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George Zimmerman reportedly self-identifies as Latino, but I don't buy it. Not just because he looks white or because his surname is German in origin - I don't give a fuck where his genes come from or what kind of household he was raised in - I, personally, categorize him as white because white is as white does.

Besides, "white" isn't really an ethnicity anyway. German and French and British are ethnicities. Midwestern and Southern and Appalachian are ethnicities. One could even make the argument that certain cities (such as New York) have produced their own native ethnicities. "White" is merely an umbrella term denoting institutional privilege in Western culture (and its direct antonym, "person of colour" denotes the lack of said privilege).

That's why the individual races we consider to be "white" have changed over the years. Irish, Jewish, certain types of Arab and Asian... all have fallen into and out of favour with the shifting political climate and migrating populations. Hell, maybe someday I won't be considered white any more.

I doubt it, though. Yes, in theory, I have the specific ethnic identity of a British-descended Ontarian, but I identify far more strongly with my whiteness than I do with my genes or my geographical home. In the unlikely event that some Canadian disaster and subsequent diaspora renders us a disenfranchised minority group... well, let's just say I'm adaptable.

0798-------------------------------------
(Sunday evening, INT: SW and WW's apartment)

WW: Even if - even if - we accept the idea that African-American Vernacular English is its own dialect and that every single black person speaks it fluently and needs to be able to speak it fluently to be legitimately black... I mean, this conversation was already taking place in Proper English. Not a finna in sight.
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WW: If there's a conversation going on in German, and some French guy joins in and also speaks German because that's the language being spoken, does he get accused of not really being French?
SW: Wallace, what is-
WW: He's bilingual! Why can't he be bilingual?
SW: WALLACE!
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WW: What?
SW: This forum is on a newspaper site and this thread is about "Benjamin Halliganiv" the white supremacist who pistolwhipped a child.
WW: Yes.
SW: You're talking about Jamie.
WW: Yes. No. Sort of.
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WW: I'm not giving any personal information at all, I'm just... I'm just playing devil's advocate and trying to defend him.
SW: Yyyyeah, I think I know why they think you're white and I'm pretty sure it isn't your grammar.