What is the best way to get to know how an ethnicity or nationality looks like?

[Tooting Carmen]

- Crowd photos (even without knowing the backgrounds of the people in them).
- Politicians.
- Sportspeople.
- Actors.

[gixajo]

- Crowd photos (even without knowing the backgrounds of the people in them).
- Politicians.
- Sportspeople.
- Actors.

I would say that groups of professionals with name and surnames and that we could somehow trace their ancestry because there are public records about them. In that sense, perhaps politicians are better than Sport people, because politicians are people from various social classes, different ages and generally they tend to be local in greater proportion.

Large groups of anonymous people would be even better off if we could somehow trace their origins, but this is rarely possible.

Not the actors, because they are chosen for their appearance for certain roles, so they usually have very extreme physical features in some sense, and usually in groups, they are not representative of society (although many are chosen precisely because they have the appearance of an average citizen. )

So among your options I would choose Politicians.

Edit: (and from not very large localities or at provincial or regional levels, even better)

[Tooting Carmen]

I would say that groups of professionals with name and surnames and that we could somehow trace their ancestry because there are public records about them. In that sense, perhaps politicians are better than Sport people, because politicians are people from various social classes, different ages and generally they tend to be local in greater proportion.

Large groups of anonymous people would be even better off if we could somehow trace their origins, but this is rarely possible.

Not the actors, because they are chosen for their appearance for certain roles, so they usually have very extreme physical features in some sense, and usually in groups, they are not representative of society (although many are chosen precisely because they have the appearance of an average citizen. )

So among your options I would choose Politicians.

Edit: (and from not very large localities or at provincial or regional levels, even better)

I've been saying this for several years here, but people (including Sikeliot himself) have attacked me for it.

[Valenman]

Defo,politicians and Sports people,especially politicians because almost everyone tends to be of the same ethnicity. Except for exceptions such as Britain, Russia, Ukraine, France, Turkey and a few more.

[Hektor12]

- Crowd photos (even without knowing the backgrounds of the people in them). >Extremely unreliable. For example in this forum i came across posts that suggested Kurdish demonstrators as how Turks look.
- Politicians. >Moderately useful but not reliable due to nature of politics (overrepresentationi nepotism etc.)
- Sportspeople. >Moderately useful but not reliable due to different body types for different sports.
- Actors. More reliable than above 3, actors are often standard people with lucky metrics.

Best way= Get used to facts about specific ethnicity or nation (historical background, genetics, recent studies on anthropology) then IRL observation from different regions/groups of such people. If you dont have IRL opportunity, high school youth pics might give a relatively reliable impression.

[Tooting Carmen]

If you dont have IRL opportunity, high school youth pics might give a relatively reliable impression.

I can see why you say that, but should we use photos of schools located in inner-city Leicester or Bradford to represent how the British look?

[Hektor12]

I can see why you say that, but should we use photos of schools located in inner-city Leicester or Bradford to represent how the British look?

"Get used to facts about specific ethnicity or nation (historical background, genetics, recent studies on anthropology) then IRL observation"

Cmon, you can even find demographics of every neighborhood online nowadays, dont hesitate also posting them with with pics.

[Tooting Carmen]

"Get used to facts about specific ethnicity or nation (historical background, genetics, recent studies on anthropology) then IRL observation"

Cmon, you can even find demographics of every neighborhood online nowadays, dont hesitate also posting them with with pics.

France, for example, expressly bans statistics based on ethnicity, even though it does have some regarding nationality and country of birth. And Latin American countries are notoriously useless when it comes to ethnicity-related stats.

[Hektor12]

France, for example, expressly bans statistics based on ethnicity, even though it does have some regarding nationality and country of birth. And Latin American countries are notoriously useless when it comes to ethnicity-related stats.

Yes. Then we cant make reliable observations regarding France, simple as that.

In LATAM, we should follow their taxonomy, blanco etc terms. Old world standards arent valid there.

[Tooting Carmen]

Yes. Then we cant make reliable observations regarding France, simple as that.

They still record country of birth and nationality meticulously enough, so we can at least make some observations. In any case, even in countries that do measure ethnicity such as the UK, I still wouldn't entirely regard stats as sacrosanct. For example, the 2021 Census claims that my city is 91% White, but that is not what I see looking around the city centre nowadays!

In LATAM, we should follow their taxonomy, blanco etc terms. Old world standards arent valid there.

It isn't just that their terms are different, but that information regarding ethnicity at neighbourhood or even town/city level is often totally absent anyway.