~~points not needed, answering for the fun of it... this is a question I have wanted to see on AB for a long time and nobody asked it. Hence, I am.~~ Firstly, more important than my ethnicity is my beliefs, manners, code of honor. If I were to have to give up anything to keep one thing, I would give up all to keep my these. To me, that is the very core of my being. That being said, I am proud of my ethnicity... Romani ("Gypsy"). Ethnicity is a more correct term than "race." I am not proud of my skin color... that is inconsequential. I could not give two squirts of owl poop about how much melanin is in my skin. I did not choose to be born Romani. It just turned out that way. I am proud of the rich culture that we have and that we have survived against all odds. I did not contribute to that rich culture but it is part of my personal identity. I would not be who I am without it. If I was some other ethnicity, I would have delved deep into its history and, most likely, be just as proud of it. It is one of the things I base my self identity upon.

Hey, Arisztid, welcome "sort of back"! I've never really understood being proud of where my ancestors came from.

Why would someone be proud of their family, extended family, or super-extended family? Don't worry, liberals are trying to actively stomp that kind of pride out in America / Europe and disparagingly are making a lot of progress.

I was born with empathy, I am proud of that.

I'm proud of who I am - it's taken me a very long time to get to this point in my life that I can say that I'm happy to be ME, I was always ashamed or afraid of what my likes and dislikes were and if they were socially acceptable. It was a long road but very much worthwhile. :)

I don't believe I'm justified in being proud of my ethnicity, after all, I had nothing to do with how it came about. I am proud of my ancestors. Their struggles, sacrifices, determination, and accomplishments.

We've had this conversation before my friend. Many months ago you asked a similar question. I will give you my same answer. I am of Armenian descent and proud to be. However, I am no more proud of that than I am proud of all ethnicities..we are all to be celebrated because we are all worthwhile, valuable and interesting. Happy Monday, m'dear! :) ((hugs)) Being of Armenian heritage makes me no more superior or inferior than anyone of any other heritage. :)

I'm as proud of my ethnicity as I am of having blue eyes, fair hair and being over 6 feet tall. In other words, not at all. I am proud of some of my achievements in life and I am proud of some of the things that my country has done. I can't see anything to be proud of in something over which I had no control.

I'm proud of my last name because it's the result of my great-great-great-great grandfather's escape from the British Navy in 1818. :P

I really do enjoy being Italian. We have awesome food, we are sexy as hell, and make some kick ass sports cars. =)

Quite simpy it is because the way God made you and you should be proud to be yourself.

What I am actually incredibly 'proud' of is ... human... diversity! There is, almost undeniably, a certain protectionism when talking about one's specific ethnicity, isn't there? After all, its what we know; what we were born into. So, maybe the first demonstration of human elitism comes from that familiarity, a certain 'following' grasp of secure acquaintance. Of course, in the beginning, starting out as a youngster, this is an innocent perception. Its 'safe.' And even understandable. As young humans, new to our emerging need for our own individual identity, we may notice first we all have many human elements in common: ears and noses, eyes and mouths, limbs, feet, buttocks, bellies; all those similar shapes! We all need food and housing and a sense of placement within it. I don't believe in those wee early years we actually perceive 'color' differences, even though these are apparent. We experience the sameness of being a human. Then after those first certainly innocently-hued, merely 'a human,' first steps comes a plethora of other, outside of ourselves experiences, other kinds of inputs, each bit of information a measured ingredient to the mixture of who we are becoming and initially where we came from. I use the word 'ingredient' because, indeed, Life experiences, overall, are ... 'sweet,' 'sour' and 'salty.' [What may be interesting here is for you to guess what nationality I am here? Never mind. Perhaps that will come later.] Rarely in my life do other people actually believe me when I steadfastly opine: I never saw color in those first early years = it just plain didn't occur to me. Funny even more since in that, my early neighborhood, I grew up in (Detroit, Michigan). It was filled with immigrants from all around the world ... literally demonstrating ALL the shades and tones of my cherished planet earth! I wasn't blind, but in my neighborhood, everyone celebrated EACH ethnicity as a delicious spice. Ohhhhh, those smells of various cuisines running down the alley ways, coming from early morning trades from family fishing and hunting or those expected but celebrated trade of tomatoes from one garden for the okra of another. If there was a 'class' division it was we were all in the same boat. Period. What is even more amazing (I think) is I grew up in a house of bigots! This once whispered opinions were now in-home verbal harshness which I dealt with by hiding under the bed! ["How can anyone think like this? TALK like this? ... WHAT DID IT MEAN? AND WHY DID IT HAVE MEANING?) And it wasn't until age ten or so ... I finally 'got it,' 'dad' hated everyone that was simply 'different.' For him, it didn't matter about 'color.' It mattered about 'different.' Plain and simple: different. I'm not kidding here. (One of several reasons that found me running away from home at sixteen!) So. All these years later? What am I proud of? I am down-to-my-bone PROUD that I belong to the human race. I am proud I share the sorrows and joys, the 'fairness' in trying to make 'unfairness' unjust, regardless of whatever origin of birth. I am proud to hear. To see. To taste. To smell. TO FEEL ... others. All of them ... yes, ALL of them are my brothers and sisters. I don't care what anyone else says. It is MY truth. Now what I celebrate is never 'tolerance' of others. In my view, this thinking is arrogance, plain and ugly simple. It implies the one viewing 'is above' and therefore has some strange, horrid right 'to tolerate.' This is ridiculous and immoral thinking and offers no honored humane badge in accepting the commonality of our human condition. No. I celebrate each and every person. From each and every nation. As it turns out? I LOVE ALL THE COLORS! I attempt to celebrate daily; I attempt to enjoy the plethora of diversity on this planet, people, plants, things and elements. I treasure and cherish all its people's: their style, their cuisine and yes, even their thinking. I might even learn something from it.

