# English Americans?



## grasshopper

Are there people in the United States who identify themselves specifically as English-Americans?

I mean, in the same way that Irish-Americans, Italy-Americans, Polish-Americans, German Americans, etc, etc (even Scottish and Welsh Americans, as far as I know) identify with the culture, traditions and history of the place their ancestors (or at least some of them) came from.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that they are an "English-American", despite the fact that the US is supposedly an "Anglo-Saxon" country, and undoubtledy there are many people who can trace their ancestors back to England (although I have read that it is a relatively small percentage, contrary to popular belief).

So... are any English-Americans out there? 

PS. By the way, I know that there is also the term "Anglo-American", but I think this refers more to someone who is just an English-speaker and "white", rather than someone with a specifically English heritage, right?


----------



## emma42

I always assumed that Anglo-American meant English-American, meaning "of English origin" (whatever that is!)


----------



## grasshopper

Thanks for your reply, Emma.
Here's a bit more info I've just found on Wikipedia (hope it's okay to quote this):

*Number of British Americans*

_In the 2000 Census, 36.4 million Americans *[from a population of approx. *_*281,421,906]*_ reported British ancestry. These include:_

_24.5 million __English_ *[about 10% of the total population]*
_4.9 million __Scottish_
_4.3 million __Scots-Irish__ (__Ulster__)_
_1.7 million __Welsh_
_1 million British (answered "British" as ancestry on the Census)_
_These figures make British Americans one of the largest "ethnic" groups in the U.S. when counted collectively (although the Census Bureau does not count them collectively, as each of the above is a separate ethnic group, that is English or Scottish or Welsh or Scots-Irish). The __Germans__ and __Irish__ are the largest self-reported ethnic groups in the nation._

Would be interested to hear some United Statesian opinions on this topic.  Thanks.


----------



## panjabigator

When you ask someone of there origin, many of them will say they have some percentage of them that is English, German, etc.  So a lot are, I guess, mixed.   I think these people are more likely to say that they are German (or any type of mainland European) than English, but I really have no justification for this... I have a friend who is decendent of Germans and English (and a whole bunch more), but she usually puts German on a higher ledge...maybe this is why I feel this way.


----------



## brian

grasshopper said:
			
		

> Thanks for your reply, Emma.
> Here's a bit more info I've just found on Wikipedia (hope it's okay to quote this):
> 
> *Number of British Americans*
> 
> _In the 2000 Census, 36.4 million Americans *[from a population of approx. *_*281,421,906]*_ reported British ancestry. These include:_
> _24.5 million __English_ *[about 10% of the total population]*
> _4.9 million __Scottish_
> _4.3 million __Scots-Irish__ (__Ulster__)_
> _1.7 million __Welsh_
> _1 million British (answered "British" as ancestry on the Census)_
> _These figures make British Americans one of the largest "ethnic" groups in the U.S. when counted collectively (although the Census Bureau does not count them collectively, as each of the above is a separate ethnic group, that is English or Scottish or Welsh or Scots-Irish). The __Germans__ and __Irish__ are the largest self-reported ethnic groups in the nation._
> 
> Would be interested to hear some United Statesian opinions on this topic.  Thanks.


Ancestry is kind of a big deal to a lot of people in the US.  And there are a lot of problems with it.  Here is my theory:

America is such a huge conglomeration of polyancestral (is that a word?) peoples that first of all, it's hard to know exactly what heritage you are.  By now, most middle-aged people are at least 3rd or 4th generation Americans (I'm speaking of those whose ancesters emigrated from western Europe), so they in fact have a lot of different European descent in them, through 3 or 4 generations each of paternal and maternal lines (that's a lot of people, and a lot of mixed up ancestries!).  12.5% Irish here, 6.25% English there, 25% Spanish here, etc. etc.

With that in mind, the second part of my theory is that because of the polyancestral nature of America, unless you are of pure Native American origin, you really have no one true ancestry, and no one as of yet likes to say that their ancestry is "American."  I supposed over the decades/centuries this will change, once America has been longer established.  So Americans want to be able to say "I'm German" or "I'm Greek," mostly because it helps separate them from all the other Americans around.

Now, finally, I think that since Americans try to separate themselves by saying "I'm whatever," and/or sound cooler by doing so, I guess it's just not as cool to say "I'm English/British."  I guess this is because we both speak (more or less) the same language, we look the same, everyone is familiar with the British accent, etc., so there's less to distinguish that person from others, rather than if he should say "I'm Scottish" (because the Scottish [as well is Irish] accent is cool and rather uncommon and thus awesome to be associated with, and the Scottish lifestyle is much more foreign to Americans than the British lifestyle)....sorry Brits...just my observation though.

