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The definition of ethnic groups is obviously political!
As a member of a family living on the border between the Netherlands and Germany,
it to me is rather obvious many details in this article do not make much sense.
Just an example:
The difference between the Dutch and the Germans is not a true ethnic difference.
I agree there is a difference, but this is merely because of imposed structures
that people on both sides of the border have to adhere to and that separate people rather forcefully,
even without the use of apparent force.
My Keultjes family has been divided that way on both sides of the border into Dutch and Germans,
but I severely disagree that this should mean we belong to two different ethnic identities.
Actually Keultjes is a variant within a group of family names that stretches farther
into Belgium, Luxemburg, France, the British Isles and beyond.
The scientific question one should ask oneself:
Should ethnic differences be defined by imposed languages, laws and uses, clearly associated to political boundaries?Amand Keultjes (talk) 17:47, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Mate I'm gonna be real with you. Almost everything in existence is political and the role of Wikipedia is to document human knowledge despite this obvious problem. By including all ethnic groups that claim themselves to be so, we are simply documenting the claims. However, you raise an important point. I propose this article should be renamed to:
"List of claimed contemporary ethnic groups"
to attempt to be more neutral. In the article instead of simply stating "ethnic group" we would instead say "claimed ethnic group".