Friday, August 17, 2012

AGAIN -- PLACE OF BIRTH, OR ETHNIC ORIGIN

Another example of identifying someone by place of birth rather than ethnic origin --  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19280545

BBC calls Ayn Rand "Russian-American" -- only ten paragraphs down does the article say:   
" Born into a Jewish family called Rosenbaum in St Petersburg, she was just 12 when she witnessed her father's pharmacy being seized by the Bolsheviks." 

The family was not "Russian" (even though they were Russian citizens), but was Jewish.  That's where the credit should go.  So many prominent people get misidentified by just place of birth rather than their family's origins and ethnic background.  Important.  

I wrote about this in previous posts, e.g., 
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8444814993454276150#editor/target=post;postID=1645205368523626549



And the most recent:   Associated Press writes that Koch was "the second of three children of Polish immigrants".   Koch had a different opinion: 
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/koch-epitaph-father-jewish-mother-jewish-jewish-article-1.1253155

1 comment:

Orysia Tracz said...

Thank you for reading and commenting.