-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Do You View Your Race or Ethnicity as a Core Part of Your Identity?
- Thread starter Gaf Zombie
- Start date
Couldn't care less.
I was born, raised and currently live in Australia, and I identify myself as an Australian.
I was born, raised and currently live in Australia, and I identify myself as an Australian.
Yes of course, I'm not super prideful about it, but I can't deny that it's a core part of who I am. From the traditions, mannerisms I have picked up, to my tastes in food, a lot of a it stems from my ethnic/cultural up bringing.
Yes, it's a core part of my identity, because it's a huge part of how I'm treated in society.
As far as race goes, I'm Colombian with mostly Spanish ancestry so I'm essentially white until white people decide I'm not. Which they have done so at different points in my life. But most non-Latinos assume I'm white American or maybe European if they hear me pronounce my name to the point that some think I'm lying when I say where I'm from or that my first language is Spanish. So I live my life knowing that the privilege I have is substantial, even if it's not guaranteed, and I need to do my part to dismantle that privilege as much as I can.
It's also hard to disentangle my ethnicity from my status as an immigrant to the United States. I'm not sure how I would feel if I had been able to grow up in Colombia, or in a larger Colombian community in the United States. Despite moving to the United States when I was very little, I've always identified as Colombian and never as American. Part of that is because of weird legal status for most of my life, so how could I consider myself American when the United States government didn't agree? The other part was being isolated and bullied for my ethnicity in school so even if I wanted to identify as something other than Colombian/Latino, I wasn't really able to. And at the end of the day, it was the culture that I came home to.
Nowadays, I'm sure I could go through life not letting anyone know that I'm an immigrant or Colombian unless they were tipped off by my last name. And many other Colombians definitely see me as a gringa. But being Colombian was such a big part of my formative years that I can't really think of myself as anything else.
As far as race goes, I'm Colombian with mostly Spanish ancestry so I'm essentially white until white people decide I'm not. Which they have done so at different points in my life. But most non-Latinos assume I'm white American or maybe European if they hear me pronounce my name to the point that some think I'm lying when I say where I'm from or that my first language is Spanish. So I live my life knowing that the privilege I have is substantial, even if it's not guaranteed, and I need to do my part to dismantle that privilege as much as I can.
It's also hard to disentangle my ethnicity from my status as an immigrant to the United States. I'm not sure how I would feel if I had been able to grow up in Colombia, or in a larger Colombian community in the United States. Despite moving to the United States when I was very little, I've always identified as Colombian and never as American. Part of that is because of weird legal status for most of my life, so how could I consider myself American when the United States government didn't agree? The other part was being isolated and bullied for my ethnicity in school so even if I wanted to identify as something other than Colombian/Latino, I wasn't really able to. And at the end of the day, it was the culture that I came home to.
Nowadays, I'm sure I could go through life not letting anyone know that I'm an immigrant or Colombian unless they were tipped off by my last name. And many other Colombians definitely see me as a gringa. But being Colombian was such a big part of my formative years that I can't really think of myself as anything else.
White in Canada, but my aunt's family has a whole family pedigree and book keeping track of our heritage and stuff and some of my family members get wrapped up in our various miscellaneous European ancestries.
Me personally I've never felt any sense of cultural identity, I've got a very Italian last name and my dad's side of the family has kinda played that up and people comment on it when meeting me but it's not like I know literally anything about Italy or the language and I've got just as much other European backgrounds anyways.
If anything I just think of myself as an Ontarian from a Newfoundland family, and whatever broad Canadian identity which I don't attach any race/ethnicity to but instead just stuff like milk bags and house hippos.
Me personally I've never felt any sense of cultural identity, I've got a very Italian last name and my dad's side of the family has kinda played that up and people comment on it when meeting me but it's not like I know literally anything about Italy or the language and I've got just as much other European backgrounds anyways.
If anything I just think of myself as an Ontarian from a Newfoundland family, and whatever broad Canadian identity which I don't attach any race/ethnicity to but instead just stuff like milk bags and house hippos.
Japanese-American here. Culturally, my family and I are definitely more American than Japanese in our values, but none of us "pass" as white. So we'll definitely be read as Asian (or more specifically not white). That said, there's a ton of further possible divisions that Asians subcategorize themselves into according to nationality, generation, etc.