In my case, I'm only 25% Italian for sure, and the other 75% is split among French, German, Greek, and a bunch of other stuff we don't know.  But since I know I'm 25% Italian and since my last name comes from my great-great-grandfather who emigrated from Sicily, I generally say "I'm Italian."  I drop of the "-American" since people here know I was born here.


Brian


PS--I know my explanation was a sweeping generalization, but I think has some foundation.


----------



## maxiogee

I find all this cross-cultural ancestry thing strange.

When Paddy the Irishman meets and marries Patrizia the Italianwoman, what do their son self-report as his ancestry - is there a category of IrishItalian/American? 
And when he marries an ScotsPolish/American woman, what on earth does _their_ child claim to be?

Why do census takers wish to know one's "self-reported" ethnicity - it's likely to be inaccurate?


----------



## Tatzingo

maxiogee said:
			
		

> I find all this cross-cultural ancestry thing strange.
> 
> When Paddy the Irishman meets and marries Patrizia the Italianwoman, what do their son self-report as his ancestry - is there a category of IrishItalian/American?
> And when he marries an ScotsPolish/American woman, what on earth does _their_ child claim to be? Scottish/Polish/American/Italian/Irish, anything he wants and anything that the occasion demands... Have you ever noticed that on St Paddy's Day, many more people claim to be Irish??



Tatz.


----------



## maxiogee

Tatzingo said:
			
		

> Scottish/Polish/American/Italian/Irish, anything he wants and anything that the occasion demands...


So, what's the purpose of asking, if the identification can be _that_ fickle?




			
				Tatzingo said:
			
		

> Have you ever noticed that on St Paddy's Day,


Who is this Saint called "Paddy" - he/she doesn't feature on any of the lists of the Church. There is a Saint Patrick, but — as nobody shortens Saint David's name to Saint Davy, or Saint Andrew's name to Saint Andy, or Saint Denis's name to (heaven forfend) Saint Den — I assume there must me a stray Saint out there.




			
				Tatzingo said:
			
		

> Have you ever noticed that on St Paddy's Day, many more people claim to be Irish??
> Tatz.


No  , here in Ireland we *are* Irish!


----------



## emma42

Tony, you know full well that people say "Paddy's" Day because they feel close and affectionate towards St Patrick and therefore feel able to be familiar with/about him.  Or, at least, they feel close and affectionate towards the enormous amount of alcohol they intend to consume (many of them).  So stop being such a tiresome pedant.

What about Jewish people?  Does the Census form include "Jewish" as an ethnicity or as a religion?


----------



## tonyray

No  , here in Ireland we *are* Irish! [/quote]

Good for you. I wish it were that easy for us Americans. The only thing that many of us know is that our ancestors came across an ocean and stepped off a boat and then settled somewhere. Sometimes, we have to guess by our last names in deciding where we fit in ethnically....my surname is "Barrett" but I don't even know if that's Irish, English or Welsh! 

And like Brian says, there is a need to differentiate oneself from other Americans as there is not yet one unified American national ethnic identity. Maybe part of it is racism and part of it is due to nostalgia for the past.


----------



## brian

tonyray said:
			
		

> And like Brian says, there is a need to differentiate oneself from other Americans as there is not yet one unified American national ethnic identity. Maybe part of it is racism and part of it is due to nostalgia for the past.



Exactly.  In addition to the "nostalgia," I think there is some innate need for a national pride which often America cannot provide.  We've been so torn lately as a country that people have to displace their expression of pride from America by claiming to another country.  This is why on St. Patrick's day so many people claim to be Irish (even if only 3.125%!)--because the entire day is filled with, among other things, a great pride for Ireland and people of Irish descent; so many Americans want part of that.  We like to feel like we're a part of something more .


Brian


----------



## panjabigator

It is so interesting...people will boast about their identity (Im 25% this, 12.5% that, but they may know absolutely nothing about their country).  One of my roommates used to boast that he was 25% Filipino, and so I asked him a simple fact...what language is spoken there?  He had no clue (it was a trick question...Filipino isnt really the name of the language...Tagalog is).  I have friends that are full blooded Italian for several generations, and a lot of their customs are typical of the Italian American New Yorker Im used to, but the language is all English.


