I want to know how long you'd consider yourself ethnic. I call myself mongrel white American, because one German here or there three generations back does not an ethnicity make. (The English and Scottish people eight generations back, I think they've expired.)

I wouldn't place myself firmly in any particular ethnicity, but I do still identify with the idea of being Italian-American, even though you have to go back to my great-grandparents before you hit someone who was born in Italy. (My grandmother did grow up speaking Italian at home, though, and as my mother's mother she kind of won the ethnicity game.)

My mother grew up in Northampton, MA, with Italian and French-Canadian parents (she actually attended a French-language Catholic elementary school, and that was in the 1950s), and has very clear memories of being considered Unacceptably Ethnic because of her ancestry--getting the hairy eyeball in stores, that kind of thing.

My name is incredibly ethnic for these parts. Probably not in Chicago.

I want to know how long you'd consider yourself ethnic.

As long as you care to.

It's interesting. We use the word "Anglo" on the reservation to refer to the non-Native population. Which includes me, although I am decidedly not Anglo.

And I'm fourth generation, which is longer ago than some of you, but since my bloodline is all Japanese, I identify as such.

As a sidenote, my mother (who, like all three previous generations, grew up in Hawaii) when asked about her ethnic heritage will reply that she's from Hawaii. When pressed for detail, she will elaborate that she's Japanese. I, who grew up in Ohio, when asked (if not giving a snarky answer to an ill-phrased question) will respond that I am Japanese. When pressed, I will elaborate with my familial history & immigration tale through Hawaii.

We use the word "Anglo" on the reservation to refer to the non-Native population.

Are Hispanics included in this? When/where I grew up in NM, there were 3 races: Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo (usually called Indian, Mexican, and gringo). Anglo included Asians, definitely.

The ethnic heritage conversation has been interesting. I thought I had a common American mix with my Irish, German, Native American, and French ancestors. Then I married DH and my kids now have English and Russian in their mix. Our siblings married people that add ancestors that came through Haiti, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, and Sweden to the mix. Family gatherings include a lot of bloodlines.

Our children's gatherings include children from all over the globe so I expect the mix to get mixier in future generations. I overhear the kids discussing their varied parentage. They encourage them in school to share their stories of family traditions based on their heritage. They know so much more about other cultures than I did at that age.

Where I was raised in upstate NY it was still the Italians lived in this section and the Irish lived there and the Polish over here. We were close enough to Canada that people referred to Canucks. Didn't matter what language they spoke. I only saw people with Hispanic or Oriental heritage on television until I was an adult.

To get even further into the divisions within groups, I'm 1/4 German-Jewish, and 3/4 Eastern European Jewish. (Though my grandmother would have claimed it was half and half -- she never quite accepted that her husband, who grew up in Vienna, had parents from Poland.) Those divisions don't mean quite as much now as they used to, but there are still vestiges -- German Jews seen as more upper-class and proper. Most of the stereotypical "Jewish" stuff in popular culture is Eastern European. Most of the German Jews in the US came over here earlier and tended to be more successful -- the big department stores, the banking families, etc. -- while the Eastern Europeans were the ones who came later and lived on the lower east side.

No, you're right, Raq, Hispanics were the third group, yup.

my mother (who, like all three previous generations, grew up in Hawaii) when asked about her ethnic heritage will reply that she's from Hawaii. When pressed for detail, she will elaborate that she's Japanese. I, who grew up in Ohio, when asked (if not giving a snarky answer to an ill-phrased question) will respond that I am Japanese.

Huh. One of the coolest supervisors I've ever had, also Japanese American (and also a gifted musician like you), was born in Ohio and moved to Hawaii at age 5. If you tell me you've ever had a completely random weird childhood pet (he and his sibs had a pet donkey that his father brought home for them one day, never really explaining where he'd found it or why), I'm going to assume the two of you are Bizarro World antimatter negative twins.

So glad that Fay and SA have managed to get to London and meet up despite the fog.