How come Whites tell you their exact ancestry while Blacks, Asians, and Latinos don't?

Question

For example, white people always tell you, "I'm part British, Scottish, French, Italian, and a little bit German and a little Native American," but how in the world do they know that? Blacks just say I'm African-American, that's it, not, " I'm part Nigerian, Eritrean, Egyptian, Sudanese, and South African." Surely Ancestry.com works for ALL people, not just whites right? Even when you ask a Latino person, they don't say, " I'm mostly Mexican but part Cuban, Colombian, and Ecuadorian." Like how do white people know their exact ancestry like that? How? Just if you were wondering, I'm Thai, but I don't say, " I'm part Mongolian, Chinese, and Khmer." It feels so unnecessary. I'm not one of those people who always talk about their "race and culture." I think it's just the human race, and I prefer the terms ethnicity and nationality better. I cringe when I hear, "It's part of my culture" or "Why can't all races get along?" And I don't care about offending people. Unless I say," Whites are better than people of other skin colors," then it's not racist. Also, people of different backgrounds have different facial and hair features, too, not just skin color.

Answer 1

Many blacks do not know their exact ancestry themselves, unless they have recent African ancestry, so they can't necessarily tell others what their exact ancestry is.



Once blacks were slaves to the Americas, their language, culture, and names were basically erased. Therefore, they could not pass on their African traditions and knowledge to their children, leaving the children and future generations not knowledgeable about their individual African history.



With ancestry.com, many Black Americans can only go MAYBE 6 generations back due to slavery. You must keep in mind that blacks were considered property and the last thing slave masters were concerned about was the origin of "their property." They did not hold records saying, "This slave was from Benin, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, etc." Now there is the option of doing an ancestry DNA test, which I have recently done. However, even with that, the results may not be 100% accurate.



And as for Asians and Latinos, they are aware of their exact ancestry for the most part and would usually tell it to others when asked. No different from whites.

Answer 2

Most White Americans are descendants of relatively recent European immigrants from the last 100-150 years or so. There was a huge wave of European immigrants in the 1800's and early 1900's. That is recent enough to know exactly where in Europe your Grandparents, Great Grandparents or Great Great Grandparents came from. Some White Americans trace their ancestry back even further to the 1700's or even 1600's during the colonial period but even if you trace your ancestry back that far you will have a general idea of where your ancestors come from, most likely England or somewhere in the British Isles if you could trace your ancestry to the colonial period. Also genealogical records were pretty good in colonial America so through a little bit of research you could trace your ancestry back to England or wherever.



In contrast, African Americans were brought over as slaves in the 1600's-1700's, much further back than when most European immigrants arrived. Further more, genealogical records were not so good for African Americans. So most African Americans will not know what proportion of their ancestry comes from Ghana, Nigeria or wherever.



Most Latinos from places like Mexico also have a tough time knowing their exact ancestry other than that they are probably a mix between Spaniard and Native America. Most Spaniards colonized places like Mexico as far back as the 1500's so it is pretty hard to trace your ancestry back to Spain. I was able to trace a few ancestors back to Spain in the 1700's but that was only on one side of my family, namely my paternal grandmother's side, and it is was very hard. She came from a famous upper class family in her country so the genealogy was easy to do on line. She is mostly descendant of Spanish people but also probably had an Italian ancestor. But that was way back in the 1700's.



The best way for African Americans and Hispanic to know their true ancestry is to take a DNA test. Nowadays they are more accurate than ever before and you can tell where in Africa or Europe your ancestors likely came from and what percentage of Amerindian blood you have.



Just my thoughts..

Answer 3

Latino is not a race!Latinos come in all races!There are Latinos who are native American and white mixed together.Latinos who are white.Latinos who are native American.Latinos who are black.Latinos who are black and white mixed together.Latinos who are black, white and native American mixed together.Latinos who are eastern Asian.The funny thing is that many "Latinos" in the United States don't even know this themselves.They actually think that their race is actually "Latino" or "Hispanic".It's crazy how ignorant they are.So of course they can't tell you what ancestry they are.They don't know! They don't even know what race they are.So what makes you think they would know what their ancestry is?! I am not saying all are like this, but so many I have came across are.

Answer 4

First of all, I have to let you know that all Scottish people are British, I should know, im born and raised here. Secondly, as another person said, its an American thing to obsess over ancestry, not a white thing, to say that African Americans and Asian Americans dont do this too isnt true, however dna kits are more of a source of knowlege for African Americans regions of origin due to lost knowlege through slavery, Asian Americans are often very aware of their ancestry and many use it in a hiararcal way, many Chinese look down of Filipinos, many Filipinos take interest in any Spanish, Chinese or other ancestey they have, Thais and Indian people seem to have a pecking order of who is superior, often based on region of origin and skin tone. Latinos have a mixed ancestey in many cases, including European, African, Amerindian and others, perhaps how interested they are in it varies from country to country.

Answer 5

A lot of whites from Brazil would also tell you their exact ancestry.



Brazil is a country located in South America and is also part of Latin America.



I don't understand what you mean by "Latinos".

Answer 6

Not all whites will tell you their exact ancestry (unless asked) simply because they don't know, or they know that they are a combination of many races, including black. When I've been asked, I simply respond, "I'm a proud mutt." No need to go into detail unless they pursue the matter.

Answer 7

Why don't most black people tell you their exact ancestry? Because they don't it. Slavery took black people from all sorts of places in Africa (mostly West Africa), and their culture and language was erased, including their names, so of course most black Americans today do not know their exact heritage. Some do though and will tell you, but that's because they're not descendants of slavery, at least fully, but have more recent African heritage.



As for Asian Americans... they do tell you, it's just that it's usually just Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, etc. There isn't much mixing, especially since their heritage tends to be very recent and many of their parents are literally immigrants to the country.



Latinos do also tell your their heritage, but like Asian Americans, they usually stay with their own nationality of people. But the ones who are a mix of different Latino nationalities DO tell you that as well. For example, Camila Cabello, who is from Fifth Harmony, says she's half Mexican and half Cuban because her mom is from Cuba and her dad is from Mexico, but she herself was born in Cuba.



Keep in mind though that Latino is not a race, and millions of Latinos are white, black, or even Asian.



As for whites... most white Americans are a mix of various different European ethnicities, and most know their heritage, at least partly. I know that I am half Spanish because my mom is literally from Spain. I am white, but I don't know my dad's side in regards to ethnicities, though.

Answer 8

Actually, you just mentioned a bunch of nationalities. That's not really the same as a population group.



Most people from any race don't belong to a specific group anymore.

Answer 9

It's because certain people looked into their geneaology and other's didn't. With a simple DNA test you could easily find out what part of the world your ancestors are from. No having to look back through records, no miss-placed slave documents, none of that. Just use your DNA instead of riffling through old papers

Answer 10

Not 'white'...AMERICAN white. Only they would say 'I'm British and Scottish'...when Scottish IS British, and British does NOT mean English.

Answer 11

That's an American thing, not a white thing. White people from other parts of the world don't really give a crap about that kind of stuff.

Answer 12

African American people who lived in America for centuries didn't come from countries like Egypt, Sudan or Eritrea. Africans who newly immigrated to the US during the past century are usually from just the country they say they came from.

Answer 13

I've known many black people who want to mention they are part American Indian.

Answer 14

I agree, when blacks try to tell their ancestry, whites say, "you are still black". Yet, whites can state whatever they claim. lol hahahah

Answer 15

Idk however the vast majority of white Americans are of Eastern European , Southern European and non-European ancestry

Answer 16

Idk