I put down "Yes Asian" because in the US race is intrinsically tied to how other people view you, but I guess the real answer is that it's complicated.
I put down "Yes Asian" because in the US race is intrinsically tied to how other people view you, but I guess the real answer is that it's complicated.
No I don't. Seen too many bad examples throughout history of what happens when people put too much stock in ethnicity.
EDIT: tl;dr -- yes, all the time, and it leaves the biggest hole in my identity that I can think of
Biracial white and Korean.
Yes.
I voted that we need more polling options. If there's any identity issue I struggle with -- it's this. It's my racial and cultural heritage, or rather, the neverending question of it and whether or not I have any claim to it at all... If I have a "culture" at all. If there's any one thing I feel like people should know about me more importantly than this, it's this particular issue, laid out most simply as the following:
I do think about my biracial status a whole lot and how it's pretty much denied me full access to any sort of cultural heritage, save perhaps for "collective American," though that in itself does suggest whiteness IMO.
Here's the thing, I used to present pretty obviously more my Korean features when I was very young and much smaller. After I hit growth spurt, I tend to present far more white than Korean and I lost a lot of easy claim when it happened. When I meet white people, they usually assume I am also white (I have had a few ask the awkward question of "what ethnicity are you?" to which I've answered truthfully), and when I answer my biracial status honestly, I am automatically placed into "Korean" to them. When I meet full Koreans, they don't even recognize me as one of them -- I'm just "white" to them no matter what. I don't speak Korean, I have never actually been to Korea, and I've sadly just not traveled a ton... I had a pretty conservative upbringing so "worldliness" was not a part of the way my parents raised me. Still, my mother was born and raised in Korea and didn't meet my white dad until he was stationed in Korea for the US Air Force. She learned to speak English only because of that meeting. I don't actually know the dynamics for how that relationship evolved and progressed but there you have it. She became a US citizen solely by marriage to my dad, not necessarily out of a long-term yearning to become an American citizen and immigrate. So, I grew up with Korean TV in the house and homemade Korean food, and where I mostly grew up (after my dad retired from the Air Force, which happened at a very young age), there were enough Korean businesses to sort of semi-immerse in Korean-American life -- Korean grocery markets, a choice of like 5 or 6 quality Korean restaurants, Korean imported goods shops, etc... Not a full "Koreatown" experience, just a bit of the military-related Korean diaspora. I've met and befriended many other part-white, part-Koreans that have similar life experience to me, but they generally seem far more able to blend in with and identify with their Korean heritage because they didn't "outgrow" their Korean looks and I guess their parents raised them far more openly about embracing Korean because they seem more in tune with the actual Korean-American experience than I am, so it just further feels isolating, despite them being the closest I feel I can relate to.
I don't know how to define myself racially and culturally and it's weird and isolating. I think about it all the time.
I've said it on this site and others before, but I feel like the most accurate representation of how I feel as an individual in culture is Spock in the Abrams Star Trek (I'm not a huge Star Trek fan so I don't know how much it was explored in the original series), but there's no sense of ultimate self-realization that's occurred yet and I'm in my early 30's now.
I kind of struggle with it to be honest, and I often try to handwave it away with thoughts like "well you'll just feel this lonely and isolated culturally the rest of your life so stop struggling with it and stop thinking about it." I can't deny that Korean food in particular feels like a huge comfort thing to me but I never feel "at home" in a Korean establishment because my part-Korean heritage is so relatively unknown and limited, and it's no longer obviously visible in my physical presentation.
Biracial white and Korean.
Yes.
I voted that we need more polling options. If there's any identity issue I struggle with -- it's this. It's my racial and cultural heritage, or rather, the neverending question of it and whether or not I have any claim to it at all... If I have a "culture" at all. If there's any one thing I feel like people should know about me more importantly than this, it's this particular issue, laid out most simply as the following:
I do think about my biracial status a whole lot and how it's pretty much denied me full access to any sort of cultural heritage, save perhaps for "collective American," though that in itself does suggest whiteness IMO.
