Growing up in Germany, I used to believe that all Americans were black. That is probably because I assumed every white person I saw was German. Only when I saw a black person did it occurr to me it might be a foreigner, and those were mostly Americans in that region.
With the help of American movies and TV series, I later adjusted this belief. About half of the Americans must be black and the other half white. That seemed only fair to me. I was very surprised when I found out the real percentage in school.
A childhood belief about nationalities
others believed things like this
- Because of Pocahontas, I grew up believing Native Americans noises sounded like English to Native Americans.Anon
- I thought that old movies were black and white because the world was black and white then. — K
- I used to think that if a white person and a black person has a baby it would be mexican.— J
- I used to think that the old days were actually black and white because of the old black and white pictures.— Leigh Taylor
- I used to believe that the world was actually black and white. (As it is on TV in old movies)— han
- I used to think that black and white TV and movies had originally been in color, but had faded with age.
— Beth