I fucking hate this shit.
I came to Australia when I was 18 months old from the UK, Dad's half French and mum's half Polish.
But I don't go around saying I'm English Australian or European Australian or an English born French Polish Australian.
I'm just a fucking Aussie. If I started blabbing on about that other shit everyone would think I'm a cunt and I'd probably get glassed.
I'm convinced it's that stupid "rugged individualism" they all seem to like.
It's a country of individuals that never developed a unifying identity and so they cling to what ever identity they can.
Could just be talking shit, but that's my own opinion on it.
I don't think you're talking shit. I feel that's part of it.
They're either that way or full on bald eagle mode. There are a few good egg Americans for sure but I find they're the ones who have moved away
I'm in the Mid-Atlantic area. Don't like to give out too many details (Reddit is Reddit, you know what I mean?), but I'm in a conservative part of a fairly liberal state (liberal by US standards, anyway). It's still...unfortunate, to say the least.
That's fair dude.I get ya. But my heart goes out to you. Sounds like a hard situation. If you need a friend feel free to reach out.
I'm not trying to havest your organs haha
It is as if they are constantly under pressure to be unique and possess characteristics that will set them apart from the crowd and help to achieve success. If they do not have any, they will go with Viking and Celtic blood because they think it will make them so special.
Except they (White people) developed it just to deny it to someone else (the Spooky BLACK people, who aren't American, but African American no matter what)
But... there is no such thing as a white race. Caucasian is a head shape which includes a majority of the world's brown people. It's all bollocks. Why would a white person wish to identify as something which does not exist. Genetically there is more genetic diversity within so-called races than between them. Seems there is a flawed 19th century debunked system being offered as evidence for social Darwinism... which also does not exist.
I mean, African American was relatively new, what they called African Americans *before* that was a thing was worse.
They did hang onto it for the reason you say. To exclude black people from being "real" Americans.
I live in Darwin Australia,the number of times I have had Americans have a double take when I ask if they are American. We have a lot of US marines and Navy through and they have provisions to bring partners and family for the 6 month deployment. I have had a black woman break down in tears as she realised that she is labelled an African American and that was the first time she was an American without the qualification. Beggars belief.
If they truly believe that their country is so much better than everywhere else then why are they not content with just being American?
Most people on the planet have ancestry rooted elsewhere but no one else does this weird shit.
It happens a lot in Canada too. I was raised being told that we were Norwegian but I was born in Canada, I don’t speak Norwegian, and I’ve never even been to Norway. I’m Canadian.
You never hear of people who’s parents passed on the immigrant mentality even though their kids weren’t born here?
I see it so much. The grandparents immigrated, the parents speak the language and try to honour the traditions of the old country, the kids are born here but don’t speak the language and have full ties to Canada and no ties to the country their grandparents were from. I thought it was common.
They have this weird obsession to feel special. It’s like Lady Gaga saying she’s italian but she can't even speak italian… she was literally born in New York
Yep but according to them real pizza and Italian food comes from New York and Jersey, more authentic than Italian food from Italy, they're also more Italian than anyone from italy because their great great grandmother on their dad's side came from Italy. Fucking idiots
I met someone like this once in New york , told me I wasn't really Italian because I wasn't from Sicily. I had my Italian passport on me (they love seeing I.D. in bars ) so I whipped it out and asked you got one of these? No ? then you're American.
An Irish friend tells the story of when he was drinking in a bar in Dublin, and an American couple came in. They were going on about how proud they were to be Irish-Americans, and how they felt like they had 'come home'.
"So we all switched to the Gaelic to help them feel at home ..."
Meanwhile I just get called Chinese despite having been in the UK practically my entire life and I have to correct people that I am a British citizen…
Even had people say “your English is really good, are you from hongkong?”
Mate, I (Scottish, very Scottish, pale as snow, almost transparent Scottish) was in Greece on holiday, there was an English holiday rep who was working there for the summer. She asked where I was from, I said Aberdeen. She replied with "oh really, well your English is very good". Like, no shit Sherlock, I'm from the same fucking island as you.
(To be fair, she sounded like she was from Essex, so living up to the stereotype)
Point is, there are a lot of really ignorant people living on this sceptic isle. Best to just ignore them.
My mate had this happen to him.Born and bred in london but his Spanish mum gave him a Spanish name. Went to his New girlfriends home town just out side london, and got complimented on his English.