Here's the thing, I used to present pretty obviously more my Korean features when I was very young and much smaller. After I hit growth spurt, I tend to present far more white than Korean and I lost a lot of easy claim when it happened. When I meet white people, they usually assume I am also white (I have had a few ask the awkward question of "what ethnicity are you?" to which I've answered truthfully), and when I answer my biracial status honestly, I am automatically placed into "Korean" to them. When I meet full Koreans, they don't even recognize me as one of them -- I'm just "white" to them no matter what. I don't speak Korean, I have never actually been to Korea, and I've sadly just not traveled a ton... I had a pretty conservative upbringing so "worldliness" was not a part of the way my parents raised me. Still, my mother was born and raised in Korea and didn't meet my white dad until he was stationed in Korea for the US Air Force. She learned to speak English only because of that meeting. I don't actually know the dynamics for how that relationship evolved and progressed but there you have it. She became a US citizen solely by marriage to my dad, not necessarily out of a long-term yearning to become an American citizen and immigrate. So, I grew up with Korean TV in the house and homemade Korean food, and where I mostly grew up (after my dad retired from the Air Force, which happened at a very young age), there were enough Korean businesses to sort of semi-immerse in Korean-American life -- Korean grocery markets, a choice of like 5 or 6 quality Korean restaurants, Korean imported goods shops, etc... Not a full "Koreatown" experience, just a bit of the military-related Korean diaspora. I've met and befriended many other part-white, part-Koreans that have similar life experience to me, but they generally seem far more able to blend in with and identify with their Korean heritage because they didn't "outgrow" their Korean looks and I guess their parents raised them far more openly about embracing Korean because they seem more in tune with the actual Korean-American experience than I am, so it just further feels isolating, despite them being the closest I feel I can relate to.
I don't know how to define myself racially and culturally and it's weird and isolating. I think about it all the time.
I've said it on this site and others before, but I feel like the most accurate representation of how I feel as an individual in culture is Spock in the Abrams Star Trek (I'm not a huge Star Trek fan so I don't know how much it was explored in the original series), but there's no sense of ultimate self-realization that's occurred yet and I'm in my early 30's now.
I kind of struggle with it to be honest, and I often try to handwave it away with thoughts like "well you'll just feel this lonely and isolated culturally the rest of your life so stop struggling with it and stop thinking about it." I can't deny that Korean food in particular feels like a huge comfort thing to me but I never feel "at home" in a Korean establishment because my part-Korean heritage is so relatively unknown and limited, and it's no longer obviously visible in my physical presentation.
Last edited:
Nope. I don't know where 1/2 my genes come from. My mom's side never celebrated any kind of cultural thing, despite claiming we were German like the rest of the city. And then a family tree I worked on and my mom's DNA test showed we weren't even German, we were majority British. My grandma's claim that her grandma was a native american was also thrown into doubt.
So, I've no idea what I even am to make it a part of me.
So, I've no idea what I even am to make it a part of me.
No, I'm white(-ish?) and couldn't care less. I'm portuguese (and Portugal doesn't even recognise 'races' as a thing) and looked kinda middle-eastern as a younger kid but as an adult I'm rather white.
I'd also add language and religion that played an important role in establishing ethnicity, especially in cases where empires have dissolved in the previous centuries. Especially in Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire had the peculiarity of the so called "millet" that was based on religion and left it to the Christian Orthodox church to govern minorities. Same with the Jewish population.
Also in the early 20th century when a new wave of nationalism, population movements and exchanges and wars began, people were labelled according to religion first and foremost. Because there was no registry office or official documents, so there was no way to distinguish people and ethnic groups.
This is why now you see Greeks and Rum having the same traditions and speaking the same language, with only difference being the religion. Also after 1923 Lausanne treaty many Muslim Greeks from Crete and mainland Greece were moved to Turkey. They are one of the few bridges between the two nations.
In Greece also there are still issues of language and religion regarding minorities, both with Turkey and also North Macedonia, continuing to prolong this 150 year old conflict.
In Europe one also has to take into account the 1200 year old racism against Romani and their betrayal also by the Left that failed to win them over.
Ottoman Empire had the peculiarity of the so called "millet" that was based on religion and left it to the Christian Orthodox church to govern minorities. Same with the Jewish population.
Also in the early 20th century when a new wave of nationalism, population movements and exchanges and wars began, people were labelled according to religion first and foremost. Because there was no registry office or official documents, so there was no way to distinguish people and ethnic groups.
This is why now you see Greeks and Rum having the same traditions and speaking the same language, with only difference being the religion. Also after 1923 Lausanne treaty many Muslim Greeks from Crete and mainland Greece were moved to Turkey. They are one of the few bridges between the two nations.
