@rebbel We do it all the time in America. I’ve had people ask if I’m Polish (once, by a Polish girl) Latvian (that only once, and that actually is correct my family is mostly from Latvia) Jewish (correct, and I’m constantly asked this) and I get asked if I’m Italian a lot too. We are a country of immigrants, and especially in extremely diverse cities we usually find out where each other’s families are from. Something like 1 in 7 Americans were born outside of the country. It’s a conversation piece to ask where people are from. I just got back from dinner and I asked the new person in our group if he was English or maybe South African from his accent. He’s South African.
The end of the story about my friend’s mom, is the guy took her to his study and pulled a book of the shelf and opened it to a page that had a photo of a woman from the town he referred to. The woman looked just like her mother (my friends grandmother).
I know there are many varied people in Europe, but historically Europe is much more homogenous within a country compared to America, or the Americas in general.
Switzerland obviously has people from many different countries from other parts of Europe, and even within Italy from North to South the regions have different looking people, the north generally being more fair, s d the south more olive complected, but look at a map of diversity and North America is going to win compared to Western and Northern Europe, especially 20 or more years ago. Again, I would make an exception for Switzerland though. In the last 20 years there has been much more migration within and into Europe.
Anyway, I’m just fine with a black Heidi, and I don’t agree with a lot of what @Yellowdog said regarding casting for these parts, but I think we can discuss it with him without telling him to shut the hell up, which is basically what some others said.
Maybe he’ll think about what we have all said. Maybe asking a question is because he’s contemplating it all. I really hate when jellies criticize a question.