Do people often argue with you about your background? Maybe it's something you say, like my mum is a Tinkerbell and my dad is from the Moon..? So they are like; 'wait a minute?!'.

Oh hell yes! No one ever guesses correctly. I can pass for everything but my actual mix

FACTS

@@kellycollins8228 FOR REALS THO

I’ve had a white man from the UK argue with me that I must be Asian. I have zero Asian ancestry. I have taken several dna tests to confirm this. He refused to accept my answer just because i have fair skin and dark hair. I have no other features that would be associated with being Asian. I am half Mexican, half Puerto Rican. Another time a supposedly Puerto Rican man asked me if I was “sure” that I was Puerto Rican because I didn’t fit his idea of what a Puerto Rican should look like. OMG. 🙄🙄🙄 I was raised by my Puerto Rican family and know my roots very well. Several generations of research and first hand knowledge to be exact. Yes, I am sure. How ignorant.

HelloWorld exactly---i honestly feel like to tell someone the actual truth is SO complicated, but I feel like I'm cheating myself if I just try to give a quick "census box" based answer?

Yes! I have no problem discussing the topic, I just hate when complete strangers feel they can stop you and interrupt whatever you're doing to ask, what I feel, is a rather personal (and detailed) question. Like, hey! You don't look like the rest of us! Tell me why!

I also think a part of it is familiarity. If someone, for example, knows a lot about a certain culture and your parents are from that culture, there might be interesting topics to talk about in that area. Or if you're from a different culture that they have no experience with, they might want to know more about that culture. I'm Latvian and I live in UK, while both countries are extremely white, Latvia much more than UK, the cultures are very different. I enjoy sharing my culture with people, it's different, many things are different, the way people treat things, food, weather, experiences. So far most people I've discussed it with have been very interested and have learnt something new.

There's nothing wrong with being curious, but it can be perceived as rude to just walk up to a complete stranger and start asking them details about their life. I've had people literally look at me and within less than a second immediately blurt out "What are you?" I feel like you should at least be somewhat familiar with an individual before you start probing further into their life.

Who does that? I've never heard about anyone doing that. I mean, even if it's a racist thing I don't understand the logic of asking it to a stranger standing in front of you in the line at the grocery store or something like that. What's wrong with people? I'm sorry you've had to deal with dumbasses.

Michaela Belle I've gotten the where are you from, I say here, the US. Then it's ok where are your parents from and again, here, and they think I'm lying. People love to pick a country and insist that's where you're from, forget that I have no accent and only speak English, I for sure am from overseas somewhere. People are stubborn.

but isn’t that just nationality? i get white, but i wanna know specially where their family’s background is from. france, england, scottish, finnish, australian, etc. they can have a different accent than where their family’s from.

That’s a different question lol

right..i was like..yup I am Haitian, Nola Creole(a whole gang of shit) and Italian.

I always respond with “I am human. What are you?”.

YEP. Same on both fronts. I know my ancestry well, even proven with DNA tests. Complete strangers trying to argue with me about where my roots are from 🙄🙄🙄

Yes, she basically just Black with a white grandfather.

No. She's Caribbean

@@gabdominates dude thats not a race bruh shes black and white

People will ask me what part of Mexico are your parents from? I'll answer aqui, in America. You cant go based on that lol

I would be offended if ppl assumed my parents were American just cause we're back lol

Because it's interesting to know another persons culture and to know something that's a part of that person. I am a person of two ethnicities but that doesn't stop me from wondering other peoples ethnicity.