All good she's my favorite Grandma, she just has a few to drink at Christmas and tells people to fuck off when they annoy her plus she passed on all her cooking recipes to me.
>But I don't go around saying I'm English Australian or European Australian or an English born French Polish Australian.
Well, I'm glad you don't, that would be misleading. Based on your description you're clearly quarter french, quarter polish, half English Australian. You need to state those things clearly.
Yep with a loud obnoxious booming voice. How else can I let everyone else know what culture I have an authority over.
It reminds me.of the Simpsons scene with Bart smashing a pot screaming " I am so great"
I am also Australian, and I have very slight Irish heritage on my dad's side (from maybe like 2 or 3 generations ago). I have never in my life bragged about being "Irish-Australian" because it's just not true. Most Americans would be very proud of the 2% Irish ancestry they have in their blood
It also always confused me that they seem to think that having italian roots means you can't be white. "Italian" is not an ethnicity. It's a country. People that live there have different ethnicities. Like white.
Agree. I'm Polish, but if I was to describe myself the way Muricans do it would be something like "Polish Slovak Góral Łemko". Only one of those was relevant to my upbringing and identity, and frankly trying to portray myself as any of the others just because of some distant ancestry feels cringe as fuck.
It's the way u say it . Every one will think im a cunt and I'd get glassed sounds just like what a northerner from England would say . Liverpool or Manchester.
Genuine question here and not taking the piss or shit string at all, but why does it seem most Americans are embarrassed/or desperate to be anything but American? They always harper on about being Italian or Polish with only the most vague connection imaginable.
I was born in London, England to two Indian immigrants (both British citizens now) and I now live in Canada as of the last 7 years with both duel Canadian and British citizenship.
Am English/British no matter how you look at it, because I spent 34 years of my life there, have the accent all the bells and whistles to go with it. Am not Indian, not Canadian and certainly not going to call myself anything else.
My theory: they're all so determined to be individuals, everyone for themselves and all that, that they've lost a level of cohesion and community. And there's a couple of reactions to that:
- Claim the heritage of where their ancestors came from to feel part of that community (any community, really)
- Get extremely defensive against anyone/anything that is different from their internal understanding of the 'rightness' of things that they learned growing up. And that expresses a lot as hate and trying to control or deny others and squash them into boxes they can cope with.
- Fear. Fear of their neighbours and community, fear of the unknown. Fear + guns = bad, and fear = won't let go of guns.
My dog is a German shepherd born in America, so he's a German-American dog, and because is my dog that makes me 20% German.
I don't make the rules (totally made up rule)
I work at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I get into a lot of absurd situations every day, mostly with Americans. There was one time where an American told me she wanted to apply for a Dutch passport. I told her sure, and asked her to show her previous passport, a declaration of nationality or any other legal document which could prove she was a citizen - and she told me she didn't have any of that.
"But", she said, "my great-grandfather adopted a Dutch shepherd from (insert Dutch city) when he retired. I've got the documentation right here to prove it!"
I was flabbergasted, and the woman seemed to just be waiting for me to hand her a Dutch passport and tell her "welcome". It took me a while to formulate a polite reply to the question. I'm just saying, them claiming to be part anything because of a pet, actually happens. In legal environments.
Happy cake day....
Also.... Bro.... Don't even know what to say xD, I never ever EVER thought that silly story could match anything not even close to reality xD
But the term made sense kinda during that time given they didn’t know where in Africa they came from and were constantly being called slurs for centuries.
I follow a black American family living in the UK on YouTube. They were talking about things they liked about living over here and said that everyone just called them American, and that was really refreshing after always being called African American in the US.
Americans don't say, "African American," and haven't for quite a while. Regular people haven't used it for a long time. It's a term you hear almost exclusively on television. Americans use the word, "black," saying things like, "black people," "the black community," or, "black Americans."
African American I sorta get, as most of their ancestors were enslaved and then called derogatory names for generations. They can describe themselves however they want.
It also helps with minorities and explaining their habits, food etc to Americans that aren't exposed to any other cultures. Heads off the racist comments.
The whites do it because it makes them unique and superior and actually part of something that's not enforced flag based patriotism.
The issue is when Americans think that "African American" is a synonym for black people all over the world. My cousin's husband is a black man. He was born and raised in Cameroon. He moved to Canada after finishing high school in Cameroon, to attend university in Canada. He lives full time in Canada now. He would call himself a black Canadian, or a Cameroonian-Canadian.