----------



## Layzie

I have observed this as well. Everyone I talk to claims to come from Germany or Ireland or whatever, even though it was most likely their great great grandparents! I myself look ethnic, so I identify myself as American, and say that my parents are from El Salvador to emphasize that I'm not an immigrant.


----------



## KittyCatty

> Now, finally, I think that since Americans try to separate themselves by saying "I'm whatever," and/or sound cooler by doing so, I guess it's just not as cool to say "I'm English/British." I guess this is because we both speak (more or less) the same language, we look the same, everyone is familiar with the British accent, etc., so there's less to distinguish that person from others, rather than if he should say "I'm Scottish" (because the Scottish [as well is Irish] accent is cool and rather uncommon and thus awesome to be associated with, and the Scottish lifestyle is much more foreign to Americans than the British lifestyle)....sorry Brits...just my observation though.


I'm sorry, when you say British do you mean English? You can't distinguish Scotland from Britain; Scotland is _part_ of Britain. The same goes for British as opposed to Scottish accent. And we all speak the same language! So when you apologise to Brits you apologise to all of us!


----------



## brian

KittyCatty said:
			
		

> I'm sorry, when you say British do you mean English? You can't distinguish Scotland from Britain; Scotland is _part_ of Britain. The same goes for British as opposed to Scottish accent. And we all speak the same language! So when you apologise to Brits you apologise to all of us!



I'm sorry...by British I did mean English.  Most Americans, and unfortunately I make the same mistake, say British to mean English.  If an American were speaking about someone from from Scotland or Wales, I highly doubt they would use the term "British," as that would imply, to us ignorant Americans, "English."  Instead, they would probably say "Scottish" or "Welsh."

So for the same reason, when I said "Brits," I meant "Englanders"...or whatever the equivalent word is.  Is there a more correct one?

As for the language thing, my point was that even though the English spoken in Scotland, England, and the US is the same language, they all sound different.  And Americans are already well-acquainted with the "English" (_not_ "British" ) accent, through movies and what not.  So there's more of a novelty, I suppose, with the Scottish accent.  So my argument was that people of Scottish and English descent would _probably_ more readily identify themselves as Scottish, because of this language thing as well as the cultural aspect.  But I realize now that it would just be best for them to say "I'm British-American."

I apologize for the mistake.


Brian


----------



## maxiogee

tonyray said:
			
		

> No  , here in Ireland we *are* Irish!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Good for you.
> I wish it were that easy for us *Americans*.
> The only thing that many of us know is that <snip>
Click to expand...


…that last word should be enough.



> our ancestors came across an ocean and stepped off a boat and then settled somewhere. Sometimes, we have to guess by our last names in deciding where we fit in ethnically....my surname is "Barrett" but I don't even know if that's Irish, English or Welsh!


If your family no longer know where your ancestors came from then you've been in America long enough to be American, without any adjectival prefix.




> And like Brian says, there is a need to differentiate oneself from other Americans…


Is that a "need" or a "desire"?
America is an old-enough country to allow it to become a heritage in its own right - indeed it may well necessitate that if Americans eve4r want to become a truly pluralist society. As long as people claim some other nationality first then they are not truly Americans.


----------



## KittyCatty

Hey, no worries Brian! I thought I'd better bring it to your/our attention because it is hard to generalise about the British when this means Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish people. I think rather than Englanders, it is just English, not to be confused with the word anglophone. 
As for the term British-American, I think this is kind of appropriate, but why can't you just be called Americans? I think I am having the same difficulty in cultural viewpoint as maxiogee. Surely you deserve to have one unified nationality and culture? American, right? Maybe ancestry isn't such a big deal to us because it happened way back when. But aren't Australia and Canada also 'young' countries populated mainly by people who emigrated there? Is the USA singular in this number of sub-nationalities?


----------



## grasshopper

brian8733 said:
			
		

> Exactly. In addition to the "nostalgia," I think there is some innate need for a national pride which often America cannot provide. We've been so torn lately as a country that people have to displace their expression of pride from America by claiming to another country. This is why on St. Patrick's day so many people claim to be Irish (even if only 3.125%!)--because the entire day is filled with, among other things, a great pride for Ireland and people of Irish descent; so many Americans want part of that. We like to feel like we're a part of something more .
> Brian


Go to any large English industrial city in the North, and in some places (and I'm thinking specifically about Liverpool, Manchester and perhaps also Birmingham (technically in the Midlands)) almost half of the inhabitants are direct descendants of Irish immigrants from the Great Famine.
I sincerely doubt that most so-called "Irish-Americans" are anything more than 25% Irish (if we want to get really pernickety about it ).
Thanks for the replies so far...look forward to more opinions.  Cheers.


