Post by nordicyouth on Mar 2, 2005 4:03:57 GMT -5
Coincidentally, I seem to frequent restaurants owned by Greeks. While the wife of one owner is a 'typical' Greek i.e. Mediterranean in appearance, the family owning the other restaurant are all 'White' beyond the shadow of a doubt. Some of the latter family tend towards a Southern European phenotype, but the majority are NOT dark in any shape or form. In fact, the owner and his son both look almost Slavic, but I can assure you, that they are as Greek as this forum ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png)
This is not unlike a situation I encountered in Southwestern Germany, where the host family I stayed with looked 'Mediterranean' next to me, so dark was their complexion (very Alpine); but again, as 'German' as one family gets - the entire group as well - all brunettes with brown eyes.
Being half English (an ethnic group with a supposedly Celtic and once Iberian base) and half Polish (an ethnic group referred to by Dienekes Pontikos as 'swarthy'*), I was surpised to be much paler than the average German, excluding foreigners.
I DIGRESS:
*I quoted to Dienekes some time ago that medieval Arab commentators had noted the 'fairness' and 'light-coloured hair' of what were the early Slavs, inhabiting their original homeland comrpising much of Poland, Bohemia, and parts of Eastern Germany. Yet Dienekes countered that this was not the case, as an Ottonian artifact representing all the nations subordinated to the Holy Roman Empire displayed the image of a very dark woman to represent Bohemia. As Bohemians and Poles are identical, being Western Slavic peoples, it must stand to reason that Poles were equally 'swarthy.'
Funny, that this forum would take Germanic bias towards the Slavs as factual over much more neutral and valid Arabic evidence. I remember walking through the Holocaust exhibit in the Imperial War Museum in London, and the first picture was of two girls, one sister holding her bloodied and dead sibling, the victim of a Luftwaffe bomb. Not Jewish, just Polish. Some of you may know of that famous photograph.
It's ironic that both girls were as blonde and 'nordic' and/or 'aryan' in appearance than any drummed up for Goebbels' propaganda films.
Also ironic is the fact that the S.S. abducted Polish children and tried to raise them as Germans. So much for the Poles being a 'mud' race.
Even Coon had to concede in his maps that Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland have a higher prevalence of fairness and blondism than the rest of Northern Europe.
Back to topic: it amuses me that Greeks are either portrayed as Northern Europeans or Middle Easterners, depending on the film. Regardless of what the FACTS are, the jury on how Greeks are perceived in popular Western culture is still out.
![;)](http://storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png)
This is not unlike a situation I encountered in Southwestern Germany, where the host family I stayed with looked 'Mediterranean' next to me, so dark was their complexion (very Alpine); but again, as 'German' as one family gets - the entire group as well - all brunettes with brown eyes.
Being half English (an ethnic group with a supposedly Celtic and once Iberian base) and half Polish (an ethnic group referred to by Dienekes Pontikos as 'swarthy'*), I was surpised to be much paler than the average German, excluding foreigners.
I DIGRESS:
*I quoted to Dienekes some time ago that medieval Arab commentators had noted the 'fairness' and 'light-coloured hair' of what were the early Slavs, inhabiting their original homeland comrpising much of Poland, Bohemia, and parts of Eastern Germany. Yet Dienekes countered that this was not the case, as an Ottonian artifact representing all the nations subordinated to the Holy Roman Empire displayed the image of a very dark woman to represent Bohemia. As Bohemians and Poles are identical, being Western Slavic peoples, it must stand to reason that Poles were equally 'swarthy.'
Funny, that this forum would take Germanic bias towards the Slavs as factual over much more neutral and valid Arabic evidence. I remember walking through the Holocaust exhibit in the Imperial War Museum in London, and the first picture was of two girls, one sister holding her bloodied and dead sibling, the victim of a Luftwaffe bomb. Not Jewish, just Polish. Some of you may know of that famous photograph.
It's ironic that both girls were as blonde and 'nordic' and/or 'aryan' in appearance than any drummed up for Goebbels' propaganda films.
Also ironic is the fact that the S.S. abducted Polish children and tried to raise them as Germans. So much for the Poles being a 'mud' race.
Even Coon had to concede in his maps that Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland have a higher prevalence of fairness and blondism than the rest of Northern Europe.
Back to topic: it amuses me that Greeks are either portrayed as Northern Europeans or Middle Easterners, depending on the film. Regardless of what the FACTS are, the jury on how Greeks are perceived in popular Western culture is still out.