Friday, May 8, 2009

My Ambiguous Ethnicity


I was filling out an on-line questionnaire from a London arts center the other day. I haven't been to Britain for a few years, but I bought my concert ticket on-line, so they still had my contact info.
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When I got to the end of the questionnaire, they asked the usual demographic questions about age, race, and the like. But I was taken aback somewhat by the list of ethnicity choices. It says something interesting about the difference between Britain and the U.S.
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Here's the list:

Which ethnic group would you describe yourself as being in?

  • White British
  • White Irish
  • White Other
  • White & Black Caribbean
  • White & Black African
  • White & Asian
  • Other mixed background
  • Asian British
  • Indian
  • Pakistani
  • Bangladeshi
  • Other Asian background
  • Black British
  • Black Caribbean
  • Black African
  • Other Black background
  • Chinese
  • Other ethnic group
  • Prefer not to say
For the first time ever when filling out a questionnaire, I didn't know what race I was. I finally settled on "White Other," which seemingly could leave me Hispanic, Icelandic, or Italian.

1 comment:

  1. Welcome to my world, where no one can tell what I am and checking only one box is ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete