There are mainly two reasons why I have questioned the purpose of the Ethnicity question in the Nexuscafe User Profile. Please note that I have never claimed that it must be filled out, I know that it can left blank. But simply I questioned why it is there at all. No other web community that I have been to has asked about ethnicity.
1. As a non-American, the terms used in the questionnaire are to me associated more with racial categories rather than ethnicity (as in a common culture tradition). Thus, although I know that the terms used in the questionnaire are accepted as politically correct within North America, I do find them offensive.
2. The options in the questionnaire exclude a vast number of people, and peoples :-), outside North America. If the purpose is to allow people who wants to proudly declare their cultural heritage, it might not be satisfying enough to simply declare “Other”. A more open alternative could be to let the users type in whatever they want here...
To avoid further confusion on the meanings behind the words “ethnicity”, “race” and the categories listed in the questionnaire, and attempting to be objective let’s see how they are defined in a contemporary dictionary. It is always useful to now and then contemplate upon the ideas, values and perspectives behind the words that we use. Especially if we use them to define each other and ourselves.
Below are unabridged definitions from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 10th Edition. Oxford Univeristy Press Inc, New York 1999.
My comments in *asterics*
Ethnic
·adj. 1. of or relating to a group of people having a common national or cultural tradition. 2. denoting origin by birth or descent rather than by present nationality: Ethnic Albanians. 3. characteristic of or belonging to a non-Western cultural tradition: Ethnic dresses 4. (archaic) heathen. · n. (chiefly N. America) a member of an ethnic minority
DERIATIVES ethnically (adv.) ethnicity (n.)
ORIGIN, Middle English (denoting a person not of Christian or Jewish faith) via ‘eccles’. Latin from Greek ethnikos ‘heathen’, from ethnos ‘nation’.
Race (2) [ Race (1) refers to running etc]
1. each of major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics. - racial origin or distinction. -an ethnic group. - a group descended from a common ancestor. 2. a group of people or thing with a common feature. 3. (Biology) a distinct population within a species; a subspecies.
ORIGIN 16th century via French from Italian, razza, of unknown ultimate origin
African American
(chiefly US) · n. an American of African origin ·adj. of or relating to African Americans.
*All people of African origin do not live in North America, and are therefore not Americans. What if you want to declare that your origins are African?*
Asian
· n. a native of Asia or a person of Asian descent · adj. of or relating to Asia its people or languages.
USAGE in Britain Asian is used to refer to people who come from (or whose parents come from) the Indian subcontinent, while in North America it is used to refer to people from the Far East
Pacific Islander
·n. a native or inhabitant of any of the islands in the South Pacific, especially an aboriginal native of Polynesia
*What do this vast number of peoples included in these two categories (that are put together as one in the questionnaire) have in common? Language, cultural traditions, or religion? Does declaring membership to this category really say anything about a single person’s heritage?*
Caucasian
· adj 1. relating to or denoting a broad division of humankind covering peoples from Europe, western Asia, and part of India and North Africa, - white-skinned; of European origin. 2. of or relating to the region of Caucasus in South East Europe · n. a Caucasian person.
*Which of these definitions does the questionnaire refer to? If it is the first defintion, does it tell anything about cultural heritage? If it refers to “white-skinned; of European origin”, then how is it not racial?*
Caucasoid
· adj. of or relating to the Caucasian division of humankind · n. a Caucasian.
USAGE the term Caucasoid belongs to a set of terms introduced by the 19th-century anthropologists attempting to categorize human races. Such terms are associated with outdated notions of racial types, and so are now potentially offensive and best avoided.
*An outdated word denoting Caucasian*
Latino
·n. (chiefly North America), a Latin American inhabitant of the United States.
ORIGIN, from Latin America, Spanish.
*Can you be a Latino if you have never lived in the US?*
Native American
·n. a member of any of the indigenous peoples of North and South America and the Caribbean Islands. ·adj. of or relating to these peoples
USAGE in the US Native American is now the current accepted term in many contexts. See also American Indian.
*Would pride in heritage here refer to being native, i.e prior to Columbus? Do all these different peoples share a single common, cultural heritage?
Besides, there are several native peoples outside of the Americas.*
Wow, you actually read through all this!
Or did you just scroll? ;-)
either way,
Namaste
Dreamlight