----------



## brian

KittyCatty said:
			
		

> Hey, no worries Brian! I thought I'd better bring it to your/our attention because it is hard to generalise about the British when this means Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish people. I think rather than Englanders, it is just English, not to be confused with the word anglophone.
> As for the term British-American, I think this is kind of appropriate, but why can't you just be called Americans? I think I am having the same difficulty in cultural viewpoint as maxiogee. Surely you deserve to have one unified nationality and culture? American, right? Maybe ancestry isn't such a big deal to us because it happened way back when. But aren't Australia and Canada also 'young' countries populated mainly by people who emigrated there? Is the USA singular in this number of sub-nationalities?



If I were in another country, _especially_ if I were in Italy, I would not call myself anything but "American," and certainly _not_ "Italian."  The main ways that these ancestral conversations come up in America are as follows:

_John: How was your Easter?
Anthony: It was great...the whole family came over for dinner. Everyone brought different traditional Italian foods.
John: Oh, you're family is Italian?  I'm Greek...we're the same way when it comes to huge family gatherings.  But you gotta love the food!_

_John (jokingly): You use your hands a lot when you talk...you should just learn sign language.
Anthony: Hey! I can't help it...I'm Italian._

I think a lot of Americans identify themselves with common national stereotypes, however right or wrong they may be 

I hope those examples don't offend anyone...

If it helps, I'm Italian (-American) too .


Brian


----------



## maxiogee

KittyCatty said:
			
		

> Hey, no worries Brian! I thought I'd better bring it to your/our attention because it is hard to generalise about the British when this means Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish people.



You can be Kitty, and I'll be "catty"  and say that Northern Irish people are not British - they retain their identity in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, unlike the English, Welsh and Scots.


----------



## brian

maxiogee said:
			
		

> You can be Kitty, and I'll be "catty"  and say that Northern Irish people are not British - they retain their identity in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, unlike the English, Welsh and Scots.


How about we just simplify it for everyone and combine it all to get THE GREAT UNITED KINGDOM OF BRITIRLSCOTWALESLAND!?!  Or is that too hard to say?


Brian


EDIT: I made the same mistake!  How about THE GREAT UNITED KINGDOM OF ENGLASCOTIRLWALES? (with the hope that people understand that IRL = _Northern_ Ireland)


----------



## Tatzingo

brian8733 said:
			
		

> Brian
> EDIT: I made the same mistake!  How about THE GREAT UNITED KINGDOM OF ENGLASCOTIRLWALES? (with the hope that people understand that IRL = _Northern_ Ireland)



Or why not just a simple acronym such as S.I.N.E.W. (Scotland, Ireland.. etc) or WINES or SWINE Or perhaps ISNEW. We could introduce ourselves by saying "Our Nation IS NEW" - terrible, i know.

Tatz.


----------



## panjabigator

SWINE doesnt really have positive connotations hehe...but good try!


----------



## Brioche

grasshopper said:
			
		

> I sincerely doubt that most so-called "Irish-Americans" are anything more than 25% Irish (if we want to get really pernickety about it ).


 
Completely off-topic.
In Australia assorted benefits are available to "indigenous" or "aboriginal" Australians.
Any amount of indigenous ancestry makes one "indigenous".
Some people have done a bit of genealogical research, and discovered [or sometimes surmised] that they have an aboriginal ancestor, and presto at age 40 they are "indigenous", and the other 127 european great-great-great-great-great-grandparents are trumped by that solitary indigenous ancestor.
And they suddenly have a wonderful _spiritual connexion_ with the land, too.


----------



## tonyray

maxiogee said:
			
		

> …that last word should be enough.
> 
> 
> If your family no longer know where your ancestors came from then you've been in America long enough to be American, without any adjectival prefix.
> 
> 
> 
> Is that a "need" or a "desire"?
> America is an old-enough country to allow it to become a heritage in its own right - indeed it may well necessitate that if Americans eve4r want to become a truly pluralist society. As long as people claim some other nationality first then they are not truly Americans.


 
Nationality gives you a national identity, not an ethnic one. In a pluralistic society, differences emerge...that's the nature of pluralism, isn't it? 

