You ever noticed some White people who have lived in certain American cities often have a "look"?

I am ashamed to be so cruel but Appalachia folk have a look.

Can't say that I have.

Yes!!! Absolutely true about Chicago. I'm a native Californian who moved to Indiana for grad school then Chicago for an internship. During my last couple of years in Indiana, SNL had the "Da Bears!" sketches on. I was absolutely *floored* that there were men who looked just like those characters everywhere and they talked the exact same way. It was surreal and not the white I was used to.

You have to understand that in California (and probably the rest of the west coast) "ethnic" meant Asian and Hispanic. White ethnic kind of blew my mind. It's usually Irish, Polish and a smattering of other Easten European ethnicities, and Italian. The families have been in the same neighborhoods and often the same home for multiple generations. Think Bridgeport where the Daleys are from. It was primarily a "Sout' Side" phenomenon, though the northwest side had newer Polish and EE arrivals. Regardless of where they were from, they looked alike

This book might explain some of the regional differences you're noticing. It's a good read

In any airport in the US with its own direct flights to Kansas City, I can always spot the prototypical KC suburbanite by way of recognizing their emblematic KC sports team branded clothing, drab hair, and a waistline implying they’re a minimum of 40 pounds overweight.

I’m telling you, you don’t even have to look at the signs, just at the body types and manner of dress of the passengers sitting near the gate prior to boarding. “Ah yes, this must be my gate!”

[QUOTE]I am ashamed to be so cruel but Appalachia folk have a look.

Yes, they do. R3 here again. Southern Indiana is pretty Appalachian in its own way and some of us who moved there from the coasts and even the deep south noticed the "look." A classmate of mine and her husband, who were from Peru, called them "Consans" -- short for consanguinity. We had a faculty member who actually purposefully moved to Southern Indiana because it had a more widely available subject pool for her research -- families with a member who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a recessive genetic disease. Yes, people intermarried a bit too much in those small towns.

A lot of the old "rust belt" cities had massive immigration at the beginning of the 20th century and then not a lot of additional inflow or outflow, so those cities definitely have people who have the "look."

My hometown is now seeing a lot of younger new residents but we definitely had a lot of German, Italian, Polish and various Eastern Europeans as neighbors, and a lot of people have the look of those ethnic groups.

Some towns have the issue that R6 mentioned. Johnstown in PA is likely one.....too much intermarrying. And most of W VA.

Yes, you have a look, OP.

I've been told that the white women of Chicago are generally ugly.

Without any pictures this thread is useless

It makes sense.

There’s a lot of Irish and Italian mixing in Massachusetts and that definitely has a look.

Both of my parents are from small towns in Pennsylvania so I know what you mean. In my case, I think between my parents there has been enough mixing - Swiss, German, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, English, Scottish, Irish - that I just look like a “standard American.”

[Quote] You ever noticed some White people who have lived in certain American cities often have a "look"?

shut up

R10, Go look at some of the old school movies or old baseball players from like the 80s or 90s in certain cities and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

This is very true, and as with other communities where "virile swagger" makes up for a lack of accomplishment and true masculinity. Their "exemplars" are what the swaggering men truly believe about themselves, but actually failed to accomplish.

Here's a visual for r10. And the description from tge gut who created the Da Bears sketches.

From r3's Wiki:

[QUOTE]Shortly after Robert Smigel moved from New York to Chicago in 1983 to start his career in comedy, he made his first visit to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play. He noticed a prevalence of large men who wore walrus mustaches and aviator sunglasses, a look similar to Mike Ditka, who had been hired to coach the city's NFL team, the Chicago Bears, the year before. "There was just a swagger among these very virile-looking men",

You think we have that look over here. Check out small medieval towns in Europe!

Yes, OP.

There is a VERY distinctive look among White men from Terrebonne Parish, La--more specifically, Houma. It's so distinctive that South Louisianans joke and jibe about it. There's even a hairstyle/cut that leaves one able to clock them at 50 paces.

Similarly, there is a distinctive look AND accent of people who've lived in Chalmette, La for generations. The accent is so pronounced that Louisianans call it "Chalmetian." There also are distinctive behaviors, but Imma leave dat alone.

When my sister lived in Newtown, Connecticut, I visited her several times, and when she had time we would duck out to Vermont and NH to hike and sight-see, and there are TONS of people in the smallish towns who had a certain look. VERY rawboned and proudly weatherbeaten. Kinda reminded me of people in Upcountry, SC where my late Mother was from; the Ozarks area of AR; and Livingston Parish, La.

Finally, to no one's surprise, the Cajuns of South and Southwest Louisiana have a "look." Their most interesting feature to me is their long torsos and short legs that give them a look my sister and I call "goose booty."

If this were a thread about certain Black people who have lived in certain American cities who often have a "look," it would be banished within seconds.

I am so sick of this bullshit.

R19, does this topic *actually* offend you?

^Mary!

Of course this is true. I'm an EG who worked in busy airports. You could tell the flight based on the faces/bodies/dress of the passengers. The Chicago guys had thick necks,. Oklahoma City have the round Okie faces. In Western Maryland/South PA/Baltimore, you see a lot of porcine faces. Miami/LA obvious, not even worth describing. Palm Beach/Lauderdale, same, easy. You could even tell the difference between Portland and Seattle, the Portland people were practically translucent. I swear you could smell the mold sometimes. A blind person could spot the flight from Salt Lake City.

What's an EG?

Lot of truth here.

Milwaukee has a distinctive look too. Way swarthier than their northern neighbors

r23, It's a senior citizen who thinks he can pass for 45 and that the supermarket bag boy is flirting with him.

