Ashamed of Ethnicity?

Have you ever been ashamed of your Ethnicity/Nationality?

I recently purchased a movie called "Lion of the Desert" to help me better understand what was going on during the Italian Occupation of Libya (my book which I am writing takes place during this time period near the areas of conflict). Although it was in Arabic, I understood everything that was going on. Either that is a credit to me or a credit to Anthony Quinn and the actors/producers...I cannot say :0P Anyway, ...especially during the first half of the movie... I was soooo sickened at what I saw Graziani doing... -_-

Each time I saw one of the Libyans I thought of people whom I call friends. . . And each time I saw an Italian killing a Libyan...or striking them... ..........armored cars crushing people without a thought... the burning of food supplies ..... Just now the Word from God comes to me--"The tender mercies of an evil man are cruel"--for even the couple of times mercy was portrayed it was to an evil end. . . v_v

I was searching the faces of the Italians--HOPing that I couldn't see a resemblance to my own self or my loved ones. The carnage was unthinking--like a miniature Holocaust.......

And although I know that all movies are bent to attain some emotional (or otherwise) goal...I realize that I never understood until last night even a fraction of Mussollini's malice.

He killed people I could have loved. ..people I do love..

My ties to him through Nation-of-origin made me feel..as if I had been the one pulling the trigger...driving over women and children...forcing peaceful old men to finish their long, beautiful lives off with urksome bloodshed and unrest.

I'm sorry. I know that their sins are not mine, but I'm sorry.

.....what about you?

http://www.australian-news.com.au/Cronulla_riots.htm

Though there had been a build up of pressure from Lebanese gangs and such, it sickens me that the Australians running around bashing middle-easterners on sight were holding the Australian flag and singing the anthem, as if that was what Australia was about.

When I used to live in Scotland, I used to not dare say I was Libyan. Of course I'm assuming that most of you know about the Lockerbie incident.
I even succumbed to the image the Scots had of libyans and arabs in general. I began to believe that we were inferior.. uncivilised. That was before I began to read and before we first got a satellite channel. Heh, believe it or not, I was amazed that arabs had cottonned on to making programmes and tv channels! *laughs and feels ashamed at the level of her previous ignorance*

However, as the years went by I have gained in knowledge and learned through experience many lessons. As I saw Bosnians being killed ruthlessly, I also saw the agony of those people jumping from the twin towers in New York. Did I feel ashamed that I was muslim? never. Did I feel ashamed that those people called themselves so? .. yes.

I am a seperate entity and will not tar myself with atrocities I didn't commit. I'll admit they're atrocities but I won't personally feel responsible. In the same way Dave, I ask you to look at that part of history with understanding. You are a later spectator and should only use that material as something to help you contemplate, and not burden yourself with personal guilt.

Of course, my perception may be skewed and somewhat wrong, but it's what I think.

DD--*nods* It hurts to see something we believe to be good used in conjunction with wrong-doing (a.k.a.--evil).

Asia--Thanks for the words. I'm still really hit with everything... I think that, since I was SO focused on EVERY detail of what was going on...trying to mentally write more of my novel as I watched...that it was like being submerged in a pool and then someone turning on and off an electric current through the water. By the time you realized you're being burnt to a crisp it is too late to pull out and all you can do is sit there--convulsing and fixed.

You are right that I am also a separate entity from any of those characters from our mutual ancestral history.. And it is good to be reminded of that by you, especially. For someone so estranged from his country of origin, though, I have struggled all my life to maintain some grasp on my Italian heritage--mixed blood or no. (That, if you remember my single prejudice, is why Sicillians are not so easily loved by me as are all other peoples..which I have let go of, mostly, but I still feel a twinge when I hear the name--they spoiled what it means to be an Italian in the eyes of the world). Anyway...it was like a powerful recoil of will to be associated with Italy when I saw such things going on. You don't hear much about Italy in our history books between the Wars.

heh...but I suppose I could link myself to those Italians who hung Mussollini ;0)

I'm just very caught up in deep thought and feeling, right now... As you say and advise, I will use the things I feel for contemplation and to make my novel better as I continue to write it.

