it got half of me right

Over the past few months, I've really enjoyed taking the random internet quizzes I come across. I guess the few that do describe you well make up for the so many that are totally off base. Although the Who's Your Inner European? quiz does not predict your ethnicity, it reminded me of my problem with labeling a person as fitting a certain ethnic category. Growing up going to public school, I remember a few times where tests asked for my ethnicity, which started me thinking about the difference between who I am and what I mark on a questionnaire. The problem does not come from my cultural heritage: I was raised with some Scottish and Italian tradition, but mostly I identify with culture of Southern California (which is broad, I know, but at least it's less general "American" culture). The problem for me comes from the racial factor of ethnicity.

My grandfathers' families are from Italy, my maternal grandmother's mom is from Scotland and her dad is from Whales, and my paternal grandmother was adopted and does not know where her biological family is from. For practical purposes, most just clump Italian, Scottish, and Welsh together as a "White"[1]< ethnicity, so I have no problem there. My problem is a conscientous one whenever I mark what ethnicity I am on a form. As far as I know, I do have "white" ethnicity, but my paternal grandmother has features and skin tone associated with Native Americans. So should I mark "Other" or "White/American Indian" on my form since my grandmother thinks she's probably Native American?

An argument for me marking "Other" or "White/American Indian"is that everyone relies on their ancestors' portrayal of who they are (to some extent), and therefore I should take my grandmother at her word. If my grandmother said that both her parents had only very dark skin tone yet she, her husband, and all her children had a very pale skin tone, I would have good reason to question the validity of her statement that her parents had very dark skin tone. But the fact is that my grandmother does have features that are associated with Native Americans, which have been passed on to my dad and his sibs. It is reasonable then, to accept my ancestor's portrayal of who she thinks she is, since she has support for it.

On the other hand, an argument for me marking "White" is that I should limit my expression of who I am to how I look, and for the most part I look "White". This would probably please statisticians since generally that is the ethnic group with which I most identify. The question seems to be used for producing generalizations anyway, so being the most general (without being too wrong) will help whoever is asking the question: "be a good chap now and answer us simply. we don't want the messy details."

As you can probably tell, I don't like the second argument (but maybe there's a better reason to go with marking "White"). It all just becomes frustrating because I don't fit the "model" that everyone is supposed to know where they are from. The ethnicity of others doesn't seem to be so cut and dry either, and I seriously wonder what good it is (besides propagating ethnic divisions or conducting serious research for medicinal or ethnological purposes) to factionalize people by ethnicity and race. Anyway, that's my $0.02. Oh yeah, and before I forget, this is what the Who's Your Inner European? quiz told me: :)

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

[1]but what is a "White" ethnicity anyway? It seems to broad of a term to be useful scientifically or historically, but yet people accept its use and continue to use it on a daily basis. The same goes for all the other "codes" used for determining ethnicity: what a bummer.

c'mon dromano, you're not really italian; just an italian-poser, you white boy. ch. psh. tsk.

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous!

You drink everyone under the table.

Who's Your Inner European?

Hey Dave. I hope your summer is going swimmingly. I'm glad I'm a stereotypical Irish because I do like to drink and my moral prudeness does match a typical Catholic.

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