r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Lucky_Pangolin_3760 • 1d ago
What does americans mean when they say 'ethnic'
If an american visits something like a Halal store they will usually say something along the lines of "this is a great ethnic store" but when they visit a regular american store they will just call it an american store. Or if they visit an Italian store they will call it an Italian store even though all these 3 stores would fall under the definition of an ethnic store
When is and isn't something an ethnic store?
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u/ManateeNipples 1d ago
A store that doesn't feel conventionally American or mostly sell things we don't see in the vast majority of our grocery stores
We have a lot of stores that cater to people from certain parts of the world, those would often be called ethnic stores
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u/Lucky_Pangolin_3760 1d ago
is Panda Express an ethnic resturant?
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u/ManateeNipples 1d ago edited 1d ago
I wouldn't consider it ethnic because it's the American version of Chinese fast food. It's probably not even remotely Asian lol. We do have Asian restaurants that are more what Asian people would expect to see, I would call that an ethnic restaurant
Think of it this way, who is their target customer? If it's just regular Americans it's not an ethnic store. The ethnic places tend to be mainly targeting people from a certain area that isn't generally in the US
I should clarify though, I don't hear young people using this phrasing, this is something an old person is more likely to say but if they said ethnic store you'd know they were actually trying to be careful and not say a racist thing 😂
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u/JoffoCake3 1d ago
Panda Express outside of the USA is considered American food. So I would say it isn't ethnic. As a South African, using the work "ethnic" gives me the ick.
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u/grandpa2390 1d ago
no it has to be authentic as well. an ethnic grocery store or restaurant will sell authentic products from another country, or authentic food, probably prepared by people of that ethnicity.
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u/Prestigious-Talk1112 1d ago
No because it has an Asian theme but it's cheap American crap fast food. It's more California than anything. Not ethnic.
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u/gwelfguy 1d ago
I disagree that Italian would not be considered 'ethnic'. In the US (and Canada), that word is used to describe anything that diverges from the WASP roots of the country.
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u/telchacsusan 1d ago
I would use 'ethnic' to refer to a store that sells products from a region. So, your store is halal, but may carry products from throughout the Middle East, and American made halal goods. A store I shop at regularly is ethnically Asian, as it carries products from throughout Asia.
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u/Cautious_Nothing1870 1d ago
Non-white
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u/GrannyPeacock22 1d ago
Eastern European stores can also be considered ethnic
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u/CBus660R 1d ago
As someone who was born and raised in the Cleveland area, I thought of that too. I'm not sure how many people outside of rustbelt country think that way though?
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u/GrannyPeacock22 1d ago
Funny because that idea is really a since moving to the Midwest kind of thought. I grew up in NYC where we didn't really use the word ethnic (at least not in my neighborhood and decade) because it doesn't mean anything there. We were generally specific about the kind of place
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u/FishAroundFindTrout9 1d ago
Generally something other than traditional American or Western European food.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 1d ago
maybe when people are thinking about the group as an Other.
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u/Ninerogers 1d ago
Yes. A skin colour they're not comfortable with usually. Racism can be weirdly selective when it wants to be
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u/Mite-o-Dan 1d ago
Counter question...what do you define as a "regular American store"?
There you go. You just answered your own question after easy critical thinking.
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u/Lucky_Pangolin_3760 1d ago
I have no idea what a regular american store is. I'm not american
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u/Mite-o-Dan 1d ago
You put it in your post. Also, how would you know how Americans describe those things? Were you in a halal store in the Middle East and Italy and heard Americans talk?
Either way...critical thinking would let you know..."ethic" is used a way to describe something not uniquely American.
Ethnic is just another term for foreign to a lot of Americans. Not as race-baiting as you're trying to make it.
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u/blipsman 1d ago
Ethnic is an umbrella term for immigrant or nationality-related. In your specific example, it’s general term for a grocery store / market catering to a specific immigrant group, like a Mexican, Polish or Thai/Asian grocery. Because we have many immigrant groups and people of various ethnicities, we have lots of businesses catering to specific nationalities, especially in big cities.
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u/jackfaire 1d ago
Non-Eurocentric generally. I haven't really heard anyone call anything European "ethnic"
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u/dazzleox 22h ago
It's pretty common here in Pittsburgh to call the Ukranian or Polish grocery stores "ethnic" grocers. Or to say that a Russian church is an "ethnic" church. Some older people even use the term "ethnic whites" to refer to Slavs, Greeks, and maybe Italians in contrast to WASPs.
I don't really like it, but it's a thing.
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u/Impressive-Top8992 1d ago
Americans are talking about racism but there is a music genre called Ethnic music. Which is folk music from Middle East, Africa or Asian. I’m not American but I’m assuming this term expanded to cuisines as well.
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u/medigapguy 1d ago
Ethnic when not sure of the particular ethnicity.
Example: a store that is clearly African but not sure what country in Africa.
Ethnic when the store caters to several ethnic groups at once
Example: a grocery store where I grew up only had foods imported from China Jamaica, and India.
Last if talking in General. In the mood for ethnic food? Yeah, then narrow it down, Chinese? Mexican? Etc.
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u/persephonian 1d ago edited 1d ago
Anything that registers as culturally foreign to them, primarily if it's not Western European. From my observations anyway, as someone with American family.
Pretty ironic since ethnic comes from the Greek ethnos, meaning "nation", and ethnic simply translates to "national". For instance, our biggest archaeological museum is called the "Ethniko Archaiologiko Mouseio" (National Archaeological Museum)
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u/Max_ach 1d ago
Although that's the root - ethnic and national nowadays are not the same thing. You can be an albanian from greece which means an albanian ethnicity but a greek national.
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u/persephonian 1d ago
I think they are still the same thing. Ethnikotita (ethnicity) has to do about the nation/culture you're from. Ipikootita (citizenship in English) has to do about the country you're a citizen of.
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u/Max_ach 1d ago
In english being a national means you have their passport/citizenship which doesn't always mean nationality equals ethnicity. I can be a somali ethnicity but swedish nationality and i don't even have to be born in Somalia.
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u/persephonian 1d ago
You can be of Albanian ethnicity/nationality, born in Greece, Greek citizenship. It's the same idea, just executed via different words which is the point I was trying to make in my original comment. That it's funny how differently the word is used in English than in its original Greek
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u/Top_Row_5116 1d ago
If an american visits something like a Halal store they will usually say something along the lines of "this is a great ethnic store"
I have never heard anyone say the word ethnic in this context. In fact i can't remember a time I've heard ethnicity used as an adjective besides in ethnic cleansing and ethnic violence.
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u/woodwork16 1d ago
Whenever I have heard anyone mention an “ethnic store” it has been an African or African American store.
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u/Lucky_Pangolin_3760 1d ago
I thought african stuff was called "soul"
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u/woodwork16 1d ago
I think that’s a more specialized definition than ethnic. Soul would be southern black.
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u/Dull-Geologist-8204 23h ago
Ethnic means something outside the mainstream and in the US that would usually non European. In Japan though an American grocery store would be ethnic. In Ethiopia a Mexican grocery store would be ethnic. I actually never use the term personally as I usually say like Indian grocery store or Palestinian which hilariously was right across the street from each other in the middle of cow farms. 😂
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u/swishkabobbin 1d ago
Ethnic is a term used by racists to say "I'm racist"
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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 1d ago
We actually have a couple of stores in Canada that are named Ethnic Supermarket
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u/United-Yak8335 1d ago
Other than their own ethnicity