Terranovan

What will you think be the word to describe people of european descent in the future.

I know this may seem like a rather strange question but with immigration most countries in the world are starting to have increasingly mixed populations.

So my question is how will say it.

White people.
Westerners.
Ethnics europeans.
Kelts.
Franks.
Christians.
Etc.

Iolo

Australians, Indians, Americans etcetera. Why do we need a special word for people whose ancestors came from somewhere? Presumably they knew what they were doing when they left?

Terranovan

Unless you adhere to the ethnocidal belief that one's background and heritage is irrelevant and must be ignored.

Iolo

I never ignore my background. It is Silurian, not 'European' or whatever - and my grandchildren won't know what it means,and who cares? Sufficient unto the generation is the background thereof.

sylla1

"Ethnic Europeans" ???
Do you mean like this traditional Norwegian gentleman?

Or like this notable British gentleman?


Anyway, you have already included the obvious answer in your own question (the OP)

"People of European ancestry" (even Europeans of European ancestry) seems like a perfectly valid option.

Certainly not "Christians" like let say Cardinal Napier


"Kelts"???
"Franks"?????

"Westerners"???
Relative to what?
Greenland?

White people? Maybe:



It naturally depends largely on the context...
If you were to talk about let say the Amerindian genocide, the "Americans of European ancestry" would be a good opposition, as long as they as a whole certainly behaved analogous to the bona fide Europeans themselves on this issue.

"White Americans"?
Actually not so bad...

"Christian Americans"???

Even then there were already some Christian Amerindians...

"Western Americans"?????
They actually came from the east...

"Keltic" or "Frankish" Americans????
(BTW entirely different groups; a "Keltic" would not be "Frankish" & viceversa)

I honestly don't think so.

Gudenrath

I don't get this obsession with race that some people seems to have.

Terranovan

I am equally, but this isn't about race in the typical sense, it's far more focused on ethnology, which is about as human as you can get. People simply like to understand who they are as an identity, there's nothing wrong with this in and of itself.


It is about ones heritage. Which is why I don't think in the multi cultural future words like white or even european will be used. It's so much of a loaded term it will not fit, aside from that it's doubtful that people will associate appearance with nationality. If this is the case it would seem entirely likely that people will still want to refer to their family background. Just as a native american is different from than say a asian american despite being similar in an appearance I have a feeling there will be something similar in the future.


Words like frankish and celtic would seem like good options as there as vague and far removed from a true racial or national identity as you can get. As they have a history of being misused in different cultures.

Frankish, can mean French, Merovingians, or simply european as it meant to the arabs.

Christian is useful because it has more to do with a culture and a mindset. If people will look on our past as a product of a christian civilization it's a useful term to denote a specific culture that transcends race, yet obviously has strong ethnological and historical undertones.

Westerner is already in use in many ways. Assumes the afro eurasian peninsula as the center of the word which I think is entirely fair. Again has a strong historical significance and at the same time is vague enough for multiple uses.

The same with celtic, referring to a language, six nations, the historical back ground of most of western europe, or nearly all of europe outside of rome and greece.

The fact that these words have such varied uses would suggest they have a versatility that allows for future use.The problem with this kind of talk is when people try to make rigid exclusive terms like Caucasian that don't flow with the migrations of people.

arras

There is no reason they would be called different in the future than they are now. Why wouldn't they?

Terranovan

Because in the past, our notions of ethnicity were largely defined by geography. As the world was defined by geography.

In the future, geography will become increasingly far removed from someone's back ground.


You will have people of every descent in every corner of the world. At the same time I don't think people are likely to simply forget where there origins lie.

So I think we'll move from defining groups of people by geographical notions such as asian or african or european(not that they ever made sense), but instead will be far more likely identify with other identities.

European diaspora is a good concept and will never completely disappear, however with the changing identity of europe to a multicultural semi-nation state, it seems that what we now think of europe may likely be called west eurasia, and europe may likely be viewed as more of a country/union, than anything to do with geography.

White and black seem to be rather useful terms to define ones background, however due to a strong connection with some antiquated notion of race may not survive.

Tulun

The various European ethnic groups already have their own names. Whats the problem with French, German, Norvegian, Albanian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Serb, etc?