There is a great old foolish song from the folk song era that goes something like: The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Dutch; Italians hate Yugoslavs and I don't like anybody very much. I always thought that was so funny because it shows the insanity of hate. What a great question! And, what great answers. I am American-American. I am a melting pot and my kids even more so. I have (in no particular order) Irish, English, French, German, Hebrew, American Indian, and maybe some Gypsy ancestry. My step-mother whom I loved very much was full-blooded Cherokee. When I was a kid most of my friends were Mexican. I have 5 Apache blood brothers. I spent 50 of my 70 years in close association with the Japanes and Koreans. Quite a bit also with Chinese. I have also come to have a deep regard for the people of India, Pakistan, Egypt, etc. At one time my roommate was Eldridge Cleaver. I found him to be a brilliant and very moral man. My wife is of mixed ancestry and many of my grandchildren are mixed with black ancestry. With that as a foundation I can now make my answer. I am very proud of all my ancestors and the accomplishments that they made in making the world a better place. If you look at the history of the world, a lot of the progress was through violent struggle by the oppressed to be released from whatever bondage they were in. For example, I am a direct descendant of the man who said, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," a revolutionary war general at Breed's Hill. I love all of the different ethnics that made me and I love all of your ethnic backgrounds that made you. However, I do believe that (without losing all that made us what we are and without losing all the wonderfulness that we inherited) the mingling of the different cultures and races is what is going to bring peace ultimately. When a white person has black or oriental or hispanic or indian or whatever grandchildren it is a little harder for him to hate a different race. If an Englishman has Irish grandchildren or a Korean has Japanese grandchildren or a Jew or Gypsy has German grandchildren it makes it a lot harder to hate the other's ethnic origins. In my opinion. Oh, yeah. I forgot; if a Christian has Jewish grandchildren or a Jew has Buddhist grandchildren he will find it a lot harder to hate someone of the different religion. I have a hard time saying this about some religions but I believe that, in the long run, it's true. I think that the religious differences are going to be the hardest to overcome but when we realize that there is a common truth and that none of the religions has the whole truth we will be a whole lot closer. In my opinion.

I am proud of who I am, I can change nothing. So, I learned to except it and to be proud.

After pondering about why I would be proud of my ethnicity, I would say that it gives me a sense of belonging and sharing. No matter what my ethnicity would be, I would look for the positive aspects of the cultural groups to which I belonged. Belonging to the group of USA southerners in the state of Tennessee gives me a sense of pride because many of the members treat one another with down to earth friendliness and hospitality. As far as race, I don't feel any particular pride because it doesn't matter about skin color. Thanks for the question. It made me think.

I don't understand why anyone is proud of their race. People so easily confuse culture with race. And, I've said this before but there are bad and good people in every race, each gender, and every country. People are people.

I'll give this question a go and try answer. One reason I love my ethnicity is because we have so much culture.Love the food, music, language. And the people have a really strong love for life and the quality of it, we can be very passionate and loud and we love a good time, and I guess I just feel like I fit in and I can be myself and be goofy and not look stupid. And I love it because it's who me and my family are. We are very proud of our background and everyone should be. good question :)