Do people ever mistake your ethnicity or race just from your appearance?

[minniepumpernickel]

Originally posted by onecoolmama
My kids are this mix too and my son always gets mistaken for Italian. And I am always asked if they were adopted.


DH is Asian, but looks hispanic. So, people always speak to him in spanish. He knows spanish, so he can follow along, but it does annoy him.

I want to see your kids pics on here sometime!

I went to Mexico in college with an archaeology class, and the people really liked me there. Maybe thats why, lol! I taught myself enough Spanish at the time to communicate.

 

[Chicago526]

My brother and I get mistaken for Hispanic sometimes (my brother more than me, though). We both have very dark brown hair (but fair skin, go figure!). It bugs my brother, but I don't really care, I just find it odd. If someone asks, I just politley say "no, I'm German/Irish". I haven't been approched in Spanish yet, but I'd be polite about it. The funny thing is that I look like a carbon copy of my Grandmother, who was born in Munich, Germany (total, I'm 3/4 German and 1/4 Irish). When I was in China in '98, I was always taken for a German tourist.

The really weird thing is that our other brother looks like the typical blond and blue German. He looks like no one in the family, we keep telling him that he was switched at birth!

I just think this shows you should never judge people on how they look, since many times our impresions are wrong, anyway.

 

[pklein09]

I'm Italian-Irish and I married a nice little Jewish boy!!! Because of my last name, people assume I'm Jewish. I get lots of Jewish magazines, newspapers, and catalogs in the mail addressed to me, not my husband. If I get tons of stuff from any one entity, I call them and explain that I'm not Jewish and to please remove my name from the mailing list. The only time the confusion irritated me was when we moved and I was joining a new church. I introduced myself as Michelle Klein and asked how to go about joining the church. The deacon told me to talk to someone affiliated with RCIA, which is the process to become Catholic after reaching adulthood. I politely told him I was already Catholic! He had the most puzzled look on his face!

My husband, on the other hand, looks Italian! My Uncle Dominic (distant uncle, grandmother's side) argued with my husband that he was Italian and not German! Gotta love those hard-headed Italians who speak broke English!!! He was a teddy bear, but forget it when he got something stuck in his head.

Our kids are Heinz-57. They were blessed with white Irish skin and dark hair and eyes. They look like Dresden dolls.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I'm about 3/4 Italian and 1/4 everything else. I get mistaken for hispanic a lot, even though I'm a pasty whitegirl. Must be the curly hair or something. I have a spanish last name, so that probably adds to it. It's my married name, which I kept after I divorced. Exh is half Filippino and most Filippinos have spanish last (and sometimes first) names.

DD is mostly Italian, Canadian and Filippino. I think she looks 100% Italian. In fact, she looks more like my sister than she looks like me. Hmmmm.........

 

[BedKnobbery2]

I am most often mistaken as Greek or Italian. I'm 1/2 Latvian, 1/4 Russian, and the rest a mixed bag with no Greek or Italian that I know of. I have very dark hair and VERY dark eyes, and my skin does get pretty dark in the summer months, so I understand the assumption. I think only once in my life has someone come up to me and asked if I were Latvian (based on my looks). They turned out to be Latvian, too.

 

[pw2pp]

Not usually, but here is a story.......

I went on a date with a guy (this was over 20 years ago), it was our first date and we were sitting in a restaurant.
He says to me....... "Are you Italian?" (It was summer, so I probably had a tan) .........
I said "No, why do you ask?"
and he says.......
"Because you look like it with your dark hair and BROWN eyes"

but get this.......

My eyes are BLUE!

I guess he was color blind.

 

[gallaj0]

I've never been mistaken for anything. I'm 100% Irish and look every bit of it. Any time you see the "stereotypical drunken" Irishman on TV, it could have been me.

My wife, however, is black, and has been mistaken for Hispanic and Sicilian. Our daughter just looks tanned all the time with dark hair and brown eyes, but our son is straw blonde with green eyes.

When my wife takes him out without me, she gets tired of telling people she's not the nanny, and he's not adopted.

 

[CEDmom]

People often think I'm Irish. I guess it's my freckles and fair skin along with my name being Kate that fools them.

The funniest/oddest is when I'm out with DD and someone asks what nationality my DH is thinking he must be Asian. When I tell the person he's 100% Polish the look on their face is priceless.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Originally posted by snoopy
I'm the opposite. My sister and I are the only blonde, blue eyed, tall women in a mostly short, dark, Italian-American family. We've been hearing the "milkman" jokes for years.

I've always used the milkman comment for my daughter, with her beautiful wavy-curly strawberry blonde hair. People would ask me where she got her red hair and I would reply "the milkman" until one day when she was little and she asked me what I meant by that. Oops, I had to stop saying that one for a few years.

T&B

 

[Minniespal]

I have blonde hair and fair skin and have been mistaken for someone from either Norway or Sweden before.

 

[Grog]

I have a friend who is of Italian heritage. Living in Houston she often gets mistaken for someone who is Hispanic.

 

[PatriciaH]

I have light brown hair and brown eyes and I am fair. I can get a great tan but I usualy stay fair. I have had people ask if I am French but that is about it. My mom is Irish and my dad is from Colombia. DH has dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He looks more Hispanic than I do. He is German, English, Scotch, French and American Indian! The funny thing is when we go to Mexico, they always speak to us in Spanish because they think we are from Spain (lots of tourists from Spain there.) My dads family did come from Spain to Colombia.

 

[ShuisFan584]

No one can really tell what I am, because I'm a mutt. I've got 4 different nationalities from my dad's side and 2 from my mom's. My mom is Italian and gets really dark after sitting out in the sun for a little while. My dad is Irish, has red hair and freckles, and pale skin. I think those kind of cancel out in me. I sometimes have people ask what my nationality is, but no one ever asks if I'm a specific nationality.

 

[tassie42]

I have almost black eyes and black hair and olive skin My dad is all Italian and my mom is scottish and german. People always assume I.m either spanish or all Italian. If I say , "I'm actually part German and Scottish" people usually don't believe me. Whatever?!

 

[Jolie C]

This happens to my husband ALL the time. I guess that no matter where we go, he'll fit right in.

 

[missypie]

We have a lawyer here who is of Indian (Asian) decent. Lots of clients these days have diversity policies and want their law firm to be ethnically diverse. She always offers to go out on all the "dog and pony shows", because she says people mistake her for just about every single ethnic group. At least she has a sense of humor about it.

 

[eeyore74]

When in Ireland, in the pubs, guys always mention to me about those loud Americans (my friends) and how it's easy to tell who they are. I asked if they thought I was American and they always say no, you're an Irish girl. Well, I can do the accent ok. lol

DH passed for Greek in Greece and Egyptian in Egypt and for awhile was always searched at the airport. He's of Maltese decent, so he did well in Italy, too.