OP’s parents look like brother and sister.

R19 and R27 are clearly feeling oppressed LOL. I never meant this in a bad way I was speaking about how White people in certain cities around the US often have a common look that sets them apart from more recent transplants to an area. Often having a look representative to the immigration patterns in that area many years ago. New Yorkers have a look too, Chicagoans, etc. it is not meant to be offensive so chill. And you can say the same for Black people too since you want to feel offended so badly.

OP perhaps it's that mostly ehtnic looking whites live in these areas. E.g Italian etc

when you say they have a porcine look do you mean they look like JS Vance?

R26 - Thanks, I thought it was some job/position at airports and was wracking my brain trying to figure it out. Duh.

Yes, one of high socioeconomic status. Ya' gotta be there!

It makes sense I’ve know Europeans who could tell white peoples ancestry by their features.

R19 must be a relative DL newbie. Back in the early Oughts-2010s we regularly had threads discussing that exact thing about Black and Hispanic people.

In fact I recall posting on the difference in "look" between standard bi/triracial Black light-skinned people and Creole Black people from South Louisiana, and can recall being inundated with questions from other DLers asking/demanding specifics in a very granular way.

R34 went to a lot of trouble to find an excuse to post the word "granular."

R34 when I went to New Orleans I was shocked by how many creole looking people I saw. They are very hot. I saw one guy who looked like Jelly Roll Morton and almost followed him

Indeed, R36.

My Philly male cousins pestered my sister and me for YEARS to host them for Mardi Gras. The year they came down (2004, iirc), one cousin told me the real reason his brother wanted to experience Carnival in NOLA was to find some beautiful Creole girls to charm *with his winning ways* /sarcasm.

We'd always known Cuz was what we call "color struck," so it wasn't too surprising. But he'd come down for a quick solo visit back in the 90s, and it was then he realized the difference between Louisiana Black Creoles and the typical light-skinned Black person, and wanted to break one off for himself. Sis and I secretly laughed because we knew there was NO way those girls would give him the time of day.

OP Exactly what is the white norm in the US?

Hard-faced women in Midwestern cities with self-harm haircuts (something vaguely Suze Orman in intention.)

Dried apple doll-faces on anyone over 27 in West Virginia cities.

John Waters' faces in Baltimore.

Cincinnati has a facial type as I recall - resignation?

[quote]Cincinnati has a facial type as I recall - resignation?

HaHaHaHaHa!

Honestly though, R39, there were a TON of transplants from the Kentucky hollers and coal mining country who migrated to Cincinnati 50-65 years ago and established communities there.

That may explain the look.

I wasn't offended at OP's post. I grew up in a Rust Belt city where most of the people had a certain "look". The biggest influence in terms of immigration was a lot of Eastern European countries. To a lesser degree, we also had a big Italian and German population, but the various Eastern European countries really dwarfed those two countries in terms of population.

Made for some rough looking faces, but I'll tell you I was spoiled by the consistently large cock available in my hometown.....something I never found anywhere else.

It’s a curiosity of mine. I have some Polish ancestry and have been to Poland a handful of times and it’s interesting that even there some people have that very “Polish” look and others look more ambiguous. Maybe it’s because some Poles have some other things mixed in, like German or Austrian or Russian.

I used to date a guy who looked very German. Germans would strike up conversations with him and he’d have to explain he didn’t understand

German to me looks like if someone took an oompa loompa and stretched them out to normal size. They have the face of an oompa loompa from the 70s Willy Wonka movie.

R19 Uh no. First off, black people are very distinguishable by their ethnicity. Jamaicans, Black Americans, Nigerians all have different features outside of dark skin.

But secondly, what you’re saying is all white people look the same and regional and European mixing doesn’t spawn distinctive looks.

I asked ChatGPT

Regional variations in appearance among white people in the U.S. often reflect historical patterns of immigration, settlement, and intermarriage. Here are a few examples:

Northeast (e.g., Massachusetts, New York): You often see a mix of Irish, Italian, and Jewish ancestry, which can mean darker hair, olive undertones, or sharper facial features.

Midwest (e.g., Minnesota, Wisconsin): Strong Scandinavian and German influences are common—lighter hair, fair skin, and taller stature are more typical here.

South (e.g., Georgia, Louisiana): A lot of British, Scotch-Irish, and French roots, often with more diverse admixture due to centuries of proximity to Black, Indigenous, and Creole communities.

Appalachia: Isolated populations sometimes preserved older British or Scots-Irish phenotypes with lighter eyes and skin but rugged, angular features.

Southwest (e.g., Texas, New Mexico): More Spanish and German ancestry mixed with Mexican, Native American, or Sephardic Jewish traces in some families—often a broader range of skin tones and facial structures.

Pacific Northwest and Northern California: A lot of Northern European roots—British, German, Scandinavian—but with modern mixing from other regions and newer immigration (e.g., Russian, Ukrainian).

When In San Francisco It was difficult to miss the zealous to be skinny and rich look.

I feel like my ethnic background doesn’t make sense anywhere outside of a large rust belt or New England metropolis.

Mormons of Utah and surrounding area. I assume the genetic bottleneck of the polygamy days has a lot to do with it.

There is a look among old school Virginians. Big noses, skinny, reddish-blonde hair. Very little Irish blood, maybe some Scotch. My mother’s family looked like this and when I met some old school Northern Neck residents, they were one and the same.

You mean fat Midwestern fraus with their 'cute' Pixie haircuts? Ugh. They look like prison matrons.