this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Appreciate this article and perspective and hits home to me as a Greek American.
It frustrates me to no end that when self-identifying the only option is to mark “white”. I choose “other” whenever given the option, which extremely rare.
Thank you! 💙
I imagine that does suck. I wouldn't worry too much about that official stuff tho; U.S. census includes West Asians & North Africans under "White" for some reason lol. By that logic ticking the box as a Greek shouldn't matter all that much, but if it's a principle thing I get that too.
My yiayia would often remember when she was “not white.” In our family’s lore, her father’s business in the Greek part of the city where they lived narrowly avoided being firebombed by the Klan.
It's crazy to think that a lot of groups (Irish, Italians, Greeks, etc.) weren't considered White up until very recently. Growing up I never thought of Italians as anything other than White until I learned there was a time when that wasn't the case and that some of my own family members were alive during that period, including my great grandmother who was originally from Italy.
From my personal experience Greeks and Italiens are not always seen as whites where I live. Its Germany. It can get racist fast if a crime happens and the perpetrator is described "southern looking". Spaniards, Turks, Italians, Greeks and so on are likely met with racism. It always amazes me how notorious subreddits like r/Europa are behaving like there is some kind of unity. It happened often that I met people who saw people from Poland (They especially) and Greeks as uncultured barbarians.
Russians are orcs anyway today. However some of them rather see Greeks more friendly, because orthodoxy.
I do the same as someone with West Asian Ancestry. Or I'll choose to not disclose, or if I'm really petty I'll pick Asian. I refuse to be considered white.
The way the US classifies Latinos is really weird too. First you have to state your race, then you have to specify whether or not you're Latino as a separate question. Because of that, being Latino isn't an available option for race. But you can't leave questions blank so Latinos have to select something as their race to move on.
So the chicano family that lives in the segregated non-white part of the city? They're white latinos. Migrants from central America? They're white latinos too. Or maybe American Indian latinos. Or American Indian non-latinos. Who knows really
There are also just a lot of people stuck under a Latino/Hispanic option on these forms that don't generally identify much with either one. Maybe it's less common after a few generations, where I see more people self-identifying as such within the US, but I've worked with a lot of first generation immigrants from different countries who are like "Wtf is Latino, or Hispanic? Why are people calling me that? I'm not Hispanic, I'm Dominican/Ecuadorian/Mexican."