In Greece also there are still issues of language and religion regarding minorities, both with Turkey and also North Macedonia, continuing to prolong this 150 year old conflict.
In Europe one also has to take into account the 1200 year old racism against Romani and their betrayal also by the Left that failed to win them over.
Latino here, and yes it is. I think a big part of it is because I have lived outside of Mexico growing up and was constantly reminded of my Mexicanness by others. At some point I said, yeah I am different but it's a great thing and I'm proud of it.
No, but I'm white. I can't speak on other races but personally for me I was never once 'proud' or 'shamed' of my race/ethnicity. I don't really care about my roots or history and don't use it as a part of me. I overcame nothing, I was just born as this. What I use as a part of me is my interests, hobbies, and accomplishments. I've met so many vapid people that are proud of their epic European ancestry only to find out they're boring as shit people. Many of my friends who are white are sorta like this, and it just makes my eyes roll. For what it's worth, I'm an Italian American.
Sadly, no. I'm mixed black/white. Despite growing up entirely with the black side of my family (my white dad left my mom before I was born), I've never felt like I belonged to either race. It is not an uncommon feeling for multiracial people it seems. Growing up I honestly just avoided talks about race because it never made me comfortable and it just kinda stuck with me.
It's weird because it's the total opposite for my sexuality. I feel being gay greatly defines who I am. It permeates my interactions with people, the types of friends I choose, the places I want to live, etc.
I will admit though, that all that's going on in the US and around the world right now has made me think about my views on race, especially my own. I've always been very passionate about supporting PoC, as that's what I've learned from family. However I've finally started to feel like I belong within those communities rather than just being an ally. I may look pretty white, and it comes with plenty of privilege, but to some people I'm black and nothing else, and I've experienced just that from many interactions with white people throughout my life.
It's weird because it's the total opposite for my sexuality. I feel being gay greatly defines who I am. It permeates my interactions with people, the types of friends I choose, the places I want to live, etc.
I will admit though, that all that's going on in the US and around the world right now has made me think about my views on race, especially my own. I've always been very passionate about supporting PoC, as that's what I've learned from family. However I've finally started to feel like I belong within those communities rather than just being an ally. I may look pretty white, and it comes with plenty of privilege, but to some people I'm black and nothing else, and I've experienced just that from many interactions with white people throughout my life.
White, and no. I think that's my privilige. When you're not constantly reminded by society of the color of your skin, and the times you are judged by it are positive, subtle and possibly unnoticable for you, there is little reason to look at it as a big part of your identity (even though of course it shapes your life too because your priviliged).
I have pasty white skin but its not who I am as a person. Just like I was born and raised in the south but I am far from being southern. I decide who I am and how I perceive myself. Its a privilege I'm definitely more aware of now.
Asian and yes. A common trajectory for Asians is to try to abandon their association with their ethnicity when they are younger - when all of white media shuns Asian culture aside from the cool shit like martial arts and shit. Later in life, I find most Asians embrace their heritage and are relatively proud to represent their race.
Whether I do it consciously or not, I do have more Asian friends than I have of any other ethnicity and am more likely to support Asian businesses than businesses of any other race.
Whether I do it consciously or not, I do have more Asian friends than I have of any other ethnicity and am more likely to support Asian businesses than businesses of any other race.
Yup Irish. Pretty core.
Although skin colour etc is pretty irrelevant to me. There's plenty of new irish around. As long as we can complain about the weather (sun or rain) together. We get along. (Irish people talk obsessively about the weather, my father in law gives me a 7 day forecast everytime I see him)
Although skin colour etc is pretty irrelevant to me. There's plenty of new irish around. As long as we can complain about the weather (sun or rain) together. We get along. (Irish people talk obsessively about the weather, my father in law gives me a 7 day forecast everytime I see him)
Last edited:
I'm a white Jew (mom's a goyim, dad's a German Jew) which makes me feel all sorts of confusion. Around 5 years ago I rediscovered my Jewish heritage and got in touch with it again after basically ignoring it entirely ever since I got a Bar Mitzvah. The way I always try to codify it is that I benefit from white privilege, but not white supremacy. I've always felt like an outsider to many of the typical "white American" cultural modifiers like being Christian (and uh, voting Republican I guess), while until recently I shunned my own Judaism and viewed it as something to feel with shame. So I'm proud to embrace my Judaism, while balancing it with my white privilege.
