Re: "Whiteness" Re: Obseneties

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>Actually, I *have* seen Asian-people-brought-up-partly-in-parents'-Asian-
>culture-and-partly-in-American-culture identify themselves as
>"Asian-Americans," not as a color thing, but as a cultural thing.  Many
>people with Asian parents and American citizenship who are my age have
>this cultural clash problem; we deal with it all the time and are sort of
>caught in a neither-fish-nor-fowl situation.  I don't know that the term
>is all that "accurate," but as a cultural identification doubtless some
>people find it helpful.

I generally call myself Filipino-American, even though I am half white.
The reason is, i dont look white, but then again I dont look Filipino
really (people generally assume i'm Mexican or Latino). But for a quick
classification of myself I go with Filipino-American because i am
physically more Filipino looking , as well as I have a definate sense of
what it is to be Filipino than it is to be American (what does it mean?
What defines American culture specifically? That's one of the problems).

Granted, when asked my nationality I always say American (people seem to
confuse heritage with nationality here ). I do tend to say i'm Filipino
and white in most instances. But, then I'm usually asked what else I am
(German, Dutch, English, Scottish, Welsh, French, Spanish, Shawnee (all on
mom's side, except Spanish)), so it can get to be a bit tedious to keep
saying it to new people I meet.

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"Courtesy is the KY Jelly of social intercourse"