I was talking with someone about someone else, and they asked, “Are they South Korean?” I found the question interesting because I don’t tend to think about Koreans as South Korean or North Korean. I just think of them as Koreans.
i found myself wondering. Well, how do I think of ethnically Chinese Filipinos? Wikipedia states, “[T]here are more than 185 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines each with its own language, identity, culture, and history.”
Language seems to be one factor that brings a community together. So, does an ethnically Chinese person speak Chinese, English or one of these other 185 languages? This might be one way to approach the question.
But, nationality has some clear advantages. If you are a citizen of the the Philippines, you are Filipino, right? But, given 185 languages and various diaspora, how does one know someone else is Filipino? What makes them Filipino beyond their passport and citizenship?
Religion is another aspect. Catholic and Protestant Irish are different, but at the same time, culturally, as someone from outside the culture, aren’t they collectively Irish? There’s also two nations involved, but the idea of a cultural Ireland seems to be a bigger, and better, concept than the individual nations.
A similar dynamic is in play for Bengal. There’s a Bangladesh, which is primarily Muslim. And, there is West Bengali, India, which is Hindu. Further West Bengal is part of India. Bengalis are India. But, there are also not only India, since they have a distinct cultural, linguistic and other identity.
And, what of being white in America? What is that characterized by? Speaking English, Protestant Christianity, a series of cultural norms that emerged from both the frontier and waves of immigration? It seems closer to the Philippines, where there are a diverse set of cultures that are subhumed under a national, or in some cases, a fabricated racial identity.
So, thinking this through a bit, it occurs to me that my way of thinking about ethnicities isn’t terribly sophisticated. I use broad strokes that put together North and South Korea that in some ways erases important distinctions and shared history.
But, I suppose what counts as “important” depends on context. What do we care about when we talk about these things and where should the focus lie? An open question.
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