Yes and no? I don't think much about my whiteness being in a majority white country, but I'm a foreigner, so I identify with the immigrant experience of coming to a new country, learning a new language, new customs, feeling like an outsider etc. My split nationality has definitely defined me and I'm glad for it. I can see stuff from different perspectives.
Am a white German and no, being white has nothing to do with my identity.
The only time my skincolor plays any part in my life is when I see people who are not the same skincolor going through tougher times because of it.
Those are the times where I think about it and engage with it.
It is a huge privilege to be able to not have to think about your skincolor at all. When I leave the house, I can think something like "man,I hope no one looks at me funny cause my hair looks bad, I need a haircut" when POC leave the house they have to think "man, I hope no one looks at me funny today because i'm not white".
The only time my skincolor plays any part in my life is when I see people who are not the same skincolor going through tougher times because of it.
Those are the times where I think about it and engage with it.
It is a huge privilege to be able to not have to think about your skincolor at all. When I leave the house, I can think something like "man,I hope no one looks at me funny cause my hair looks bad, I need a haircut" when POC leave the house they have to think "man, I hope no one looks at me funny today because i'm not white".
MJ here continuing to be a real one. Other than being from UK instead of US, this is me.
Not in the least. My beliefs, actions, experiences - including those observed 3rd party define who I am, how I think and ultimately how I choose to navigate the world. My personal mantra has always been "Treat people like people" and I feel I am a better person for it. If someone chooses to either judge me, treat me differently or feel hate/anger towards me due to the colour of skin, that's on them. I 100% will not own a drop of it because that is their burden to carry.
Thanks for sharing everyone, really love reading all the stories.
I'm a uhh "full-blooded" Iranian, who was born and raised in a Western European country. My father emigrated shortly after the Iranian revolution to come and study, but never thought that those Islamists would stay in power for so long and well, as such he stayed here ever since - even though he originally had no intention to do so. He married my mum, whom he met on a trip back to Iran, and I was born here.
I'm in my mid-20s now, and I'd like to think that it really doesn't define me, as in I don't make it really part of my personality per se, but it affects me heavily on a daily basis. Seeing that both my parents are Iranian, naturally I look quite Iranian, too. I'm not white (though I don't think I'm brown, either? I always go with caramel lol), I have some lush black hair, and also sport a beard. I speak Farsi, I am able to read and write Persian script (though admittedly not as good as I'd like). I grew up with Persian cuisine, and also try to keep up with Persian culture.
...and yet I always feel somewhat out of place when I go visit my relatives in Iran. I'm being told that I have foreign accent, or I notice how I don't understand some of the jokes and stuff. I'm also, even among my family or others in a similar situation, when compared to my sister for instance, a bit of a black sheep, as I don't care for contemporary Iranian pop music, or Iranian cinema (outside their great art house movies). I love rock music, I like to go on techno raves, I'm overall a bit more alternative, I drink etc. Not that my parents condemn those things, they're really open about all this, it's just that I sometimes feel we've got a lack of overlap.
At the same time, I also don't feel completely at home in German circles, which I got to especially experience with my German ex. I'm not familiar with German etiquette for instance, and feel a bit weird when I then apply my rather overly polite Iranian manners. Which also made things a bit awkward for my ex and I sometimes.
Anyway. I've since moved to a melting pot of a city and I struggle to answer the question "Where are you from?". Living in a different country now, things got easier and harder at the same time. I'm surrounded by people in a similar situation, but now I speak English all the time in a country which is not part of the UK, so I'm kinda dealing with an additional two cultures, making for a total of four lol
I'm proud of my Iranian heritage. We've got a lot of history and are literally one of the oldest cultures around. Yet I could never imagine living there, I literally couldn't even if I wanted to. But I don't look German and frankly don't feel 100% German either. And tbh this makes me anxious about my future as well.
Thanks for this in particular, as it so accurately reflects my experience as well and made me kinda emotional tbh.
I'm a uhh "full-blooded" Iranian, who was born and raised in a Western European country. My father emigrated shortly after the Iranian revolution to come and study, but never thought that those Islamists would stay in power for so long and well, as such he stayed here ever since - even though he originally had no intention to do so. He married my mum, whom he met on a trip back to Iran, and I was born here.