Then spend time with them and learn their culture as it is at that moment. Ethnicity isn't culture. Culture is culture, ethnicity is ethnicity hence the use of two different words. When you ask for ethnicity, all you are saying is "Let me estimate you according to my personal preconceptions of where you come from and use that as a glass to view you through." That has nothing to do with you wanting to get to know a *specific* person. It has everything to do with what color you want your glasses to be tinted. It literally has absolutely no other use. Ethnicity and race (and to an extent even culture i.e. "our cultures are too different" or "we had a clash of cultures") is a false construct that is used to unite people together against each other. There is a reason for all this. Racial segregation is not based on ethnicity. It is based on people's *ideas about* a specific ethnicity. Their preconceptions. The difference is subtle but extremely significant. There is really only one way to end racial segregation, right down to work, politics, schools, educations and everything else. You, and everyone else needs to stop self-identifying as any specific race or ethnicity. It yields no real benefit to you or anyone else, and on the balance, yields way more negatives than any perceived positives that knowing a person's ethnicity or race might ostensibly yield. Even African Americans should stop identifying as that. They should identify as humans. The same goes for whatever country you come from. Countries are also false construct that is used for one thing and one thing only: To validate an artificial "us vs them" construct. Just spend a few minutes and think about how ridiculous the ideas of made-up borders on the face of a planet is. This speaks to the exact same mode of thinking. Look at just about every single problem humans have. They are almost all based in a "us and them" construct. You need to not identify as bi-racial. You need to identify as human. Full stop. You need to identify as "us" full stop. When everyone stops identifying people based on their skin color or their origins, then only will we get to the real person. Identifying ethnicity is nothing but a lazy shortcut preventing you from having to dig into that person. Simple: pretend you are blind when you meet a person. I betcha (and this is just me thinking) that blind people, by and large, are far less racist, as a group. In other words, I'm saying that both race and ethnicity are babies that should be thrown out with the bathwater. If someone asks you what race you are, say "Homo Sapiens Sapiens" or "Human" and when they ask you what your ethnicity is, tell them "earthling." Anything else is not only worthless, but entirely harmful.

I never said that I didn't spend time with them? I don't use it as a conversation starter but I find it interesting to know about it?... I know what ethnicity and culture are but it's still apart of who you are! That and your personality etc is what made who you are as a person. Diversity is beautiful just so you know. What's wrong with identifying as Asian/Caucasian? I am born as a biracial and human and that wouldn't change the truth. You don't have to view this topic so negatively. If everyone was the same it would've been quite boring. Sorry but there'll always be people that aren't the same as you even if they're human. If you don't like the current system then don't complain about it on the internet and do something about it? Ps. I don't need to stop identifying as biracial because it's apart of who I am.

I don't think you get what I'm saying. This is the problem: There is good and bad to everything. One good thing you highlighted in this context is that it is interesting. Here is what I'm saying: Yes, it may be interesting to know a person's ethnic background, BUT the concept of ethnicity / race is NOT a good thing for humankind to hang on to, as a whole. "Interesting-ness" is not enough justification for us to keep something that does way more harm than good around in our way of thinking. The entire idea (because it is a false construct - and false constructs never lead to good results / outcomes in the long run) of race needs to disappear from the canon, the entirety of human thought, in the same way that the idea that drilling a hole in someone's skull to let out demons that made them sick needed to disappear from the collective of human thought. There are ideas that simply carry far more negative weight, more negative potential, than they carry positive weight. And seeing differences between *ethnicities* is the first step of seeing differences between *races* and race simply isn't a thing. Except to evil people or the victims of things like race discrimination and race generalization. What I'm saying is: If you have a bomb that kills all malaria-carrying mosquitoes it may be a good thing. But if that bomb kills all malaria-carrying mosquitoes and all other insects as well, we can't have it. My point is that, in the long run, referring to ethnicity, speaking of ethnicity, viewing a person as a specific ethnicity (and how that INEVITABLY colors peoples perceptions / expectations / ideas of that person BECAUSE they are of a specific ethnicity - even if it is as simple as "southern black people like fried chicken, so when they come visit, let's make fried chicken to make them feel welcome") carries far more negative potential than positive potential, and should for that reason be removed from the way we perceive people. Ethnicity isn't a unifying factor. It is divisionary (I am of this ethnicity and you are of that ethnicity.) No, there is only one real and one ultimately useful ethnicity: human. And even though ethnicity may be interesting, what I am asking of you is to let it go, because it has too much bad baggage to justify keeping it around. I know differences are beautiful. But those beautiful differences exists within individuals and individuality, not withing arbitrary and every-single-time-incorrect ethnic distinctions. Go watch some of those "23 and me" "ethnic makeup" videos and you will see how meaningless and arbitrary the "interesting-ness" of ethnic "diversity" is. Every single human has DNA from just about every ethnic origin there ever was, including even species that don't exist anymore. It's not only meaningless for any kind of knowledge about any human, but also harmful when it is seen as in even the slightest way meaningful or useful for any purpose. It is nothing other and cannot ever be anything other than a tool for generalization. Then, about me complaining on the internet? It isn't complaining. This isn't even for you. It's for the kids in the bleachers who might one day pass past here and read an idea that is different from the accepted norm, that says that the accepted norm is wrong: That ethnicity or race has / shouldn't have any influence, actual or imagined, on who you are and how I should perceive you. That a better idea is simply to leave all that out and perceive you as you are, irrespective of what race / ethnicity you are, to not judge a book either by it's cover or it's origins or even it's author. You are not bi-racial and neither is any human on this planet. We are all "all-racial." That's why I'm saying it is a useless idea, we are all, each one of us, a mix, and distinguishing yourself as only two of the multitude of ethnicities you consist of is not only false, but also meaningless and useless. I mean, I'm as white as the driven snow, so much that I turn bright pink in the slightest sun, but my DNA profile says I'm more than one quarter sub-saharan African. How is that useful to you in getting to know me?

