Are you of one ethnicity?

Question

Everybody is mixed these days...is you or anybody you know of one ethnicity background?

Okay...for example I have a friend who's full Bulgarian. I mean one ethnic background by blood....that's all

What I don't understand is the person's answer who said ethnicity is what you want it to be. How can ethnicity be what a person 'wants'? I thought you either have it in your family line or you don't. Does anyone else know what was actually being said? I don't know if this is what was trying to be conveyed or not; maybe I misunderstood.

Answer 1

idk

Answer 2

Well, your friend who is "pure Bulgarian", would that be Macedonian, Moesian, Thracian, Rumelian or maybe ethnicity derived from Ottoman rule for 500 years....

"Ethnicity" is really what you want it to be, and depends on how far back you want to go. Since "true records" in that region are lets say a bit sparce prior to 1600, there is really no legitimate way your friend could even say her family (both sides) were in the region known as Bulgaria today, even back 400 years. I would suspect what she means is that her grandparents, or maybe even her great-grandparents were from Bulgaria. That doesn't make her ethnically Bulgarian (if that is an ethnicity you define). What if both of her great-grandparents came from England, and another set came from Persia. Would that change her ethnicity from Bulgarian to English/Persian?? Now find out where her 2nd great grandparents came from...Does ethnicity change again for everyone from that point forward???

Honestly, nobody can truely say what their ethnicity is, unless they want to "stop" at just a few generations in the past. And then only if they want to assume that just because someone was born in or lived in some country or region, they are in fact of some ethinc group of that region. If my wife and I went to Ireland for a year, had a child, then moved back to the US, my child certainly would NOT be Irish, though he was born there.

Addendum: Good question in additional info. Ethnicity is actually -- of or pertaining to a group of people recognized as a class based on "certain distinctive characteristics" such as religion, language, ancestry, culture, or national origin. So if you are a French speaking Jew who was born in Italy while your sephardic parents were on vacation, you could describe (accurately) your ethnicity as French or Jewish or Italian or Sephardic. All are valid.

Answer 3

I am a Heinz 57. I think most people in America, Mexico and Puerto Rico are of different ethinic backgrounds but don't really know. And who care? Isn't it the nationality that means the most nowadays? I have British, Belgian, Austrian and German in me. But I don't care because I don't know if any family is still over there. And I will probably never have the opportunity to go travel to Europe. So, I am American through and through.

Answer 4

Most people especially here in the US are mixed to some degree. This is especially for the poster that said they were just black. Although, most don't like to remember this but during slavery there was alot of race mixing.
I don't care what you think more 9 1/2 times out of 10 if your family originated here in the US there is some race mixing somewhere.

Myself,

Father-Black, Mexican, White
Mother-Black, White, Native American

Answer 5

I don't believe that it is possible to be of just one "ethnicity", because there is no such thing as "ethnicity". What we presently call "ethnicity" is merely a collection of common physical characteristics, and sometimes (rarely) shared ancestry. We tend to focus on just one of these characteristics, skin color, to determine one's "ethnicity". This is a ridiculous way to classify people simply because I (being "white") may easily share more genes with someone who appears "black" than with another "white" person. Consider this: the human race is constantly evolving and merging into fewer and fewer "ethnic" groups. Thousands of years ago when tribes evolved in isolation there were thousands of separate "ethnicites". China, for example, had thousands of individual tribes, all considering themselves different "ethnicities". Today most people would say there is only one distinct "ethnicity" in China...."Asian"! Well that is of course depending on whom you ask; some academics may come up with a dozen or so, but really no more than that can be discerned. And they have absolutely mixed with each other over the centuries of contact they've had. This merging process is occurring everywhere due to globalization... in another 2000-5000 years you'd better believe that everybody in the world will be a kind of tan. No matter how racist and insular some groups may be, this process is inevitable!
For example, your Bulgarian friend is classifying his "ethnicity" as originating from one country. That country itself has resulted from the combination of many different "ethnic" groups over time, just as those groups themselves resulted from previous ones..check this excerpt..

The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Turks.

Answer 6

Hmmm? Who is? On my Dad's side, the folks came over from England. On my Mom's side, Wales. But that is in direct line; by branching, I can quickly include Germany, France, the Netherlands; going back 5 centuries, most of Europe, then going on back, the Middle East, Africa, etc.
Through studying both history and genealogy, I have serious doubts if any one is of "one ethnicity". Perhaps some one in deepest Africa or the jungles of South America or some such place....

Answer 7

Well, call me a cake-eater, a mutt, or a Heinz '57 if you will. I don't know about my father's side of things because i've never met him, but back before my grandmother on my mother's side, there are many, many generations of Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian ancestry.

There's Bielski, Schrosha, Berschnikovna, Rusnikov (I have not seen my grandmother's geneology book, so I am not definite on the spelling of these names)...a bunch of plump, wealthy people dating back to 1789.

and I don't know a single person of one ethnicity. just the usual "whitey" mix...english, irish, german, and italian.

Answer 8

No person EVER is ever of one nationality, i mean if Adam and Eve were put in one place, then some how would people get all over the world? Think about it! Unless you were inter breeding, at least one person was from somewhere else.

-Laila

Answer 9

It's all goofy, and all fun, and be glad that everybody probably came from Africa, but developed different genetic permutations so that we don't all have six fingers.
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And for the Italian impaired readers of Belinda's answer, translated: "If you mean that one frozen-dry that it is prepared adding water and churning simply depends: approximately 30/35 every KCal 100 milliliters.
If it considers that a large tumbler contains approximately 200 milliliters of liquid the account soon it is made.
P.S.: a liter is 1000 milliliters."
(She's not talking about old vine Zin here, kids.)

Answer 10

My parents are from Mexico. However, people from here tend to assume that Mexican is just Mexican when it isn't, just a nationality (which I'm proud of). I'm 60-70% Spanish, 1/16th French and the rest is miscellaneous native.

Answer 11

well i am 100% mexican
but that probably the same as saying "im 100% american"
because your ancestry came from a mix of different cultures.

being mexican my ancestry is a mix of spanish and aztec so you could say thsoe are my ethnicities

there is no such thing as being of just one ethnicity because your ancestry will prove otherwise eventually