Citizens of the UK have British nationality but they continue to identify themselves ethnically as Welsh, Scottish, and English, don't they? Japanese-Brazilians still call themselves Japanese-Brazilians, that's just the nature of the pluralism that you speak of.


----------



## maxiogee

tonyray said:
			
		

> Nationality gives you a national identity, not an ethnic one. In a pluralistic society, differences emerge...that's the nature of pluralism, isn't it?
> 
> Citizens of the UK have British nationality but they continue to identify themselves ethnically as Welsh, Scottish, and English, don't they?




They do that because those are where they were born or live. 
The song says "You're a native New Yorker, You should know the score by now" — what's wrong with "New Yorker" as an ethnicity? It seems to me that "Irish-Americans" do not 'share' ethnicity, meaning a common national or cultural tradition - but "New Yorkers" certainly do.

You mentioned Japanese-Brazilians, could it be that they are a very distinct group, which is an ethnicity, in that their Japaneseness is a shared culture - they speak the language, they are not long arrived in Brazil (what is the average generational distance from Japan? There are "Irish-Americans" who are the fifth generation born in the US - that's stretching the connection to breaking point.), they possibly congregate for social and cultural gatherings.


----------



## tonyray

maxiogee said:
			
		

> They do that because those are where they were born or live.
> The song says "You're a native New Yorker, You should know the score by now" — what's wrong with "New Yorker" as an ethnicity? It seems to me that "Irish-Americans" do not 'share' ethnicity, meaning a common national or cultural tradition - but "New Yorkers" certainly do.
> 
> You mentioned Japanese-Brazilians, could it be that they are a very distinct group, which is an ethnicity, in that their Japaneseness is a shared culture - they speak the language, they are not long arrived in Brazil (what is the average generational distance from Japan? There are "Irish-Americans" who are the fifth generation born in the US - that's stretching the connection to breaking point.), they possibly congregate for social and cultural gatherings.


 
Tony,  I agree with you that a native New Yorker SHOULD be just a native New Yorker.  However, consider this if you will...in American society there are plenty of divisions and schisms along racial and religious lines. The reality is that America is a culture of subcultures, especially a place like New York where you have Chinatown, little Italy, Brighton Beach which is the Russian neighborhood and countless other enclaves of immigrants and descendants of immigrants. I am an American but I am also an American of European stock.


----------



## Iona

Every country has its own history so don't you think it's hard to compare the U.S with Australia or the United (or ,reading some of the comments the Ununited Kingdom) Maybe some people like to (or are brought up to )'blend' others like to maintain a link with their origins.I get a bit annoyed when people mistake British with  English BUT ,I can understand that geographically England is situated closer to the continent and developed and controlled earlier... I'm talking HISTORICALLY ..today things have changed BUT old habits die hard. I also find it a little strange that we say Anglo Saxon origins but I'm nit picking because in order to stay politically truthful we'd have to use the prefixes  Iberian/Celtic/Anglo/Jutic/Romano/Viking/Normano/Rappo(!) English (Forgive those I've forgotten !!)but hey -isn't it nice to be adaptable!I frequently have discussions with an American friend about our language differences (pants,purses,fanny!etc )


----------



## fenixpollo

maxiogee said:
			
		

> If your family no longer know where your ancestors came from then you've been in America long enough to be American, without any adjectival prefix.


 One big problem is that even "Americans" have a hard time telling you what "American culture" is. If one is a member of a subgroup, then there are associated foods, music, ceremonies, etc., which make up a culture. So someone who proudly claims they are Italian, Filipino, etc., even though their family has been here longer than George Bush's, are really claiming a culture -- one that America can't provide because it hasn't really established one that can be easily identified.

I identify myself as "American", rather than try to lay claim to any one of my Heinz-57 ancestries. Since I have little direct connection to my Norwegian/English/Irish/Dutch/German past, I can't really claim a particular culture. So I have to find my own culture and identity.... which is a conundrum in itself.

Another problem with claiming oneself as simply "American" is that the hatred, fear and xenophobia directed at the latest wave of immigrants is perpetrated by people whose own ancestors were immigrants who were equally reviled in their time. However, because of their lack of knowledge about their own, personal history (to say nothing of the country's history), they are ignorant of the hypocrisy that they are perpetrating on us all.


