? How? I don't mean to pry,but what are you? Is that your (insert mother,brother,sister, etc.)?
Is that your real ( insert mother,father,sister,etc.)?
My point is you cannot fight other's preception of you.I am generally speaking here. I am not referring to you,sface,personally.
1-You are what you are. 2-You are what you look like because that is what people will take you as.
As for you, you are WA to me.Your dad is and your mom is a fairer Puerto Rican.She can pass for White. You grew up in a more WA society in NJ/NY area. I know NJ/NY can have very closed minded areas.
You also have a large ethnic melting pot and it is easier to blend.You do not stand out so much as the odd ethnic looking person.
Now,like I said at the start,I just do not get these constant feelings from people like yourself of being neither or either. Never quite fitting in. Of having always to choose or explain. Of being offended. Being a mutt as Paula Abdul has referred to herself as. Being a Cablinasian as TigerWoods said. Just really having a hard time as Karyn Parsons said of having to explain. I think ,like you said,after a while,you get over it. It is like any other part of growing up.
I know I am always saying I just do not get these people. Someone on the Karyn Parson's thread gave me some links to books to read.
I do not need the books to read. I AM the book. I am BA.Go as BA. I am the order of Solded O'Brien.Growing up in my extended family,I was the only Black person. WAIT!!Idid not tell you everyone else was Black! 25 cousins and I was the only identifiable one . In Creole culture,people really divide themselves and question others and some are quite vocal in how you look if you do not quite look a certain way.I have some many stories to tell,you would think I was from a different ethnic group. I have been offended ,highly insulted,questioned,and asked often,but how is it that you look_____and or you related to_______?Are you close? ( and the meaning here is _________ your real__________).
When I was a little girl preteen to teenage years,it bothered me.I got over it.People can think whatever they like.
I LIKE myself.
Now,like I said at the start,I just do not get these constant feelings from people like yourself of being neither or either. Never quite fitting in. Of having always to choose or explain. Of being offended. Being a mutt as Paula Abdul has referred to herself as. Being a Cablinasian as TigerWoods said. Just really having a hard time as Karyn Parsons said of having to explain. I think ,like you said,after a while,you get over it. It is like any other part of growing up.
I think maybe that has to do with personality type.. similarly, how extraverts cannot always understand how introverts feel and vice versa.
I am already a self-conscious person, so I guess it's easier for me to focus on things like this. I don't know about you, of course.
Kid, you are a very pretty girl.You have to accept and like yourself.You will never be blue -eyed and blond.You will never be dark brown or ebony in color. Don't try to identify with this group or that group or this enthic group or that one. Just be what you are.
Because you look as you do,play the game. Play the check the box game.Yeah,it is a a game.You lucked out in the gene pool that you can play that to your advantage.Yep,I know Creole Black people who look jusstttt Black enough,barely though, to check off Black if it is for school money or something. They check the White box for other stuff. I know many others who look White,and just go as White. People are going to question you for the rest of your life...
*I don't mean to ask,but what are you? You are so pretty.
That is the insulting question with the doubly insulting compliement!
I know some people answer this question by saying they are a child of God.That one cracks me everytime.LOL!
*Is that your real( brother,mother,father,sister,etc.)?
Some people answer this by saying,"No that is my fake( )."
Anyway,you have to let others opinions not define you or give you an inferiority complex. That is other people's problems.
One more thing I learned early in life,it was natural for me,is that I do not assume anyone is related or not related according to their looks.
You never know.I think everyone who posts on this site is nonjudmental when it comes to that.
Posted: Fri 24 Jul 2009 16:07 Post subject: Self-Hate
Creole GAL wrote:
Where to start. As you know,I am always saying, I just don't get these confused people and their issues.
Now I am posting to a real life person,I'll explain myself.
Like sbt said,thanks for not going out with common hood ghetto trash guys be them White,Black,PuertoRican,whatever .Trash is trash.
I have many women,pretty,smart,good homes,the works go for trash and become trash. If you go with trash,you become trash.
I have seen many people in my ethnic group, BA,since Creole is not one,HATE their looks.They have serious trouble with being blondish,green-grey eyed,whatever, straight hair, fair,total WA features looking 100% WA.Sometimes people can be influenced by others questioning or hating what they are.It is like they have to proove something. WE ALL will have people TELL US what they think about our looks/ethnicity wise and/or our "ethnic attitude." First the thing I call that what "tude"someone will tell you act like or try to be.
"She think she White. You sound White. You an Oreo. SuperNigger.
Why you talk like that? Why are you friends all Black. Why did she/he marry a_________?
Then there are the questions.
"Are you related to______? Why? How? I don't mean to pry,but what are you? Is that your (insert mother,brother,sister, etc.)?
Is that your real ( insert mother,father,sister,etc.)?
