(Closed) Have you ever been identified as a different ethnic group?

All my time in the US, a lot of people have told me I look Indian from India. I actually take that as a compliment because I think Indian women are gorgeous, but I am not, I am Mexican. I don’t get upset or anything, but I was just curious if other people have been identified as a different ethnic group than they really are. I am especially interested in way different ethnic groups not a confusion between Mexican and Colombian for example. Please be respectful and let’s just share our experiences without writing discriminatory comments. Thanks. 🙂

Lol so funny! I am Indian (south) and I have been mistaken for “Latina” (excuse the vague government sanctioned generalization) many times! Including when I was in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, so the complete opposite of what you deal with. I do speak fluent Spanish so that wasn’t an issue but it is a bit weird. I have also been mistaken for Native American which is odd but that may be because I tell people I am Indian and they assume Native American. Interesting topic!

I’m definitely never confused for a different race, but my sister gets really dark in the summer (we are white). Someone on her first day of high school asked her if she was a “halfa.” and she said, “a halfa what?!” Apparently he was asking if she was biracial!

My dad is native American and people think he’s Mexican all.the.time. Even Mexicans think so! I thought at least you were supposed to be able to correctly identify people of your own race lol

And even though I am half naive American I took white and people often accuse me of lying when I talk about my heritage. Overall though when it comes to societal treatment everyone thinking you’re white isn’t really a bad thing

You betcha. I’ve been mistaken for Asian, waaaay off! I’m half Chilean and half Canadian. Both sides have assumed I’m completely one or the other. I’m light skinned with Hispanic features, so I could see how that might sometimes be confusing.

The other one I get is Italian. I don’t think I look Italian, but it’s a common mistake. One friend even assumed this to the point she asked me questions about Italian names and food for MONTHS before I figured out that she thought I was Italian. Uh, what’s the difference between spaghetti and linguini? One is wider. It was so funny, I was clueless that she thought that!

a_day_at_the_fair: I’ve seen that happen very often in that people think Native Americans are just Hispanics/Latinos. Some not all, but I guess people get confused very easily, and I myself have been one of those people.

candy11: a lot of people think I am cherokee indian. Im pretty tan with long straight brown hair and I guess my bone structure too. If i wear my hair in a braid, then EVERYONE is commenting! Haha. They all call me Pocahontas, which is a good thing, I just never thought I resembled her.

candy11: Haha I have the opposite thing happen to me. I’m Indian from India and people mistake me for Mexican/Spanish all the time! I think because I was raised in Canada and not in India, and have a Canadian accent, people assume I’m not Indian. I’m not too culturally influenced by India either, I’m pretty much fully Canadian.