tipsyturv

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this is great news. also @Mzuri i sent you a private message!

*hug* thank you

i have to say im one of those people who heavily identify with blackness but i def get some "side eyes" from a lot of people (both black and non-black) who question how "fully black" i really am theres always a question of "where r u from? wat r u?" and when i say black it's "yea but what about ur family? u know ur grandparents n stuff" lolllllll. blackness is beautiful. i really see myself as a black person with mixed heritage. i love my black culture and honestly wouldnt trade it for anything else

it bothers me that she dresses in indian garbs only because she doesn't seem to celebrate her black heritage or speak up about it as often im all for people celebrating who they are but if ur gonna celebrate all of it, truly celebrate all of it...not just some of it. i know someone who has a multi-racial mixed black/white/indian grandmother and they identify as multiracial because of her (their grandmother literally looks like a white woman with a tan lol) their other 3 grandparents are black though. do u think theyre going too far identifying as multiracial?

what about people with multi-racial parents or grandparents? yes i love them, another is ananda lewis. dont know if u heard of her but look her up if you havent, shes def part of that club lol what do u think of people who actually appear multiracial identifying with their multiracial heritage? i can kinda understand why some people may identify with their lineage if they see it looking them in the face every day in the mirror lol kinda hard to ignore that and they maybe want to connect with it IMO

i love her but i do "side eye" her sometimes because she is quick to throw on the indian garbs but she doesnt' speak out about black stuff at all. like with everything thats been going on through BLM, etc. not a peep from her. i could understand someone just wanting to celebrate ALL of who they are, but i feel that she kinda puts the indian heritage above her black heritage. its crazy cuz tatyana ali is half indian through her dad, and shes always speaking up about black stuff and standing up for blackness. as you can see i have a thing for gorls like tatyana , chilli , etc. lol i follow them a lot. i guess cuz people think i have that kinda "indian/dravadian" look to myself as well. lol i can kinda relate to them

what are you first thoughts? do u feel thats taking it too far in her case?

no, chilli actually calls herself Blindian, and she dresses up in Indian garments as well and celebrates the culture this is her current Twitter profile pic: im not sure if it's fair to say her non-african heritage isn't "valid" it's def part of who she is...and some people actually see the "indian" in her and consider her to be somewhat racially ambiguous.

Do you not think it's a bit problematic to feel Black people should base their entire self-identity off of what a White racist sees them as? i love ur posts

You think kamala harris tries to claim something else? she's half indian lol Tiger is actually half asian ...they both have whole "other" parents.

She is Black and 1/16th Indian (from her great great grandpa), and refers to herself as "Blindian". Would you consider her mixed race?

for what its worth , i love Pioneer's posts

lollll I totally agree with the point you made about african and european mixtures sometimes making a faux "indian" look there's an artist name Toni Romiti...I'd say she looks very Indian but she's a mixture of African American and White ( Italian )

Yes I know what you mean. Caucasian from Ireland. lol Whatever you wanna call it , it's from slavery and not something I take enough pride in to make sure I am labeling correctly. My roommate/buddy posted me on this site before - I think you were one of the people in the topic/thread. He invited me to join here. He posted my pic and explained my racial makeup but really didn't have my full story. You guessed I was mixed with Dravadian? You remember my face.

lol!! why did u say that though? i dont get it is something wrong he was 1/4th jewish and i think hed actually qualify as "jewish" unlike me since his mother's mother was fully jewish. (matrillineal line) he also has a bit of irish but that was from slavery. he was born with blue-ish eyes.

here it is.

may i ask why u say that? lol

great points here's a pic of my grandpa , who is Jewish through his maternal grandmother.

Id also defnitely say that many Jewish people are clearly more of Mediterranean-ish heritage than just White. THe fact tht many of them can grow real afros shows that they are not "White" people IMO They're clearly more closely physically similar to populations like Italians or Spaniards, or even North Africans. Which goes back to how strong the genetic ties to that region are, even though are physically located in countries within Eastern/Western Europe. the Ashkenazi genetic makeup is SO unique and distinctive that it has its own category on DNA tests. if someone is Ashkenazi, the test will pick it up as Ashkenazi - not Russian or German, etc. And that's worth considering as well.

here is a pic of one of my grandpa's brothers.

Hey! Responding to each of your points: 1. You're right .. I feel it's pretty far removed so as I stated in my original post - that's why I don't feel super comfortable claiming it. But, I look just like my great great grandmother because my grandpa looks like her - and I look like him. LOL So it at least explains the "other" people see in me. I am always asked "What are you?" And yes, Afro-Americans have European ancestry in general, but it's usually NorthWestern European ancestry from slavery . I also have this of course, but I do NOT acknowledge it all for obvious reasons. Besides, my fully Irish ancestor is like 6 generations away from me. My Ashkenazi ancestor is actually the closest non-Black ancestor in my tree. 2. You're kinda wrong here. Ashkenazi Jews are of deeper MIddle Eastern heritage. An Ashkenazi Jew themselves will tell you that. Read this article written by an actual Ashkenazi. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/ashkenazi-jews-are-middle-eastern/ Yes, my great great grandma is from Lithuania which is in Europe but deeper ancestral roots lie in the middle east/north africa. DNA tests I have taken actually break it down to the MENA area. 3. Yes, saying I am part Middle Eastern would add another question mark for someone like YOU, who is obviously very much into this stuff and pretty well versed. But for the average, everyday person - trust me, it suffices. If you read the article I shared with you in #2 written by an actual Ashkenazi, you'll see that someone labeling the author as "Middle Eastern" due to his appearance is what inspired the entire blog post he made. LOL He told the person that he's Jewish and they responded "But you look Middle Eastern". Also, I actually look like populations of people who are mixed African + Middle Eastern (Ethiopians, Somali). My hair , especially, is exactly the same. Seeing them was the FIRST time I saw people who look exactly like me. I'm often mistaken for Trinidadian (people think I am Black and South Asian Indian). Or sometimes people assume I'm just INdian. But the "Indian" theyre seeing is MIddle Eastern/North African. lol I'm sure of it. And my grandfather looks very Arabic. Uncovering his Ashkenazi roots made complete sense of his look.

For starters: I'm Black American... My grandfather's grandma was an Ashkenazi Jewish woman from Lithuania. I started an ancestry journey and discovered this after so many people kept asking me, "What are you?" for the longest time. The question always threw me off because I never identified and saw myself as anything other than Black. But even in NYC, where diversity is nothing new...people would question my origins. At first I just thought it was because I have wavy hair. But when people began pointing out other things like my bone structure, undertones of my skin, etc. I was like OK maybe there is something in my family's past that I don't know about. After research and DNA testing I discovered my Ashkenazi ancestry - and it actually makes a lot of sense because Ashkenazi Jews are genetically MIddle Eastern...and I look a LOT like the East African population who are usually mixed with African and MIddle East. (especially my hair ... it's like a clone!) And my grandfather looks VERY Middle Eastern - I always wondered why I got an "Arabic" vibe from his appearance but couldn't make sense of it. Now I know. But, since my family is far removed from our Jewish heritage ..instead of saying I am part Jewish, I'd prefer to say I am part Middle Eastern/North African. I have no connections to the Jewish community so I wanna be very careful about claiming something that far removed. But, at least I have an explanation of why I look the way I do - and my grandpa as well. WHen people ask now, I will simply say I am part MIddle Eastern/North African, and ONLY if they continue to push for more information will I explain my Jewish roots and go into why I do not claim Jewish connections.