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Do you look like your race?


Tyrion

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Like, if you're mexican do you look mexican? 'cause see, I'm Mexican however depending on which way you see me I look either French or Jewish.

 

Even worse, my friends made a joke that I was the only Canadian in my school...however, some people geniunely thought I was French Canadian. Not Spanish or Mexican, but French Canadian.

 

What about you, does your lineage have some self-image problems too?

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I look like my race. Like, I'm Yugoslavian, Greek, German, and Polish. I have the bigger nose thing going on. That's where the Greek thing comes in.

 

Uhm yeah.

 

Anyways, I think you should change your location. Nobody's Fault But Mine is a totally different song than Achilles Last Stand. (FINALLY YOU'RE LISTENING TO THEM)

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Isn't what any race "looks like" simply a stereotype?

 

Since there aren't really very many "pure races" anymore (except perhaps some isolated indigenous tribes for example), it's kind of goofy anyway.

 

For example, a lot of people will see a dark skinned person and say "black" or "African American" even if that person may only have a tiny percentage of African "blood" (ancestry) in them. Then there's people who have African ancestry that are very light skinned and wouldn't be recognized as "black" according to their skin tone. And what about people with Jamiacan ancestry?

 

"Jewish" is another problem, because due to intermarriage and converts (the line between the religious aspect and the "ethnic" of Judaism is quite blurred) it isn't easy to pin down.

 

I visited a web site awhile back which was really telling. It was aimed at "Asian" (Oriental) people, and basically gave you a quiz. They showed how Korean, Chinese, and Japanese people tended to think that they could "recognize the differences" between those three groups. So the quiz let you look at pictures of various people's faces who belonged to one of those three groups and guess which one they belonged to. Most people couldn't guess them correctly with any degree of accuracy, including people who belonged to those groups.

 

It just goes to show that anymore, a lot of these distinctions are artificial and unimportant.

 

It's like the old saying... everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day! A large percentage of Americans claim Irish ancestry, but honestly I wonder how many of them have little or no "Irish blood" in them? It's a point of pride and belonging rather than some actual genetic fact that matters.

 

People change their names and intermarry so that's not a good indicator of ethnicity, and people wear tinted contacts, go tanning, dye their hair, wear makeup, lose or gain accents based on environment, etc.

 

Cultures share with each other and change with experiences.

 

That's not to say that you can't "take pride" in your appearance or heritage or what not, but it goes to show that beauty is often only skin deep.

 

The way I see it, a person's culture is what they make of it, and their appearance likewise. While it's easy to judge people by their appearance (we do it all the time whether we realize it or not) we should try not to be so caught up in it that we make hasty generalizations based on it.

 

I've got some German ancestry, and when I let my hair grow too long sometimes I think I look a bit like Hitler (without the little 'stache, which incidentally was quite popular in that time period). That doesn't make me feel like I'm somehow evil, only it helps encourage me to get a haircut now and then. ;)

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Originally posted by Acrylic

I look like my race. Like, I'm Yugoslavian, Greek, German, and Polish. I have the bigger nose thing going on. That's where the Greek thing comes in.

 

Uhm yeah.

 

Anyways, I think you should change your location. Nobody's Fault But Mine is a totally different song than Achilles Last Stand. (FINALLY YOU'RE LISTENING TO THEM)

 

Yeah, I know that. Achilles last Stand is my favorite Led Zeppelin song, so I just had to include it in.

 

@Kurgan: Your response is what I feared when I posted this thread. ;) I didn't intend for this to be a large debate on the logical application of classifying your ancestral blood by your appearance, but instead for purely conversation.

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Yea I remember studying about the Holocaust in reading class. And I was saying this thing about how "pure" Germans could have ben Jewish because Judaism is a religion. Then some kid was disagreeing with me saying that Judaism is a race. What an idioit GOSH!

 

 

As for me I am half Swedish and 25% Indian.(the India in Asia not Native American) Problem is I don't look Swedish. I look more Indian and people always ask me if I am from Pakistan and I am no where close to as dark as the people in India and Pakistan. I told my mom I looked white and she told me I was white(caucasian) BIG shocker right there.

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Originally posted by lukeiamyourdad

Anyway, it isn't hard to distinguish Vietnamese from Chinese. But then again, they are different enough for us to distinguish both.

Although some still call me chinese...bloody assholes...

People are ignorant, they can't see such physical differences. All asians are Chinese or Japanese, unless it's a war there is no such thing as Vietnamese. :p

 

Same with the "if you're dark skinned, you're African-American" even if you're of Jamaican ancestry. Or if you're dark skinned, but not black-dark skinned, you're Indian, no such thing as pakistan. ;)

 

*shrugs* but such distinguishments still only prove to divide us. Things like that should only be given if need to point someone out is there. Scenario:

"I have a friend you might like to meet"

'Oh? Who?'

"That guy over by the bar."

'Which guy?'

"The Vietnamese one."

 

 

anyway, I'm rambling now so whatever.

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Originally posted by InsaneSith

People are ignorant, they can't see such physical differences.

 

Well, I can't tell the difference between a German, an Austrian, and a Belgian, in terms of appearance, nor can I see the differnece between Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, etc...

 

My two cents.

 

*shrugs*

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Originally posted by General Agamemnon

I got Native American and African American in me, and I look like a scottish guy...which is another ancestory I have in me coincidentally

 

*glares at Ty*

How does one look scottish? Do you wear kilts?
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