Answering the question racially can also be touchy in some ways. Like many, perhaps most white Americans with Anglo or Scots-Irish names, I almost certainly have some Native American ancestry. But a lot of white people in the post-"Dances with Wolves" era make a big deal out of this, and like to think it makes them special somehow, without bothering to connect it in any way to the reality of Native Americans; it's all about romantic notions of the noble vanished Indian, imaginary Cherokee princesses and such, to the point that American Indians usually bristle when they hear this sort of thing. Culturally I'm white, I look like the whitest white guy there is and I get all the benefits of being white. So in any reasonable racial answer to the question I'd say I'm white, but I get a nagging feeling that this isn't completely right either; my mixed-race ancestors probably hid it because of simple racism.
What am I?
Answering the question racially can also be touchy in some ways. Like many, perhaps most white Americans with Anglo or Scots-Irish names, I almost certainly have some Native American ancestry. But a lot of white people in the post-"Dances with Wolves" era make a big deal out of this, and like to think it makes them special somehow, without bothering to connect it in any way to the reality of Native Americans; it's all about romantic notions of the noble vanished Indian, imaginary Cherokee princesses and such, to the point that American Indians usually bristle when they hear this sort of thing. Culturally I'm white, I look like the whitest white guy there is and I get all the benefits of being white. So in any reasonable racial answer to the question I'd say I'm white, but I get a nagging feeling that this isn't completely right either; my mixed-race ancestors probably hid it because of simple racism.