Do ethnic whites still experience discrimination and if so what kinds?

23 comments

1. Not very much. Last century there was some

2. Polish*

3. I’m Italian-American, and I never experienced any kind of prejudice that actually matters. When my Fiancée’s grandmother, who was already known to her family as being a lunatic, expressed concern that my intentions with her granddaughter were to “sneak into a white family”, I was genuinely more amused than anything else that someone was still bothering to have beef with Italian-Americans.

4. No.

5. I’d argue starting the Civil Rights Act, ethnic whites face absolutely zero systemic discrimination. Combination of just no more [legal] discrimination and WASP had an incentive to be inclusive to the other Whites. Prior to the Civil Rights Act, non-Whites weren’t even in the running of being a threat to WASP economic security. Today, ethnic Whites do not face any real/effective discrimination. Yea they are at the butt of jokes or scapegoated to a degree but it never actually results in anything negative; it becomes a passing moment. In every case you hear or see a White person gets “discriminated”, in this day and age, its because they’re doing something unrelated to them being White. For example, calling a Chinese person an Oriental or Chink will get you shunned… its not because you’re White.

   edit: looking forward to the alt-right on this subreddit downvoting me to hell 😉

6. Not really. If you’re white and of European descent in America that’s largely all that matters.

7. There are definitely some hardcore racists out there who would say that Italians or Slavs aren’t white, but they are a tiny percentage of a tiny fraction of a tiny minority.

   By and large, white people in the US face absolutely zero negative ethnic or racial discrimination of any sort, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either a liar, a grifter, an idiot, or some combination thereof.

8. Yes, anytime they apply for college

9. I’ve never experienced any directed at me but my ex-girlfriend’s grandmother was of Irish descent and she held a grudge against my her son (my ex’s father) for “polluting the family blood” by marrying and having kids with a woman of Italian descent

10. My impression is that in America they don’t differentiate European ethnicities the same way that we might. You’ll scarcely hear of a monolithic white people in European contexts.

11. I’m Italian/Irish American, but I’ve never experienced discrimination or racism before. In America, if you’re white, you’re white, and your countries of heritage don’t matter.

12. [removed]

13. Albanians can be looked down upon in the Bronx. But I think its more to do with the fact that their “social clubs” are dangerous and shady. I think the fact that they’re Muslim AND white complicates things.

14. Just jews

15. Jews do, but that’s why I don’t consider myself an ethnic white. I’m constantly being asked “where I’m from,” but if I say I’m Jewish, a certain class of white people get angry and tell me that’s not what they mean. They mean where I’m FROM. I’m like, “Like I said, I’m Jewish.” That just makes them angrier.

    It’s hugely annoying.

16. No discrimination, but maybe some lighthearted jokes.

17. Its rare now, so much so that, say, “hating the Irish” (meaning Irish Americans) is considered something you’d joke an out-of-touch old person (Mr Burns from The Simpsons, say) would do.

    (There are people from, for example, Southie in Boston who have elaborate theories about anti-Irish discrimination, but tbh what most of them are experiencing is *class* discrimination, which is a different breed of cat.)

    I’ve run into the sort on online bigot who talks about, say, “old stock” white people and their ‘replacements’, but thankfully not much of that in person.

    On the other hand, it’s never been unfashionable to say “I don’t like Catholics” in the US. You’d basically suffer no consequences for that, most places, besides someone changing the topic.

    Personally, people have been pricks to me, unprovoked, for different reasons (including for being white), but never specifically because of my Irish or Polish ancestry. My parents did.

18. Greek & Armenian stock here 😁 nothing to speak of. I’ve been asked several times what non-white ethnicity(ies) I have bc people can tell my features aren’t exactly Norwegian, but that curiosity has never gone in a bad direction. My grandparents faced discrimination for this but nowadays, nah.

19. >polished Americans

    Huh?

20. No I can’t say there is any for generations now. A lot started to change after WW2

21. antisemitism still exists, if that’s what you mean. But against Italians or Irish Catholics? No, there’s no real discrimination against them

22. The government is the primary vehicle of racial discrimination, both for and against whites depending on the agency.

23. My mom is from Poland and my dad is Polish descended, I recieved no prejudice and was effectively white American, but my mom was bullied for poor English skills and Cold War-era Slavic paranoia in the 80’s.

    After a generation or so most “white ethnic” groups just kind of meld into general white America. The Simpsons were making cracks about Polish jokes being old-fashioned as of like 30 years ago, so you can imagine how much of a non-issue it is today.