Ah Ancestry. My grandfather (Opa) on my father's side was called Friedrich. My grandfather on my mother's side was called Otto. I think my grandmother on my mother's side had some dutch ancestry. Despite all that I have no desire for world domination.

By way of England, I am East African, Black Caribbean, German, French and possibly some other European/Indian mixes (we also have a rumour that one of my Great-Grandparents was Chinese-Caribbean or Aruban). And I suppose if you go down the Caribbean route I'm West African, but we don't want the list too long. Wouldn't want to look like some immigrant.

My mom is from Venezuela, so I get to properly say that I'm half Venezuelan. On my dad's side, I'm plain ol' Texan (although there is plenty of Scottish in there... my middle name is Ross*, after all).

:D

*Ross is my grandmother's maiden name. Her mother's maiden name was McCullough. My great-grand mother's great grandparents came over from Scotland... and they were all Presbyterians... which my grandmother is still today.

On my grandfather's side, my first ancestor in America come over from Brittain in 1687. So, I'm 13th generation American there. Oh, yes, and I'm Ethan Allen's great-great-great-great, etc. grand niece.

I had that guy at fencing insist I'm German. I'm 1/8 German on 2 sides adding up to only 1/4. He also insisted I call someone who is Asian "Korean," as if I had a chance to know that. I don't like labels like that. I tell people I'm American, and everything else is horseshit, it's my last name, whatever. 1/8 German last name and here the longest. I have 2 sides more recent immigrants from non-German countries and assimilated. I hear stories of my great-grandfather chastising his own wife for not speaking English enough, but I also read (and I got ahold of these more recently) newspaper articles and eulogies of him and how much he loved America. He actually only came for a visit for one summer but he loved it here, and stayed, and found a wife here who had come with her family from the same country. This in contrast to my other great-grandfather who went back to his village (on a boat, mind you) in Europe for a 2nd wife (my great-grandmother) when his first wife died.

Those stories tell me a little bit about the person that I didn't know before but nothing of this rich culture I'm supposed to embrace. I'm from America, and I'm American, 4th generation at the most recent, I'm not going to list 5 or 6 nationalities I'm no part of, except that's what people really want to know when they ask! It is more difficult to have this conversation with people more recently descended from immigrants or immigrants themselves. I really think the children of immigrants assimilate more than they realize - it gets watered down pretty quickly, but they are still so proud.

My full pedigree is Anglo-Norman-Irish-German-Scots-Dutch-Cherokee, with an admixture of fresh French blood about a hundred years ago just to keep it lively.

Can you say "mutt", boys and girls?

Oh, well, if we're playing the ancestry game:

I'm Scandinavian Anglo-Celtic Arab-Angolan by way of Nigeria. Beat that!

"I've actually told boyfriends of the past to skip the heart-shaped box on valentine's just get me a bag of snickers. "

[Sunny Day hears violins begin to play]

I'm actually Britano-Norman Irish, if you want to go far enough back. I'm the descendant of invaders who moved on to invade another country, and then hightailed it for North America. Erin go bragh!

I'm Norman British....

I don't remember that post specifically, but speaking as a non-American, I do find it quite comical:

"My great-great-great-great-great grandfather came on a steamer from Limerick. All my ancectors since him were born in the USA and none of us have seen Ireland outside of Murphy's Bar on Main Street. I'm Irish American".

Sorry, but no you're fucking not! You're AMERICAN!

Everyone picks on us.

Wasn't there a post a little while back where someone accused Americans of being the only people to identify themselves with their ancestry?

Avicenna:

Sigh... I never understood the racist fear of miscegenation. Also I feel dirty, like I just had sex with a watermelon. I need to find better ways to spend my time.

Don't know what to say about the watermelon thing, but the whole concept of miscegenation is ridiculous. I can sort of understand why someone would be afraid of their culture dying out, but to be afraid of inter-racial liaisons is to deny the very history of the human species. With the exception of a few, the vast majority of humanity has been mixed in with various ethnic groups. Races come and go, it's the natural order of things.

