Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

About mixed races,
What is the difference between race and ethnicity? I'm confused and I've been to websters and still can't figure it out.

[Lynn]

Am I the only one who is going to attempt an answer?

From my understanding, race is extremley broad; in fact, only broken down into 3 groups. negroid, mongoloid and caucasoid. Geez, that sounds funny. It also sounds racists and dated. Ethnicity, on the other had is more specific. In Alaka, the Southeast natives ie Tlingits are of different ethnicity than the northern natives (inuets) However, tlingits and Haida are of the same ethnicity, just different tribe, culture, and language.

Sorry for all the spelling mistakes. I am at work and don't have much time left of my break. Furthermore, since I got out of the TESL biz, my language skills have gone down hill

There is more I want to comment on the "half" issue. I've never had the experience of a Jpes person calling my child "half" with disgust. So, I'm sorry Sherri and Ntrophy. I guess I misunderstood.

[johnslat]

Well, apparently race doesn't even exist: genetically/biologically

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/10/981008051724.htm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C43298%2C00.html

http://www.biospace.com/news_story.cfm?StoryId=12643720

Guess we all belong to just one race: the human one

Regards,
John

[Sherri]

I quite agree John. Here's another interesting link:

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm

[johnslat]

Dear Sherri,
Wow - great site. I got 13 out of 20 WRONG in the "Sorting People" quiz.
Regards,
John

[Lynn]

I'm glad someone took a stab at answering the question. Interesting link. I only got 6 right.

Do you think of the US as a melting pot or tossed salad?

[Kurochan]

I remember reading that the source of these divisions -- Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucusoid was a German scientist of the 1850's or so -- not a time when genetics was advanced, of course! He did the groupings by facial features (nose shape, lip size). Therefore, northern Ethiopians would be Caucasian, most people in India are Caucasian, and so on.

In a college bio class our professor said that while you may find close genetic matches between people of a small, rarely-outbreeding ethnic group, there's nothing similar when you look for within what we call races. For example, if somebody who is a Sephardic Jew needs a liver transplant, it would be good to look for a match among other Sephardic Jews, because that's a small group. But, if just any white person needed a liver transplant, and you selected random strangers of all different racial groups, they might find a better match between a white person and a black person than between a white person and another (non-related) white.

[ilunga]

Sherri, that's a tough test.
I got 7 out of 20 as well. I wonder if anyone can get into double figures?

[guest of Japan]

I got 5.

[yaramaz]

I got 11 but it was by fluke. I guessed most of the answers. Aside from a few that I was quite certain about, I really wasnt sure at all. I got most of the Indian/Black categories correct but totally screwed up on the white/Latino section. Go figure.

[naturegirl321]

[guest of Japan]

[Gordon]

I only got 5 right too. Really tough. That woman with the fro really threw me for a loop.

[voodikon]

in light of the popularity of the discussion forums on asian countries, i thought i might dig up some words of wisdom (or at least insight) from posters on "mixed-race" folks. i ran a search for "hapa" on all forums, and only three matches were found. this seems the most appropriate to post my two cents in.

i don't know how many of you also identify as mixed race, but i'd guess that there are a significant number of folks who might have/might be considering children who are (as evidenced by some of the above posters).

i currently identify as hapa. my mother is now american but was born in china and lived there until the age of 16. my father is, for lack of a better term, caucasian american. i've been living in china for the past year and a half; prior to that i lived in los angeles, my birthplace and hometown. due, in large part, i feel, to my living in china and my recent visit back to the u.s., i've been re-examining my identity (particularly in terms of ethnicity) and especially my parents' relationship. i think that, growing up, i identified mostly white but was often asked "what are you?" (yes, in those words) and the like. i was exposed to cantonese to the extent that it sounds very familiar but not to the extent where i can say i particularly know anything beyond a few words (though i did recently pick up a pimsleur quick & simple and am pretty pleased with the results so far). so i guess on the surface (and since in appearance most people don't guess i'm part asian; i find it really depends on location--in east l.a. people would guess i was latina) i seemed just "white" but now i'm feeling much more "asian." then again, i think most asians (chinese in china and also asian americans) tend to view me as white, and it's usually only my other hapa friends who identify me as "one of them." i wish i'd been made to feel more chinese growing up, i suppose, but i see now this was due in large part to my father's anglonormative attitudes about marrying a "foreigner" ("i didn't want to be a foreigner in my own home," he always offers as explanation as to why he protested my mother's speaking chinese to her children). after all, i suppose, he wasn't the one who traveled to a foreign country and picked up a spouse--thus no responsibility on his part, apparently, to be accepting of that Other culture. and i'd have to say my mom is mostly a twinkie/banana now, though she did get pretty excited when i whipped out my cantonese-studying materials during my visit.

and interestingly my sister (never known for her new-age pc-ness or whatever you'd call people who look into these things, you know, like feminists or some equally extreme group) revealed that she's finding things out about herself too--particularly noteworthy being the fact that she feels she's racist against white people (!), and especially has "issues" with white males, probably due at least in part to our father's behavior. and as for myself, i'm finding myself increasingly repulsed/threatened by the white males i find in china (i tried dating one--disastrous for both of us), and i don't know if that's purely due to the white males i'm running across or some more subconscious thing now choosing to make an appearance. (back home i dated both white and asian guys but never felt race to be an issue in choosing a date--as in, if the opportunity arose i'd not be opposed to dating somebody of whatever race. here i feel more and more compelled to stick exclusively to chinese, or, better yet, asian americans. or, i suppose, if i ever came across one to my liking, somebody entirely outside of all these categories.)

so for those of you who have gone to another country and have had children with a local--and then stayed in that country or moved back and forth between that country and your own--i want to laud you for your efforts. i think your kids will appreciate it one day. (and hopefully not enter their mid-20s having identity crises--heh.) yeah, there was really no point to that; i just wanted to share my life story, apparently.

[JZer]