The ethnic backgrounds of characters should reflect their ages. The majority of neonates will be American. Ancillae may be American, though it’s more acceptable for Kindred in this bracket to be from other corners of the world, the most common being Europe. Elders can be of varied backgrounds, so long as they’re feasible. Unusual, unfitting ethnic backgrounds will be highly scrutinized by Storytellers, and may not be approved.

Why?

Why do we do this? Well, we are trying to keep a particular tone for our game, and roleplayers left to their own devices will quickly fill our New England city with a cavalcade of Vikings, Japanese samurai, Nazi officers and a dozen other clever little backgrounds, mainly played by people who neither understand nor respect the ethnicities they are trying to portray. And it turns rather ridiculous rather quickly.

Ultimately, unless accompanied by research, insight and some in-depth characterization, most ethnically unique characters turn into stereotypes and are used as cheap gimmicks, with a load of crypto-racism on top, because it's all about how different those people who talk and look funny are. It irritates us, so for the most part, we say no to them.