Okay non-European tumblr, Iām gonna explain to you whyĀ āwhiteā isnāt as simple here as it is in the rest of the world
- Shades of white in Europe range fromĀ āfreshly fallen snowā toĀ āI am frequently mistaken as being from the Middle Eastā
- White European is a thing. When you fill out a form, under ethnicity, there are several options for white; white British, white European, white other. Because people make that distinction
- There are Europeans who donāt class their ethnicity as their skin colour, but as their nationality. I have family who donāt think of themselves as white, they just think of themselves as Italian and donāt really give much thought to their skin colour
- People here in Britain always question if darker skinned white Europeans are āactually whiteā. I get it a lot myself. My response is always āwell Iām not anything else, so obviously I must beā
- Despite being white, a lot of Europeans from Italy, Greece, Spain etc, donāt feel white in the traditional sense. Weāre not white like white British people. Weāre not white like white Americans. Weāre our own white. White British is one thing. White Italian is another thing. White Greek is another, etc
- Which is why we have this notion here in Europe ofĀ ānationality over raceā. Being white isnāt as important as where youāre from
- So this really only becomes an issue if youāre an immigrant
- So being white in Europe doesnāt save you from racial discrimination, because sure, youāre technically white, but youāre not white white. Not the right white
- Here in England, Europeans with really blatantly foreign names, such as myself, find it more difficult to get job interviews, because they take one look at our name and donāt bother reading the rest of the CV. A guy I know was actually told by his boss to reduce the pile of CVs he had byĀ āchucking away any with a name you canāt fucking pronounceā
-Ā And then even when you do get an interview, half the time you walk into the joint several shades darker than everyone else and feel like youāve walked into the āSwedish supermodelā clubhouse and you just know youāre not getting hired
This is all basic stuff and itās very much taken for granted here. Race and ethnicity are not as clear cut, so it can be very confusing for non-Europeans to wrap their heads around. Which is fine. But I implore you to stay in your lane, because when you say things likeĀ āno white person anywhere in the world ever knows what itās like to face racial discriminationā, itās really fucking offensive to all of the European immigrants who are denied jobs, harassed by the police and beaten by racists, because foreign is foreign to these people, and they donāt give a shit if youāre technically white. So when you mean white American, say white American.Ā