thank u jacques! its so annoying and its not really someone else's business unless theyre ur friend. why should strangers know?

🤣 every answer platinum level! I will commit these to memory and be ready next time

Jamaican would be her nationality not her race. There are black , Asian, White, Arab and mixed race Jamaicans

But then spanish would be a safer bet since Brazil is the only country that speaks portuguese in south america?

Idk, maybe, it's confusing, doesn't make much sense to me

I just want you to realize that you're speaking to a brazilian. I wanna say that yes, there are a lot of black people here, but I have no idea from where you took this 50% thing. Most people in my country are neither black or white. In the north and northeast there are more black and brown people and in the south the majority of people are from european descendant. That being said, I have no idea why you brought that up? I was talking about the language. Do you think Brazil is the only country in south america that has black people? I don't understand your point.

Ali Hassan I would never have considered this had you not replied. Thank you.

Brazilians and Caribbean people look alike. Especially Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Jamaicans etc.They have a similar look. Im Cuban and get mistaken for Brazilian all the time by Brazilian people. She fits the stereotype too, what are you confused about?

john scallan it’s just a question. Just plain curiosity

Conversation starter. Shits interesting

No, it's a loaded question. The questioner is trying to pigeonhole the other person.

So tell me about your STD. Don't leave anything out.

john scallan *You* can't dictate the sentiment behind *me* asking any question, or saying any thing. Yes, it can, sometimes, come out of derision, and down right racism, but for you to say outright that one tries to pigeon hole someone when asking it is for you to speak on behalf of anybody who asks that question, which you simply cannot do. As for the STD thing, you're implying that someone having an ethnicity not deemed 'normal' (generally, in the statistical majority, or native to the land which they inhabit) is something that is comparable to an STD? Asking someone's ethnicity is nowhere near as intrusive as asking about ST fucking D's. Get your head out of your ass. That's a shitty analogy and if you can't see that then I pity you. Im born and raised in one of the most multicultural cities in the world (London), my family emigrating here from Ireland in the 60s (so to anybody who doesn't know me, I'm part of the 'natives', and, by your logic, me asking this is a loaded question to pigeon hole them, from their point of view). Nobody has ever reacted anything other than positively, because they can tell the sincerity of my interest, which is always the case. Stop being so easily offended and live in the real world, because here, it's no big deal, and anybody who takes it otherwise is way too easily offended (and that's an opinion held by people pretty much everyone, whether black, white, brown, yellow, green and blue)

maybe there were some brazilians that thought she was from there as well

also, i'm Brazilian, hello :)

“What are you?” is quite possibly the stupidest and most offensive way to ask this question. When people do it to me, I always answer with “I’m human. What are you?”. The question makes zero sense.

Usually Brazil = Portuguese

But they’re not though. No pale person is described as American. Most People in the US are US citizens. Immigrants and migrants. The only true are Americans are those who where here before the land was conquered. So called “black” people.

Meaning people who have any sort of empathetic quality can usually pick up what the persons intentions are, this is what makes communication more effective. If we were always left guessing to interpret what people say then you will most likely end up with false assumptions.