I am proud to be able to speak Flemish. It’s my mother’s native tongue, one she’s immensely proud of. I’ve been taught the language my whole life and grew to love it. Yet, in my everyday life, rather than being acknowledged by my culture and background, I am given a label and personality solely based on my skin tone — white.

Being called “white” feels increasingly like a pejorative. White people are often meant to feel ashamed of their history and culture, stereotyped as racially illiterate, having a savior complex, and being ignorant of other cultures.

I have always known I was European-American, but as I grew up, I was taught alongside peers to treat my race and ethnicity as the same. However, they are different; race is the color of your skin, while ethnicity is your cultural background and ancestry.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a person is considered “white” if they have ancestry in Europe, the Middle East or North Africa. However, many individuals, while claiming European ancestry, have neither real connection to the culture nor norms/mannerisms of the country they are from.

Moreover, with many countries being considered “white”, it’s important to understand that there are many different nationalities and ethnicities between continents. As each individual has a different nationality, background and ethnicity, it is crucial to recognize people for their ethnicity rather than based on the color of their skin.

Thus, racial categories often misrepresent individuals’ identities and should be instead evaluated by ethnicity. This would help better allocate resources to minority communities and allow for less confusion if categorization is necessary for an individual. For example, Hispanic individuals are often thought of as separate from race, so using ethnicity instead of racial identification for questions about demographics would make it less confusing to answer for this community.

This concept should also be applied to the Common Application and the Census as I’ve noticed discrepancies under the student profile and demographics section. The Common Application asks for your identity by selecting one or more of the following: “American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Asian,” “Black or African American,” “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” and “white.” The application then asks what best describes a white background, listing the options: “Europe,” “Middle East” and “other.”

Having only these options misrepresents individuals’ ethnic backgrounds by not acknowledging how diverse individuals are as there are so many different countries included in what is considered “white.”

And ethnicity and nationality can be hard to define due to changing political borders or the country’s geography, thus, if a platform wants true representation and demographic statistics, it would be better to include a section where applicants can have the option to self-describe their background.

Growing up in my family, with my dad being born and raised in California and my mother from Belgium, I was taught the difference between what it means to be a white American compared to a white European, specifically a Belgian-American. Since I was little, I have experienced sitting through long dinners spanning three or more hours, cooking Belgian dishes for American holidays such as Thanksgiving, and learning about Belgian history and my great-grandma’s experience with WWII.

Additionally, during my ninth and 10th-grade history classes, I was only taught the geography of North and South America, Africa and India in depth, but not Europe. A friend of mine even thought Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, was in the Netherlands, and another thought Antwerp was there too. This struck me hard, seeing how someone who identifies as the same demographic as me on paper doesn’t even know the places and culture where I come from, the places my family is proud to call home.

European and American cultures, despite both being often reduced to the same term, are starkly different. When I visited Paris, I felt the traditional French culture of public transportation or traditional “sightseeing” was being corrupted by American-styled tourism, all flocking to a singular destination using the Big Bus Tours. Paris streets were flooded with these buses and tourists were constantly hopping on and off rather than exploring the city by foot and experiencing all it had to offer. This is just one example of how American culture and European culture are inherently different, and though they influence each other as all cultures do, they should be viewed as different.

Moreover, as more Americans begin traveling and exploring Europe, American influence has begun to blur the lines and corrupt traditional European cultures. I remember when in France, I was so excited to visit Rue Saint-Honoré as I heard so much about it being the center of French haute couture. However, walking down the street with my mom, I was underwhelmed, saddened and astonished at how many American and international chains were located there, scattered all around the area.

While these chain stores are popular locations for visitors, they often miss the more authentic parts of these places. My friend who visited Italy, with Starbucks being so readily accessible in Europe, mostly drank the chain’s hot chocolate during her stay and never tried an authentic Italian cappuccino.

Americans and Europeans should be seen and thought of as two distinct groups rather than just “white” as they have different mannerisms, cultures, and perspectives, evolving away from each other due to the continents’ geographic isolation. While calling someone white allows society to categorize individuals more easily, this ultimately separates us, placing us into boxes that dilute much of our own culture and identity. By focusing more on ethnicity than race, we as a country can ensure that we continue to pride ourselves as a multicultural place, one where each person can be proud of their unique identity and history.

This story was originally published on The Campanile on February 10, 2025.