I've visited India six times in my 27 years on this planet. Sadly, I've hated the trip each time. I've grown used to the level of comfort in the U.S. and never can feel totally comfortable when I'm over there. Call me spoiled or selfish, but I just don't like visiting the motherland. Perhaps that is where part of my guilt with this whole issue arises from.
It's more about the guilt knowing I may be, right now, derailing future generations and hundreds of years of drapgs from knowing their background and history. All by myself. That thought is overwhelming and quite painful.
1/2 Greek 1/4 Lebanese 1/4 Armenian born in Beirut, moved to Nigeria @ 1yr old, boarding school in England @ 9yrs old, 10-18yrs = Paris, France 18-now = HOUSTON BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't feel bad if you're too "American" to have an "ethnicity". It's one thing in the case of those who have a "nationality" or "motherland" in the previous few generations. I can understand wanting to hang on to those traditions. But, for the rest of us... we shouldn't feel guilty. Time passes and things evolve. What we have in America right now is a culture. We're just too used to it and don't think of it that way. So, when I said "southern redneck" for myself, there was some seriousness in that. Like it or not, that's where my family comes from for many generations back. (Don't worry, at least we're not the racist kind. )
wusss, what did you not like about india, and where did you go? india rocks. well as soon as you get over the maleria and the water poisoning
1/2 Chinese (Cantonese) <1/2 Black American some small part Sioux Indian some very small part Irish My mother's family is Chinese but they were part of a segment of China that was Catholic and sent their kids (like my grandfather) to the US for prep school. Eventually they were kicked out of China when the communists took over and my mother was raised here learning only a bit of Cantonese and picking up a preference for a few chinese foods. My father grew up in an era in Black American history in which a lot of middle class black families were trying to assimilate as much as possible. As far as my racial ethnicity goes I don't have any particularly unusual cultural practices although everyone in my family loves odd chinese foods. What has had a greater impact on us is my family's four year stay in France which has given all of us a preference for French language, food and culture. Living in New England for the remainder of my formative years gave me very strong opinions about what foods should be on the table during the holiday season. My father's reformed theological training also filtered down in the form of frequent theological theological discussion and debate over the tenets of Calvinism.
Quite a few people in here with some sort of Native American bloodline. I am supposed to be about 1/16th Blackfoot (Idaho). My dad's family was in Idaho. For a good while he lived on or near the reservation where his Aunt taught the Blackfoot kids. They migrated to Houston, Texas when he was 12. That one aunt was very dark-skinned and, reportedly, was discriminated against. She never married et al.
Chinese. We have a little shrine in our house where we would pray to our ancestors. For special occasions, such as the anniversaries of d.o.d, we will prepare offerings (food, fruits, cigarttes, etc.) as well. Every year around March to April, we'll celebrate 'qing ming festival' by visiting and sweeping the graves of our grandparents and great grandparents. We'll burn golden papers, paper cars, money, clothes, rolexes, houses, and even mobile phones nowadays, hoping that these can become useful to them.
My mom's side of the family is Polish, with some sort of very southern Russian thrown in which accounts for the fact that my grandfather was extremely dark-skinned. My dad's side is uber-WASPy. My grandmother tracked our family all the way back to the colonies, she was Irish. My grandfather's family is primarily Luxembourgian. My wife is gaelic and garlic. Irish/Italian. Yikes.
Same here ... just Pakistani instead of the Indian, same thing tho. I've lived in the US since I was like 8 or 9, but my parents did a great job of keeping us close to culture ... speak the language fluently, fully conversant with all the traditions. More than anything, I think it's a good method of keeping your relations intact. I find it extremely sad when we have big gatherings, for Eid, lets say, and all the new generation of kids can't speak Urdu and they all just mumble out the Salaam, and then just go away ... there is nothing in common. They give you these blank smiles like they know what ur talkin about, but they have no clue. The older generation realizes their mistake now for making their kids totally Western. Don't speak the language, don't enjoy spending time doing traditional things, don't enjoy the foods, nothing. You can't partake in the jokes, in the finer intricacies about the traditions, etc. It's important to know where you come from.
"You know, I sometimes wish I was part of an ethnic group. It's just as well, I hate hugging." on my dad's side, we've been in america since the 1700s and i think that's as far back as anyone got it so i'm not sure what the real national origin is on that side. on my mom's side, i'm czech and polish, though not much. i can't remember if my grandparents were born in those countries and got here when they were really young or if they were born here and you have to go to the previous generation to find someone from a different country. i think it's the latter. so i feel pretty much straight up american at this point.
I think since you're making the effort to learn about your culture and are concerned about maintaining it is a good start. Just keep at. You don't have to love every part of your culture to hang on to it. I'm certainly no fan of chicken feet but still think I respect Chinese culture.
I'm the same way dude. I've visited Pakistan twice in my life (once when I was 4, so I don't really remember much, and then when I was 18). I really didn't enjoy it at all. The big thing was that even though I can understand most spoken Urdu, I can't speak it at all, so it's hard to really communicate with my relatives over there. My family on my mom's side is from Lahore (2nd biggest city in Pakistan), so they all speak perfect English and it's easy to communicate with them. But my dad's side of the family is from a small village in Northern Pakistan. Not only does my dad's mom not speak English, she doesn't even speak Urdu (although she can understand it). She only speaks Punjabi (I can't speak, or understand, Punjabi at all), so it was really awkward the whole time since we couldn't communicate with each other at all.