May the Lord bless our paths.

(Keep discussing your own stories, please--don't let me kill the thread, haha)

No, never, Norwegians are perfect.

Nah, kidding, kidding.

I do not believe I feel ashamed of my ethnicity. At the most I'm ashamed of how Norway must appear to the rest of the world.

Maybe I'm a bit too much on the other side, though, being sort of over-proud of it. But I think the occasional pangs of realisation of how bad it can be mostly out-weighs it.

Nope! I like being Puertorican. Although I wish I knew japanese!!!

Not really. I'm my own person, I'm just as much 'ashamed' of my ethnicity as I am of any other. After all we are all people, we aren't defined as peple by our ancestors.

In short, England has done some pretty stupid things in the past which I would have rather not happened, but so has every other country.

As a young child growing up in a a white suburb of Virginia, I was ashamed of being half black, which well, is still considered black unfortunantly. Everyone around me was white, to be popular was white, I was, and still am attracted to primarly caucasian women. White was everywhere, and well, being black, but growing up white just has you grow up to be something, in the middle, a mix, and oreo, a mut.
Rap and Hip Hop was new, and according to the main stream media rap was a negative aspect of society, I never knew how deep rap went when I was a kid, then of course came gangsta rap, and my parents always told me gangs were bad, as did my teachers and such, so I completly dissascociated myself from african american culture. I never really felt the actions of civil rights activists affect me because I was basically a white kid stuck in a black kid's body.
I constantly asked my mom if she could straighten my insane curls, or if I could never see the sun for a month so I could get extremely pale (white). It was realy pathetic to think that I, Mr. Pro-minority advancement, anit-racism, actually tried to do things like that when I was a kid, that I was ashamed to be black when I was a kid.

While in highschool I learned more about the african american presence throughout american history, and I was enlightened beyong beleif. Elementary school taught us that Martin Luther King Jr. was good, and Malcom X(El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) Malcom X became my hero, and still is today, because I saw so much of myself in him.

Today, sure, I accept my african heritage more than ever, but growing up white has still left it's scars. I really stand out while sitting with a bunch of black kids, people still refer to me as michael jackson, or the oreo, simply because of the clothes I wear (i.e nothing extremely baggy, jersies, or fubu, or any sports gear for that matter). I simply refuse to give into these stereotypes of what it means to be black in america. I never forget that I am also white though, it's hard somtimes, It's like being jewish and a nazi, or russian and american(50's). I know I can't choose one or the other, but to be both is such a struggle.

Erik, I agree with you on Norway. I'm embarrassed at how the Norwegian government can behave sometimes.

I'm not proud of my ethnicity. But not ashamed either. I suppose you can say that Scandinavia is an ethnic group? I think pride in one's ethnicity will only cause trouble. No one is better than anybody else. I don't really know though.. It's exciting with people who preserve the culture of their ethnicity, depending on how good or bad that culture is, but ethnic superiority is dispicable.

You know, vg...your history reminded me of something else from my own life. . .

I hang around people who are different from me--it is in my nature to seek out diversity (and in this I rejoice and thank God). One of those major "groups" of people I love to hang out with are Mexicans (although I have other HispanoLatino friends, I'll focus mainly on Mexicans, here). Well, a lot of times it is easy to feel a difference between myself and my Mexican friends when we're over their homes or something.

Mexican-Americans today are like the Italian-Americans of the first half of the last century. They live in large groups but in very small living spaces. Their incomes are not always wisely spent but that is due to many different reasons. They are faced with some really tough choices which go as deep as oftentimes needing to give up a part of themselves as Mexicans in order to become "successful" Americans.

We (the Italian-Americans of the past generation) have mostly gone through those earlier struggles and are living in the consequences, now. Our parents and grandparents were the ones who gave up or clung to those special parts of themselves.

