What does "ethnic white" mean?

[I’m not Stu]

I have Mexican, Polish, English, and Swedish ancestry. What is the definition of "ethnic white"?

[rhg2052]

Traditionally it means any European descent community other than those of Anglo-Saxon/Northern European descent, but that definition is pretty tied to the early 20th century, when you had an established population of WASP Americans living here and a huge number of immigrants from other European communities coming in. That's pretty outdated though, as most people descended from those immigrants have assimilated pretty fully into the broader White American culture.

In the current political context I take it to mean communities of European descent that retain a large part of their ethnic community and culture rather than fully assimilating into basic White American culture.

[Roronoa D. Law]

It's a dated term but it mostly been used to refer to immigrants from non-protestant Europe.

[RINO Tom]

It's a dated term but it mostly been used to refer to immigrants from non-protestants Europe.

Yeah, it largely came to mean non-Germanic Europeans, possibly including Celtic populations of the British Isles.

[King of Kensington]

Definitely Italians and Poles.  Sometimes Irish.  Sometimes Jews.

[I’m not Stu]

Do I count as ethnic white?

[rhg2052]

Do I count as ethnic white?

Again, it's pretty dated and problematic so I wouldn't put too much stock into it, but I think it's less about "Where do my ancestors come from?" and more about how much that heritage affects your daily life.

Like, if your Polish heritage is a fun fact about your great-grandfather that doesn't really impact your life in any way, then probably not.

But if you live in a significantly Polish neighborhood, interact within a community of other Polish-American people, cook Polish food, have connections in Poland, etc. then you could maybe be described that way.

[Kuumo]

People from the British Isles, Germany, and Scandinavia don't have an ethnicity. Duh.


It's an archaic term for descendants of southern and eastern Europeans that immigrated to the U.S. in large numbers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[Annatar]

It is a meaningless term today in American politics, it had some meaning in the early 20th century where you had a dichotomy between Protestant whites and newer whites from Europe who migrated in the late 1800's and early 1900's, post 1990 really this term has ceased to mean anything.

[I’m not Stu]

Do I count as ethnic white?

Again, it's pretty dated and problematic so I wouldn't put too much stock into it, but I think it's less about "Where do my ancestors come from?" and more about how much that heritage affects your daily life.

Like, if your Polish heritage is a fun fact about your great-grandfather that doesn't really impact your life in any way, then probably not.

But if you live in a significantly Polish neighborhood, interact within a community of other Polish-American people, cook Polish food, have connections in Poland, etc. then you could maybe be described that way.

One side of my family is half Polish and Mexican. I also count as Hispanic white in the census. I don't live in a significantly Polish neighborhood.

[ChiefFireWaterMike]

I have Mexican, Polish, English, and Swedish ancestry. What is the definition of "ethnic white"?

Ah yes, a southwestern mutt.

[King of Kensington]

From 1989:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-02-13-8903050015-story.html

[King of Kensington]

I guess if one lives in the west or sunbelt one could proclaim "these differences mean absolutely nothing anymore" given that there are no white ethnic enclaves and the relatively small number of people with (at least some) "white ethnic" ancestry have just melted into the white mainstream.