----------



## Moogey

maxiogee said:
			
		

> I find all this cross-cultural ancestry thing strange.
> 
> When Paddy the Irishman meets and marries Patrizia the Italianwoman, what do their son self-report as his ancestry - is there a category of IrishItalian/American?
> And when he marries an ScotsPolish/American woman, what on earth does _their_ child claim to be?
> 
> Why do census takers wish to know one's "self-reported" ethnicity - it's likely to be inaccurate?



I'm Italian, German, Russian, English, Czechoslovakian (when it was Czechoslovakia!), and Native American. If people ask what I am, I list them all. I wonder what I would have to do on a Census paper!

-M


----------



## lablady

fenixpollo said:
			
		

> I identify myself as "American", rather than try to lay claim to any one of my Heinz-57 ancestries. Since I have little direct connection to my Norwegian/English/Irish/Dutch/German past, I can't really claim a particular culture. So I have to find my own culture and identity.... which is a conundrum in itself.


 
I agree

I think there is a difference between _nationality_ and _ancestry_. And I think that difference sometimes gets blurred.

As someone who was born and raised in the United States by parents who were born and raised in the United States, I have always referred to my _nationality_ as "American". 

As to my immigrant _ancestry_, I too am Heinz-57. While I am only a third-generation American with great-grandparents from Denmark, I also have ancestors from Scotland, England, and perhaps Germany (we aren't quite sure) who immigrated many more generations ago. I don't speak the languages of my past relatives (though I would like to), nor do I have as good an understanding of their cultures as I would like. For that reason, I feel I cannot honestly refer to myself as Danish-Scottish-English-German-American or anything in between. I simply tell people my ancestry is "Northern European" and leave it at that. 

I think the main reason for the American tendency to identify themselves by their roots was explained eloquently by Fenixpollo here. And joining in with the subgroups as they celebrate their culture can be a fun experience, even if I don't really fit.



			
				fenixpollo said:
			
		

> One big problem is that even "Americans" have a hard time telling you what "American culture" is. If one is a member of a subgroup, then there are associated foods, music, ceremonies, etc., which make up a culture. So someone who proudly claims they are Italian, Filipino, etc., even though their family has been here longer than George Bush's, are really claiming a culture -- one that America can't provide because it hasn't really established one that can be easily identified.


 
As to the census question, I've always answered it "caucasian".


----------



## french4beth

I always to refer to myself as an American of Irish descent (as both sides of my family are of Irish ancestry).  My paternal grandmother and virtually all of my great-grandparents were born in Ireland, so they were the only Irish-Americans, in my book.

Whenever someone tells me "I'm Italian/German/etc." I ask them how long they've been living the US - 99% of the time, they answer that they were born here - I then ask them, "Then how can you be XXX if you were born here?"

The only exceptions are people that hold dual citizenship, but that's pretty rare, as far as I know...


----------



## panjabigator

french4beth said:
			
		

> Whenever someone tells me "I'm Italian/German/etc." I ask them how long they've been living the US - 99% of the time, they answer that they were born here - I then ask them, "Then how can you be XXX if you were born here?"
> 
> The only exceptions are people that hold dual citizenship, but that's pretty rare, as far as I know...



I do the same thing, but if someone tells me they're 3rd generation German American and really adheres to the culture, I'd believe it.


----------



## lyrwriter

fenixpollo said:
			
		

> One big problem is that even "Americans" have a hard time telling you what "American culture" is. If one is a member of a subgroup, then there are associated foods, music, ceremonies, etc., which make up a culture. So someone who proudly claims they are Italian, Filipino, etc., even though their family has been here longer than George Bush's, are really claiming a culture -- one that America can't provide because it hasn't really established one that can be easily identified.


 
I often wonder if some sort of definitive "American culture" will ever develop, and, if it does, whether I want to be identified by it!  I mean, what would it consist of? Our cultural foods: the hamburger, french fries, steak and potatoes, corn on the cob and apple pie? How bland and unhealthy!

Personally, I am Asian-American, and when people look at me, they see that---the slanted almond eyes and the petite frame. What people don't know and don't see is that that's only one quarter of my ancestry, and I am a quarter Irish as well, in addition to being smaller percentages Norwegian, German, Scottish, English. Yet I have a much stronger cultural connection to my Norwegian heritage than any other, and I'm only one eighth Norwegian. Go figure.  The point is that I don't think people can be culturally identified by their ancestry. Ancestry and culture are two different words for two different things...

Oh, I read an article similar to this one in this morning's paper...interesting...


----------