My point is you cannot fight other's preception of you.I am generally speaking here. I am not referring to you,sface,personally.
1-You are what you are. 2-You are what you look like because that is what people will take you as.
As for you, you are WA to me.Your dad is and your mom is a fairer Puerto Rican.She can pass for White. You grew up in a more WA society in NJ/NY area. I know NJ/NY can have very closed minded areas.
You also have a large ethnic melting pot and it is easier to blend.You do not stand out so much as the odd ethnic looking person.
Now,like I said at the start,I just do not get these constant feelings from people like yourself of being neither or either. Never quite fitting in. Of having always to choose or explain. Of being offended. Being a mutt as Paula Abdul has referred to herself as. Being a Cablinasian as TigerWoods said. Just really having a hard time as Karyn Parsons said of having to explain. I think ,like you said,after a while,you get over it. It is like any other part of growing up.
I know I am always saying I just do not get these people. Someone on the Karyn Parson's thread gave me some links to books to read.
I do not need the books to read. I AM the book. I am BA.Go as BA. I am the order of Solded O'Brien.Growing up in my extended family,I was the only Black person. WAIT!!Idid not tell you everyone else was Black! 25 cousins and I was the only identifiable one . In Creole culture,people really divide themselves and question others and some are quite vocal in how you look if you do not quite look a certain way.I have some many stories to tell,you would think I was from a different ethnic group. I have been offended ,highly insulted,questioned,and asked often,but how is it that you look_____and or you related to_______?Are you close? ( and the meaning here is _________ your real__________).
When I was a little girl preteen to teenage years,it bothered me.I got over it.People can think whatever they like.
I LIKE myself.
Creole Gal said:
Quote:
They have serious trouble with being blondish,green-grey eyed,whatever, straight hair, fair,total WA features looking 100% WA.Sometimes people can be influenced by others questioning or hating what they are.It is like they have to proove something. WE ALL will have people TELL US what they think about our looks/ethnicity wise and/or our "ethnic attitude." First the thing I call that what "tude"someone will tell you act like or try to be.
"She think she White. You sound White. You an Oreo
The only reasons I can see for a person "hating" his/her very white phenotype in a predominately white country would be:
1) Black-identified folks told them from childhood that they were too inferior (because of "black blood") to claim the supposed honor of being "white." Asians and American Indians don't seem to say this to mixed-white relatives.
2) If they are too "inferior" to claim a Euro-American identity and only "fit" to claim a "black" identity which doesn't describe them physically or culturally, self-hatred of the whiteness they aren't good enough to claim (according to many black-identified folks) may appear to be the only alternative, especially since the logical alternative - a white identity - is demonized as "passing" and considered worse than criminal behavior.
Here in LA, first guess would be Latina, that is Mexican American. Depending on what part of town you're in, people would definitely start speaking to you in Spanish first.
Second guess would be Armenian.
After that maybe Arab or Persian. Arab more than Persian, I think. I've seen some Pacific Islanders who kind of have your look, so that could be a possibility, hapa, maybe.
So maybe your look is just generic Angeleno. What a lot of us look like now, maybe what most of us will look like in the future.
Here. people who look like you, who identify as black American, take pains to let other black identified people know that they're not Latino.
I have never seen any phenotype overlap between Pacific Islanders and Armenians.
If I was an Armenian and people were confusing me for a Pacific Islander, than I would be asking my mother if my dad really is my biological father. Basically I would be asking my mother if she slept with the Asian or Pacific Islander milkman. Either that or ask if I was adopted.
Posted: Sat 25 Jul 2009 06:12 Post subject: Re: What ethnicity would you guess that I am?
sillyface wrote:
I am mixed, but I'm curious to see what strangers think my ethnicit(ies) are just by looking at me. I have heard different things, and I really don't know how to categorize myself. I feel one race, but I think I am judged as another. I also am curious to see which features are dominant of my heritage (mostly my nose). Please forgive/excuse my vanity!
I will probably delete these eventually, since I don't really want my photos on the internet, lol. I'm just curious what people who have studied race would view me as.
In each picture (to me) you look different
you could be Greek Middle Eastern or mulatta
the last picture you look just like an ex girlfriend of mine (black father polish mother)
Interestingly, I'm in Australia right now, and they told me I look Aboriginal.
I don't understand why I'm always *something* I'm never just whatever.
It's quite frustrating.
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This shows mature thinking. I'm not sure why all of this questioning is happening to you...could it be where you live? Could it be your last name, which I assume is something non-Puerto Rican. Could it just be people knowing too much about you, or is it the way your mother looks? I can't tell that much about her from her early picture. She looks light skinned? There are white looking Puerto Ricans you know, of course mixed as so many people are. Be this true or not, I found it on a blog:
I speak to some experiences on my site that you might be able to relate to.
)
