to have no idea what my childrens' ethnic group is

[atthecarwash]

Just received the census and I'm already stressing abou filling it in.

I'm half french half british.
DH is half english half indian

What are my children?

I usually go with 'other' it is a long and complicated answer otherwise.

Cory, it isn't about medical issues. If it was about medical issues it would be asking for your ethnic origin, not ethnic group.

Milly, my post was in response to certain other posters suggesting it is about medical issues. Which seems odd to me.

I would be surprised if they did use it for medical reasons. I would assume that the NHS had better data of its own for things like sickle cell.

I think it is interesting that they also have a separate question for national identity, and it the choices they have given on that. I suppose that is useful for issues of devolution and independence, and it is worth anyone connected to Northumberland who would rather be governed from Edinburgh putting down that they consider their national identity to be Northumbrian. I suspect a lot of people in Cornwall will put down their national identity as Cornish.

Ben10 Don't worry too much about whether you filled in the box 'wrong' on the census form. As you can see from this thread there are lots of us who don't fit neatly in the boxes, and are putting in various 'wrong' answers - it isn't really possible to be 'right' until we can all tick 'human'. This is a good opportunity to think about what you want to put as your ethnic group, in which circumstances. One year I had to fill in a form, and put 'Other' then wrote myself as 'mixed race', by the following year I had taken against 'race' as I wanted to argue it isn't about a biological racial ethnicity but a 'heritage', unfortunately in response to my input the organisation had put a box saying 'mixed race' so I felt I had better tick it!

Miso you are right, it would be great if we could get interviewers to admit what they think people's ethnicity is.

Atthecarwash evidence shows that when people with Asian or African surnames apply for jobs they are much less likely to be interviewed, even if they have exactly the same qualifications as people with white-sounding names, so it is probably important that your children understand that how they look is not the only aspect of their ethnic identity.

It's great that you used this opportunity to talk with your DS about what ethnicity is, and what he might like to put. I know we would all like our kids to grow up thinking of themselves as human, unfortunately other people don't always treat them that way. DD is only 7 and has already had someone pull slit eyes at her - even though she is only 1/4 Japanese - she didn't understand what it was about so I didn't go into it (I did have a chat with the school who were very good).

Politixmum

I was spat at in my pushchair as a baby due to being "mixed race". Fair enough it was in the 70s but is enough to make me think more about my ethnic group. I love the fact that I am a "Heinz 57" of religions, ethnic groups and nationalities. It is my party piece at work to trot them all out!

Ben10 was I patronising? Didn't mean to be, I am in bed with flu, Mumsnetting while DP takes DD to school, so I might not be saying things quite as I mean them.

Like you I am always filling in boxes which I feel are the 'wrong' ones. As I teach in this area, I have come to view this as an interesting exercise which I can use to demonstrate to my students that ethnicity has been made up in order to put a Certain Group in the top notch. I also have entertaining times waiting for people to say 'And where are you from?', especially as I work with academics in the field who ought to know better. [grrr]

politix...yes, we are aware of the fact that having an indian surname will unfortunately work against them at some point.Very sad in this day and age.

DH is self-employed, and very early on at uni one of his tutors advised him to make sure he always used his first name (a christian name) when advertising rather than just his initial as his surname could work against him.
What a shame about the slit eye thing. ...luckily she didn't understand but how awful

C'est la vie - sadly. I thought about what to do long and hard but I am glad I spoke quietly with the Head about it, as it would just eat away at me to let it go with nothing done. Imagine being an expert on race and ethnicity and not doing anything about a simple act of racism to your own DD! I had to do SOMETHING

Politixmum - you absolutely were not patronising. Just reminded me that as "white-looking" as I am now, 30 odd years ago before my black hair fell out I looked much more Japanese to the extent that there was racism against me.

Thanks Ben10! I am neurotic because of the womanflu (when you are really ill and in bed most of the day but still get up to cook food, and pick up DCs unless you can persuade one of the network of friends you have organised to drop her off for you).

One of the things that I find most 'interesting' is how when I complain about racism, some people say: "Oh, I thought you were white, you look white", implying that it is all about appearance. As I say to them, part of the racism is that I don't get to choose whether they think I look white or not, just as many times people say: "I thought there was something" - what sort of thing not specified. And most of the time, nothing is said, but I get the uneasy feeling I might have got that job had I been white, male, not-parenting blah blah blah.

Anyway [hastily attempts to get back on-thread] it is important to think about what we are putting on the census so we can measure these things! although when we are not sure if we have ticked the 'right' box it is because there isn't really a 'right' box, ethnicity is a fiction. Hopefully it will be a fiction with a happy ending where one day we can all live happily ever after with enough jobs to go round. Paradoxically, filling in census returns and debating how difficult that is might help us get there.

"I thought there was something" - exactly the phrase I get!

I asked OH what he wanted me to put down, he said White British and in the box where you can write your own answer he said Eastern European, I filled our children in the same. His grandmother was born in the UK to Russian parents so he is 1/4 Russian, he has a rare German name so at some point it's possible he's got German blood too.

He never understood why the maternity hospital was so interested in his Russian family, he argued with me that his great-grandparents had escaped here as royalists so there was no way they were anything but white. I had to explain that he couldn't say that going back even 100 years before them and there was a possibility he had Asian or African ancestors.

I guess it's like the fact that Mongolians are supposed to be white and Italians blonde hair/ blue eyed.

I'd tick other then go for fantastic!