How did I offend him?

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I get asked about my race all the time , I've been asked if I'm Spanish , Moroccan , Pakistani you name the cappuccino skinned culture and I've been asked if I devend from it . I don't find it offensive to be honest its just someone taking an interest because it mustn't be obvious to them . I'm actually a 1/4 African and more british than anything else so when someone comes and starts talking in Urdu I am stumped :colone:

lmao, brilliant! Some guy actually called me over because he couldn't understand what the notice board in the tube station said and because I'm brown he casually started throwing random words at me which made no sense at all. I think he was speaking tamil, but who knows o_o.

Reply 21

DanB1991

Original post by wsxcde

and a white european is anglo-saxon/viking/celtic/roman? And a roman is germanic tribal, and germanic tribal originated from people migrating to europe out of africa..

Haha nice try, but that's actually incredibly wrong.

British/welsh/Cornish = Briton (celts had an incredibly small effect on the genetics)
Scottish = Pictish/Briton/Irish
English = Pictish/Briton/Saxon
Franch = Briton/Celtic/Frankish
German = Mostly germanic (different to celtic)
Roman = Specific group of Latin people, not celtic or germanic at all.

Most of the above groups originally come from the Proto-Indo-European groups.

However some groups are not, such as the original greek peoples who had migrated during earlier waves, native british (that includes British, cornish, english, scottish and other none british groups such as the irish) actually are some the oldest european peoples, with around 3/4's sharing ancestory from the origional Paleolithic settlers of the British and Irish isles.

Ethnically/racially most of these groups have been separated from Africa for between 50,000-35,000 years, while specifically living in Europe for around 35,000-20,000 years. Jamaicans for example have been separated for 350 years and racially can still be considered an African people.

Reply 22

DanB1991

Original post by wsxcde

it's incredibly correct if you understood it (talking about predecessors). But in your mind no one ever moved or bred at all. When romans conquered england not 1 roman had a child with 1 british celtic, and same story for viking settlers, according to you. And umm rome suddenly appeared and celts in britain suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. In reality it's not the case.

Actually ethnically, invasion tends to have a rather minimal effect on genetics, especially in Europe, Africa, Middles east and Asia. Obviously Romans and Vikings had children in the British isles, but in the long term they had a markedly minimal effect (especially the Romans who where always in extremely minute numbers in Britain).

The only exception is the Americans dues to A) Many regions being sparsely populated and B) The majority of the native population being wiped out.

As a result many brutal events, such as Carthage being completely wiped out and subsequent Roman colonisation of the former city, actually had a very minimal effect on the ethnicity of the people in the area.

Also britons were never ethnically celts, they were at the very most cultural celts. In fact "all" classical writers clearly distinguished the two groups. The modern usage is based on early modern mistakes, which slowly gave way to the insular celtic theory. There were very few celtic tribes, all being based in the southern extremes of britain and as I stated earlier have an almost non-existent genetic effect on current britons.

Edit: If you want to rely on wikipedia these are the correct pages to look at, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_Celts, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Age_tribes_in_Britain..... a recentyly deleted page regarding the dispute actually highlighted the modern academic usage of "celtic" did not refer to ethnicity or race but mostly langauge.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 23

bottled

Original post by wsxcde

The only reason applications say such forms is data collection for equal opportunities/to assess prejudice against skin colours. I dont see why you think the situation of someone born in britain who has japanese parents is in any way different to the situation of someone born in britain who has french parents.

It still is used as a way to differentiate between people, and doesn't change the fact that nationality and race are two different things

Reply 24

T.I.P

Original post by quentinhamilton

I don't see how living in Harrow makes one less African. Well, the guy I was working with did say his ancestors were African but you didn't exactly state why it's offensive.

Yes because being born in London UK makes you African....

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Reply 25

bittr n swt

lol it's pathetic for him to get offended...he's black so of course you're gonna assume african. I would 100% of the time and I'm black. If a black guy got offended i would tell him to shut the **** up you immature ****

Reply 26

bottled

Original post by wsxcde

yeah and it doesnt change the fact that someone born in the uk is british regardless of whether their parents, or great great great great grandparents, were french, scandinavian, russian, african, or anything else. And if there was huge stigma against say scandinavian people, these equal opportunity forms you are talking of would ask people whether they consider themselves scandinavian-british, which is the reason they ask if people are ethnically "irish-british" even though thats not even necessarily a seperate enthnicity, but because of stigma against gypsies.

I really don't recall saying that their race negates their nationality.

Reply 27

T.I.P

Original post by bittr n swt

You are not black... Do you think black people only live in Africa?

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Reply 28

Emily.97

Oh, ffs.
No, it's not racism, you had just got it wrong where it is that he comes from. The term is thrown around now, and it's disgusting.

Reply 29

bittr n swt

Original post by T.I.P

You are not black... Do you think black people only live in Africa?

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Shut up, tell me the continent which has the most black people?

If a brown person came up to me, i would assume they're asain until i have to ask.

if a white person came up to me, on first glance, i would assume they're european until i have to ask.

Reply 30

Anonymοοse

There's a theory that all modern day homo-sapiens can trace their roots back to Africa if you look back far enough, so technically speaking, it wasn't an incorrect assumption :wink:

I do think his reaction was a little strange and also it's a teeny bit racist he considers being called African an insult? I don't think what you said was particularly offensive and it can't have been the first time someone has made that mistake. He may have just been having a bad day. :dontknow:

Reply 31

Lifeimitatesart

OP didn't assume he was African, OP innocently asked him therefore they are not ignorant.
Also there is nothing said that justifies that OP is racist.

But anyway this thread has really digressed... o_O

Reply 32

ImNotSuperman

Original post by T.I.P

Yes because being born in London UK makes you African....

If both his parents are African, it's irrelevant where he's from, he's African.

Now this is the bit you've misunderstood - think carefully about this because it's a real head-scratcher. A bewildering and bizarre concept.

He can be African AND British.

Reply 33

quentinhamilton

Original post by Anonymοοse

There's a theory that all modern day homo-sapiens can trace their roots back to Africa if you look back far enough, so technically speaking, it wasn't an incorrect assumption :wink:

I spoke to him today and he said he was insulted because he doesn't want to be referred to as 'African' because he’s British; but as he claimed, "it is because it's a broke place"- though I find that rather much insulting than my assumption.

Reply 34

Tom78

In fairness, Africans definitely look different to Carribeans.

Reply 35

frazee1

Calling someone racist is trendy and fashionable.

Reply 36

T.I.P

Original post by bittr n swt

So you see a person who is black walking on the street and assume they are native African? Lmao GTFO kid!

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Reply 37

T.I.P

Original post by ImNotSuperman

Clearly his parents were most likely from Jamaica... As he wasnt African.. did you not read the original post or are you just an idiot?

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