Now, when I am with my friends, I feel bad if I am better dressed or know more or whatever separates me from them. It is then the challenge to rather USE these differences for our mutual benefit. I think it is foolhardy to pretend them away--but instead we can enjoy them.

Anyway, although I don't think I concluded that thought very well, that's just something I wanted to put out there.

VIVA MEXICO Y AMERICA!!! ;0)

Originally Posted by vacumgod

While in highschool I learned more about the african american presence throughout american history, and I was enlightened beyong beleif. Elementary school taught us that Martin Luther King Jr. was good, and Malcom X(El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) Malcom X became my hero, and still is today, because I saw so much of myself in him.

The interesting thing is, I thought of Malcolm X when I read your post.

I've come to accept that I'm of mixed heritage, the two most predominant being Arab and Indian. Am I ashamed? As a student of history, I feel both shame and pride, as would any other reasonable student researching their own culture.

How do I deal with it? I learned that, whatever bad that happens is very non-specific. It happens anytime, anywhere. Almost everyone has a history full of violence, ignorance, bigotry, or incompetence. However, the good that happens is something very special and emulated only a few times in history.

On a personal, every-day-living experience, my background is important, but on a scholarly level, it falls into hindsight and I try to stay objective and reasonable.

Am I ashamed of recent events such as terrorism and Middle East policies? Yes, a little. Inversely, if I act normally, I appear to be a saint in front of others around me, since they are bombarded with images and views that Arabs are violent and brutal.

I'm proud of the success that Indian Americans have achieved in the country (we're the richest, most well-off minority in the U.S. - a model minority we're called), but I'm also a bit embarrassed by our disorderly isolation and endogamy. Thankfully, the newer American generation is helping absolve the negative.

I'm not in the least bit ashamed of my Englishness. My humorous accent isn't what it used to be and I got bullied quite a bit for about 6 years, but that's all in the past now.

I don't think anyone should be ashamed of who or what they are. As the second-greatest philosopher of all time - Popeye - once said, "I am what I am."

Well I used to be ashamed of my Portuguese heritage. But, my reasons were just selfish.

I live in a small town and a large population of it, about eighty percent, is Portuguese. I like to be different, and being the same race as most of the people I was around just made me feel like I was another face in the crowd.

I finally came to realize that there ws nothing wrong with being like everyone else. After all, we are all unique and that makes us the same.

I see individuals and I try not to conjure some one concept about a people as a whole. I think we're all guilty of being narrow minded to some length about races, but I'm not ashamed of my heritege. I happen to be of Chinese descent and growing up in a largely white suburbia, I get the usual sterotypes and whatnot. Some negative things, but I don't think race means much. I guess I've never really had that much experience with it, since I think most of the time, people do it out of teasing and stuff. Nothing serious, but I happen to be kind of naive.

I'm not ashamed about anything. If someone is ashamed about where they come from, they're a traitor to their family. Be proud of who you are, and what you are, for someday you might be persecuted for it. (ex. 1940's)

Once again, I'm proud to be Irish! It means that I don't get drunk as fast as you city slickers.

Sometimes, yes, I do feel ashamed. One example was the one DivineDragoon posted with the recent Cronulla riots.

Sometimes I feel ashamed of being mostly of European descent. All throughout primary and high school you learn about how your ancestors pretty much screwed up the world, bringing destruction to most corners of the globe. With their arrival came disease, malevolence and often, genocide. In my own country, this is what the European settlers pretty much did. The people of Tasmania were completely wiped out. The indigenous people's population on the mainland was severely reduced as well. And if it had not been for Europeans settling in Australia, I simply wouldn't exist. And then into the modern day, persons of European descent are often accused of suppressing other ethnic groups. The disgusting attitudes of some people of European descent sometimes overshadows everyone else. Like the behaviour seen in Cronulla recently.

But then, while sometimes I feel ashamed of my heritage and of my ethnicity, I realise that I did not do these terrible things. The only connection I have to the people that committed such horrible things is the colour of my skin and I cannot be guilty for something I didn't do.