I'm in my mid-20s now, and I'd like to think that it really doesn't define me, as in I don't make it really part of my personality per se, but it affects me heavily on a daily basis. Seeing that both my parents are Iranian, naturally I look quite Iranian, too. I'm not white (though I don't think I'm brown, either? I always go with caramel lol), I have some lush black hair, and also sport a beard. I speak Farsi, I am able to read and write Persian script (though admittedly not as good as I'd like). I grew up with Persian cuisine, and also try to keep up with Persian culture.
...and yet I always feel somewhat out of place when I go visit my relatives in Iran. I'm being told that I have foreign accent, or I notice how I don't understand some of the jokes and stuff. I'm also, even among my family or others in a similar situation, when compared to my sister for instance, a bit of a black sheep, as I don't care for contemporary Iranian pop music, or Iranian cinema (outside their great art house movies). I love rock music, I like to go on techno raves, I'm overall a bit more alternative, I drink etc. Not that my parents condemn those things, they're really open about all this, it's just that I sometimes feel we've got a lack of overlap.
At the same time, I also don't feel completely at home in German circles, which I got to especially experience with my German ex. I'm not familiar with German etiquette for instance, and feel a bit weird when I then apply my rather overly polite Iranian manners. Which also made things a bit awkward for my ex and I sometimes.
Anyway. I've since moved to a melting pot of a city and I struggle to answer the question "Where are you from?". Living in a different country now, things got easier and harder at the same time. I'm surrounded by people in a similar situation, but now I speak English all the time in a country which is not part of the UK, so I'm kinda dealing with an additional two cultures, making for a total of four lol
I'm proud of my Iranian heritage. We've got a lot of history and are literally one of the oldest cultures around. Yet I could never imagine living there, I literally couldn't even if I wanted to. But I don't look German and frankly don't feel 100% German either. And tbh this makes me anxious about my future as well.
I'm Eastern European from the Balkans and have lived all my life in Sweden. I'd say my ethnicity keeps shining through despite me being Swedified to a tee; I was brought up with strict "respect your (extended) family" values and was drilled into performing well in school and in life in general, in order to have a less challenging life than my parents had. Other than that, I've lived life with white privilege and with knowing Swedish perfectly, so haven't had any racist or xenophobic issues.
This is a great post.
Being mixed race is definitely a strange thing to talk about. It absolutely defines who I am, and yet the essence of that definition is that I'm... not sure who I am.
Am white and I have the privilege of never really caring about my ethnicity bc it's never a problem for me. I wouldn't say I'm more comfortable around one ethnicity as opposed to another though, the quality of an individual has nothing to do with their ethnicity and you're going to find scummy people everywhere.
I'm half Mexican, a quarter Italian, a quarter Polish Jew. My dad's side is brown, my mom's side is white. As such, I've always felt like a mutt (in a good way), pulling from different cultures, though there's always that nagging sensation that I don't really belong to any of them. If I had to classify myself, I'd say I'm a Mexican whiteboy.
Yes, absolutely. So much so that I have a newfound lifelong dedication to liberating black individuals from the throes of oppression.
I'm of mixed heritage, but I have no hang-ups about how I identify. I exist and am regarded as a black male, therefore that is the path I walk.
I'm of mixed heritage, but I have no hang-ups about how I identify. I exist and am regarded as a black male, therefore that is the path I walk.
This approaches how I feel, as a British Ashkenazi Jew with Germanic grandparents on one side and Russian and Polish great-grandparents on the other. I think being Jewish can really underscore the messiness and both limitations and present necessity of identity politics in regards to race: on the one hand, if you looked at me you'd have no doubt that I'm white (although I've often been asked if I'm Spanish or Italian), but to say that I am white only would feel like it erased half of my identity, and I know that a neo-Nazi would not care for the lightness of my complexion. (That is not to say that we should defer to Neo-Nazi theories of race!) On the other hand, to say that I am Jewish only would ignore that I doubtlessly benefit from white privilege in my daily life. As it stands, if I am asked (in a survey or an application) to choose from a list of ethnic options I default to "White British" over "Other", but I feel that if I were to be able to self-ascribe I would choose "White Jewish".
I also wonder how helpful it is that narratives of Jewish identity are still so heavily related to the Holocaust and themes of survival. As a Jewish person I spoke to a few years back pointed out: anyone who is alive today has had relatives that have by definition "survived".