I'm a mongrel myself, so call me biased. But on another note, I had a discussion with a friend not too long ago about what it means to be English. We're both ethnics and were born and brought up in London, but he refuses to call himself English and instead prefers to say British as English relates to whites only. When describing myself, I use English and British interchangeably depending on whom I am speaking to, but I think a sizeable proportion of ethnic minorities who might have grown up here probably would prefer the 'British' label over the English, Scot or Welsh labels.

I gave up when they started ignoring and editing my posts instead of responding to them. I figured at that point I'd already won.

The saga continues... trolling inmalafide's website is hours of fun since you can cause racist men's rights movement activists to look dumb...

Edit - I mean "dumber than normal".

Sigh... I never understood the racist fear of miscegenation. Also I feel dirty, like I just had sex with a watermelon. I need to find better ways to spend my time.

Helped a friend eat a 5lb. Hershey bar once, barely got half way through.

I think "brown tile grout" might be an accurate description.

True, the chocolate that they make Santas and Easter Bunnies out of is more of a construction material than a confection. I would definitely eat a Hershey's bar in preference to that stuff.

It's easier to do much better than Hershey's.

In January of 2003, I temped at one of the worst offices ever, for the most terribly annoying, racist, and self-centered boss I've ever had. In 2 months I was there, he went on 2 vacations, so it was kind of nice he wasn't there, but he brought back chocolate for everyone from his ski trip to Switzerland. Sorry, but maybe he picked this up from a gas station in Switzerland, 'cause it tasted like a Symphony bar. I'm not able to gauge a phenomenal difference in the qualities of chocolate. If it's that really cheap nasty stuff they use for hollow Santas and gold coins, just about anything wrapped in foil, any chocolate novelty has a good chance of being pretty gross. Above that nasty level, I'm not really impressed with expensive or specialty sweets shop chocolates. I've actually told boyfriends of the past to skip the heart-shaped box on valentine's just get me a bag of snickers.

The worst chocolate we have here is cadbury's or galaxy, both of which are actually edible, some would say tasty. Hershey's isn't remotely edible. Lord knows what the chocolatiers in mainland Europe think of the stuff.

@Ursa

something traumatic in the 16th century would be the reformation.

It's easier to do much better than Hershey's.

You could do much worse than Hershey's.

"Americans do not get to insult other people's chocolate. It either smells and tastes of vomit, or has all the consistency of chalk over there. Foul doesn't even begin to cover how bad US chocolate is. "

Only if you buy shitty chocolate. You buy a hershey bar, you get what you pay for.

My wife is a chocolate fiend, but never buys anything less than 85% pure.

Boiled bacon. The real reason the U.S. declared its independence.

The thing that strikes me as bizarre is the fact that late medieval British cuisine, unlike its modern counterpart, was highly spiced with lots of cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg and garlic. Something traumatic must have happened to it in the 16th century. But I am hearing a lot more talk of curries in recent years, so the pendulum must be swinging back.

Americans do not get to insult other people's chocolate. It either smells and tastes of vomit, or has all the consistency of chalk over there. Foul doesn't even begin to cover how bad US chocolate is.

You mean someone found a way to screw up chocolate? It must be worse than even I suspected. =P

And you didn't go to a proper school unless they served runny chocolate custard.

What gets served in pubs does, as Custy says, vary hugely. Restaurants though are pretty decent, as are cafes. And home-cooked food? Roast gammon, with veg and yorkshire pudding and gravy and mash? *drool* Treacle sponge and custard? *drool* You aren't a proper country unless you have custard.

Boiled bacon? That alone is proof of a godless and uncaring universe.

Ahhhh barracks breakfast. Boiled bacon,lard fried eggs, cold toast, pork and beans. It will certainly keep you warm and working, but I think it must be an acquired taste.