Tracy, In response to Whites being able to rattle off where their ancestors came from---to put this into perspective, most Whites are only a few generations American whereas I can now count 8 generations on American soil and I am still going back. It is easy to say where you come from when you are only talking about your grandparents or great grand parents, or just going by a surname (which, by the way was often changed to Americanize them), I know of many people who thought based on their last name that their ancestors had to have come from, say, England for example, only to find out that their name was the English translation for the Italian name because Italians were discriminated against. I also know Whites whose family changed the name so they have absolutely no idea what country their ancestors came from, because the name fits no known language profile!
just my two cents!
Gwenn