What I really quite like about being a mongrel, is that people struggle to pin you down, categorise you, put you in a box. I’ve bin mistaken for a Colombian, by Colombians. In Spain everyone assumed I was Spanish. The Turks in shops in London speak to me in Turkish. Loads of Middle Eastern types think I’m Iranian, Palestinian, Jordanian etc. The local Asian yute dem treat me with more respect than they do people of other colours. I’ve bin mistaken for being Israeli too. Abroad, somehow people don’t see me as propperly ‘British’, which, in the context of the scum minority of British hooligans who give all of us a bad name, is quite good really.

So, some real benefits. Plus, in Norway, lots of pretty Nordic types find you more interesting cos you stand out quite a bit. 8)

I decided it was their problem not mine and just got on with it and had fun, worked out ok I reckon.

Same here. I can’t help it if other people are idiots.

I ain’t ticking no box marked ‘other’, though. I’m not ‘other’, I’m me.

Being a pr*ck ain’t nothing to do with race or background pobrecito elfin. 😉

Course not. I’m still little idiot regardless of what shade I am. 😀

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0S-joxplRw[/video]

I’m mixed race. Part English, part white Irish traveller (well my dad did own a caravan).

Me too, half English and half Prussian – you can’t tell by looking at me but the way I kick my heels together gives it away

Karinofnine, it’s the smell of dog wee that gives it away I’m afraid. 🙂

Can you smell it in Spain?

TuckerUK – Member
I had a mixed-race girlfriend once; half Chinese, half Brummie, all beautiful.
Um, they are nationalities.

Republic of Birmingham?

What I really quite like about being a mongrel, is that people struggle to pin you down, categorise you, put you in a box. I’ve bin mistaken for a Colombian, by Colombians. In Spain everyone assumed I was Spanish. The Turks in shops in London speak to me in Turkish. Loads of Middle Eastern types think I’m Iranian, Palestinian, Jordanian etc. The local Asian yute dem treat me with more respect than they do people of other colours. I’ve bin mistaken for being Israeli too. Abroad, somehow people don’t see me as propperly ‘British’, which, in the context of the scum minority of British hooligans who give all of us a bad name, is quite good really.

I’m half English and half Scottish and this quote applies to me too.. 8)

My wife is of Indian origin, whereas I’m originally from Scotland. Never really thought about it, but my son is mixed race. Pretty sure it will be no big deal when he goes to school, there will probably be almost as many mixed raced kids as non. Lucky boy will never have to suffer a Scottish tan! 🙂

I always wanted a mixed race marriage my self just to make sure my kids ant ginger,

People’s Republic of Birmingham

Republic of Birmingham would be what, Solihull? 🙂

Interesting thread.
I have an english mother and an irish father. Daddy had little to do with me growing up though so I identify far more with the english, but the DNA don’t lie.
I’m pretty dark for a white chap though and have been accused of “havin a bit of wop or somefin” in my blood. Maybe I have. I don’t care.

Anyone, and I mean anyone at all not of mixed race???

when most people think of mixed race in this country, I would imagine that they would think of 2 parents of different ethnic groups where one of those parents is white, as these pairings are the most common. I think census results now take into account what races are mixed (black and white, asian and white, etc.), rather than just that you are mixed race.

I’m 1/4 Welsh and my son’s 1/2 Chinese.

Here in N.London I can tell you we are gradually sh44ging ourselves beige. Huge amount of mixed race couples, all flavours.

My kids
1/2 Scottish
1/4 Northern Indian
1/8 Guyanese
1/16th Dutch
1/16th French

Beat that. And they look like little Italians.

My wife does get annoyed when people ask where she is from. “London”.

Part Cumbrian, part Geordie. My gf’s mates (from Birmingham) just refer to me as ‘generically Northern’. Works for me, long as I’m not mistaken for some shandy-drinking Southerner…

I’m pretty dark for a white chap though and have been accused of “havin a bit of wop or somefin” in my blood

That would be Black Irish, some claim descended from the sailors shipwrecked from the Spanish Armada

Charlie, were they pirates?

Part Cumbrian, part Geordie. My gf’s mates (from Birmingham) just refer to me as ‘generically Northern’. Works for me, long as I’m not mistaken for some shandy-drinking Southerner…

Scots/Lancastrian by parentage, French by heritage, Northumbrian by birth. Definitely British, but I’d hesitate to call myself English.

