Micro-Aggressions and Knowing Your Heritage

My Celtic Heritage

My Phoenician Heritage

Apparently, asking someone, especially a so-called "Person of Color", what their ethnic background is, is now supposed to be considered a "micro-aggression", IE a really dumb way to say that someone is "being racist" without consciously meaning to be. Or worse, that they're "racist" without even being conscious of it, because it's just "ingrained" in them. And of course, by "they", the implication is "White People".

Well, AS a so-called "Person of Color" myself, being of over a quarter NON-European heritage (that is, if the PoC community considers that being non-white enough to count, IE I have their permission to be considered non-white), I personally find ethnic backgrounds fascinating. I always have. And personally, I always get around to asking people "what are you", because I genuinely like to know those kinds of interesting details about a person, just the same as I like to know their age, sign, favorite color, interests, etc.

And if someone were to ask ME, "what are you", wanting to know MY ethnic background, I wouldn't bat an eyelash. I'd just act like a grown ass adult, and tell them what my mixed heritage is. I wouldn't consider it a "micro-aggression", nor would I assume they were "racist". I wouldn't, in point of fact, be offended at all, so long as they were genuinely curious, and weren't a dick about it.

The fact of the matter is, I'm just as interested in, and proud of my European (Celtic, etc.) heritage, as I am my Lebanese and Cherokee heritage. I feel everyone should be, and should certainly want to know their own heritage. It's part of our history, and what makes us (humans) who we are. But then again, maybe I only feel that way because I was "raised White" (even though my mother was literally half-Lebanese), and am simply not PoC enough, to be able to fully understand.

Personal Note: I do not like the term "Person of Color", even though I fit that mold, and have never liked it. I simply have "mixed" heritage, and that is an apt enough description. Calling all non-European people "People of Color", implies that so-called "White" people have no color, no ethnicity, which is ridiculous. Everyone has ethnicity. And there is no such thing as "White" or "Black" people. There are pale people, and dark people, but there is not a human on this planet who is stark white, or pitch black (Even "Albinos" have color). Those are cultural labels people created and adopted. And I don't consider myself "white", even if I were 100% European, any more than I consider myself a "Person of Color". I'd like to think I would still feel the same way, even if I were 100% non-European. I am simply me, and that should be good enough for anyone.