Re: ATTN JMS: Humans build communities

In article <A6idnem91PErx1zenZ2dnUVZ_tSdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>, Carl says...
>
>
>"Amy Guskin" <aisling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:0001HW.BFE6BB960335FD32F0284550@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 12:20:38 -0500, Carl wrote
>> (in article <tP-dnSVy779U1FzenZ2dnUVZ_tOdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>):
>>
>>>
>>> "Amy Guskin" <aisling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>> news:0001HW.BFE697F5032F1D08F0284550@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>>> On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 00:20:57 -0500, Wendy of NJ wrote
>>>> (in article <n681s1pr6okf2oc3i5t62u6mkfnkf2o22j@xxxxxxx>):
>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, 8 Jan 2006 02:53:19 +0000 (UTC), Amy Guskin
>>>
>>>> So I guess if I went to some country where people were predominantly
>>>> black
>>>> or
>>>> Asian, and they looked at my face and stamped my papers "Anglo," that's
>>>> some
>>>> indication of how I might feel in the US if I were a Brazilian
>>>> designated
>>>> as
>>>> "Hispanic."
>>>
>>> Would you really care if they called you Anglo? <<
>>
>> On some level, yes, it would bother me - especially if I felt that it were
>> being done because it's less bothersome than trying to find out what my
>> ethnicity actually was, or for some other reason of demographic
>> expediency.
>> Because while I _am_ an English speaker - so I suppose "Anglophone" would
>> fit
>> the bill - I am _not_ English.
>
>I guess this underlying difference is at the core of our disagreement.
>
>I wouldn't assume anyone else *cares* about my ethnicity, so I wouldn't
>expect them to take the trouble to find out what it is. Why should anyone
>care where I come from?


I was about to post something very similar, especially since the scenario used
was where a bureaucrat stamped a form with an ethnicity without being bothered
to ask. I truly couldn't care any less what somebody stamps on a form asking
information for statistical purposes. Whatever they're collecting data for and
why is nothing to me. If I'm filling out a form that requires that, I'm about
equally likely to check White/Caucasion as I am Other.

On a personal level, though, why should anybody care about my ethnicity or make
any effort to discover it? My father seemed to get a lot of satisfaction from
being 100% (yeah, right) German and my mother's mother was extremely proud of
being 100% (see above) Irish (Catholic) but I don't have any identity/ego tied
up with any of that and I'd hardly expect or want anybody else to care.

Sometimes I find it slightly annoying, too, if they *do* care. Such as when
somebody would make assumptions about me based on my married name (as if women
hadn't been changing names for generations), some people couldn't seem to
understand that a) *I* wasn't Italian and b) *neither* was my husband as he'd
been adopted and c) the ethnic history of a name is about as much of a data
point about people today as the former custom of naming by occupation is. You
don't expect somebody named 'Farmer' to be one, do you?

The point being, I'm me. I'm American. I'm that short, round woman with short
greying hair but I'm *not* any ethicity that mattered to my parents or
grandparents.

Jan


--
Here, gathered together in common cause
We agree to recognize this singular truth
and this singular rule:
That we must be kind to one another.
G'Kar (J. Michael Straczynski)

.

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