And definitely not a Southerner….anything south of Durham is suspect.

Guyanese?! I hardly ever hear anyone say that! When I tell people my heritage they think of Ghana.

I’m 1/2 Guyanese 1/4 Irish and 1/4 Indian, born in sunny Hammersmith. I refer to myself as mixed race and tick the “other” box. When people ask where I’m from I reply “in which sense?”.

A funny thing is that often people of a mixed white background don’t get associated with being mixed race, as if it refers to tone. I think the majority of people come under the term.

The old “negroid, mongoloid, caucasoid” idea has been superseded by far more in depth research and theory. The term “race” has changed meanings many times, maybe it’s defunct? I think race pretty much refers to the indigenous people from a nation, therefore most people would indeed be mixed race if you go back a little.

I get to tick the ‘British white’ section on most forms which is quite funny I reckon as family-wise we’re very mixed – France (the northern european bit, the med bits and the north african looking mixed bits), Germany, Italy, Russia – but since I look and sound English, that’s what everyone assumes I am.

interesting programme on R4 about this last week. mostly discussed the idea that mixed race does not mean black and white parentage. presenter was black/ indian.

interesting fact: half of all british children born with 1 afro-caribbean parent, the other parent is white.

Considering the very broad sweep and permutations of skin, hair and eye colour and physical features that can qualify me as ‘white’, I think it’s a bit much for a blotchy, freckly reddish ‘white’ irishman to get fussy about racial purity.

I have a book on the shelf near my head entitled “Face of Britain” by Prof. Robin Mckie. In it he makes the claim (based on evidence from the Human Genome Project) that all white, non-recently-immigrated Britons share some 50% of their DNA with the original hunter-gatherers who were trapped on the Island of Britain by the rising seawaters some 9’000 yrs ago. That’s a pretty small gene pool to be fair and it’s pretty incredible to think that those particular genetic strands are still so prevalent today.

I can’t believe that I’m in the company of such piebald scoundrels.. 😯

What do you think of immediately, which mix?

I don’t, I just assume they’ll be a mix of two main general shapes/size/colours. Clue’s in the title. Doesn’t make me think of any one or anything in particular. The thing is I can rarely imagine a scenario where it matters, other than maybe rapid person identification in a crowd, but even that has flaws!

My wife has a variety of Cumbrian, Devonian, Spanish, Scottish and Roma blood. I’m just plain English going back a fair way. My kids have a few hints of my wife’s far more interesting heritage.

Love all the different colours, hues and features of us humans and like to see them mixed up. People are beautiful.

I’m not bald!

I do like the occasional pie though. Not as much as Binners, but tbh, that’s patently obvious. 😐

I take ‘mixed race’ to refer to those with parents from two of the main ‘racial’ groups; Caucasian, Semitic, Arab, Indo-Aryan, Chinese/Mongolian, African, Afro-Caribbean, etc.

The distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred now mind, and there are many folk who look like they are from just one group, but have heritage from other groups in their ancestry and that. I’ve known ‘white’ people who actually are 1/4 Afro-Carribean, frinstance. And then you get people from places like the Seychelles, Madagascar, Guyana and that, who’s heritage is very mixed already. There are many people in Peru and Chile who have Chinese/Mongolian DNA traces.

But yeah, we’re all a mish-mash pretty much. It’s culture what makes the biggest difference; take me and Binners for example; I am refined and sophisticated, yet he is a barbaric philiistine, sadly.

Poor lad. It’s not his fault he’s from Warrington. 😥 Dont judge him for it; he needs your love, not hate.

I have some ginger in my beard, does that qualify?

I’m…well me mam is 1/2 Irish and my father was Irish (Cork). Never thought about it since mid 80’s cos never been an issue. But the local pubs notice saing ‘no travellers, no blacks, no Irish, no dogs’ did lead to me wondering why my father was being put in the same class as a dog.

sp

I’m mixed race. Part English, part white Irish traveller (well my dad did own a caravan).

similar. maternal great grandparents travelled over from Limerick. Got as far as Leeds

dad used to reckon he was descended from the huguenots, but I think the family name is a “trade” name dating back to the middle ages.