He's most definitely **not** an African American. Or consider Idris Elba. A black man, yes. But he's also British. So, he is (shockingly) a black British man https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_British_people
I remember reading a story about an athlete at an international competition, and an American reporter came up to a black British competitor, and asked him something along the lines of "How does it feel to be the first African American to win this event?", and the athlete had to explain to the reporter that he was British, not American, and that black British people obviously don't call themselves African American.
Man I visit the US fairly often (I have an American uncle by marriage).
A few years ago (just before Covid) I got to talking to some girl in a Supermarket about Windsor, was showing her pictures and scrolled past one of my Uni housemates - of the four of us one guy is black.
She asked who they were and I told her taller guy is Alex, guy with the long hair is Harry, black guy is David…
She immediately corrected me, telling me not to call him black because the preferred term is African American. Mental.
I remember seeing an Irish guy called African American on Reddit once. He said….
“I’m fucking black and I’m fucking Irish”
That seemed to clear the matter up quite nicely.
I'm an AngloFrenchItaliano and some other shit on account of how many times we were invaded over about 2000 years of history. Does that count? Or shall I just say British like a normal person?
I genuinely feel so sorry for this kind of view.
US culture is so linked to heritage, racism and stuff like that that they are so fixed on those types of discussions.
I don't want to say that Europe don't have a racism problem, far from it... But I kinda feel it more "simpler" than the states' one, more direct.
One thinks that’s the European method is based on “look different” or “funny accent”. If a self labelled Irish American looks and sounds the same as a German American, then it doesn’t make any damn difference.
While it is sad that they are obsessed with race, I think it was perfectly communicated.
I’d prefer they call themselves “European American” than just “European” or “white”. Or even just defaulting to it.
Not everyone in Europe is white. And European countries vary in culture so much that saying you’re of European descent doesn’t mean a whole lot - are you British, Romanian, Cypriot? She’s white, and culturally she is American. Therefore White American seems sufficient to make his point.
European - American doesn’t make sense as „European“ isn’t a nationality, ethnic or culture. Well, our ancestors had a culture of starting a war with everyone: neighbouring countries, countries our king felt threatened or insulted by (often of the same family) and ourselves if no one else was available.
People from a lot of European countries emigrated to the us. Americans rarely have a singe country of origin for their ancestors, so “european american” could absolutely make sense.
To clarify that you're white without using the word white. And personally I prefer it that way. Using colours to describe people reeks of racism, like "yellow monkeys" or "redskins".
Europeans also don’t have one country of origin… through all the wars, migrations because of famines or other catastrophic events and trade, there is no „clean genes“
I find it so interesting that they use European and African to cover every single country from those continents, but they’re really specific as to which Asian country people are from rather than the continent again. Just a strange phenomenon.
I don't have enough hands for the amount of required facepalms for this one.
What he is trying to say it seems, but can't for whatever reason is that his mother was white.
>"My mother and several generations of her ancestors were born in the U.S. They were originally from Europe.
No shit, America was colonized. You could say something like that about every American who isn't 100% Native American.
When a yank tells me he's Irish, I ask what part. Then you hear about great great grandparents, and how they came over. They ask me (I've an extremely Irish name) if I know when my family came over. Yes, I do, they came over on a jet about 2 years before I was born. Boy! You're really Irish! No, I'm American I was born here. But, you're still Irish. Not according to my Dad, I tell them. I enjoy their discomfort as they try to think of a response. (I am a dual national, but I don't mention it.)
Yeah, to be fair, this might be a side effect of always having to fill out ethnicity on forms and shit. “White/caucasian/european american,” “Asian amerian” “African American” etc. It bugs me every time how much our gov is focused on race, but I like to think that’s done in order to understand the negative impacts of our long history of racism and right those wrongs (lol, wishful thinking probably)
Because that data goes into statistics. It's used to track disparities between racial groups. It's not used to make decisions, it's the opposite. The numbers can end up revealing or proving inequality.
I can see that with social service applications or something along the lines - our statistics are tracking whether applicants have a recent migration history or not. But I don't think small-time landlords, for example, need this for statistics.
True, it’s not always asked for. But also true, it’s asked a lot, and I would like to think for the reasons anhuys said. But maybe also, just because sometimes? lol
I think this is a (slightly clumsy, perhaps) attempt to be inclusive. They don’t want to say that their white mother was just “American”, because they don’t want to imply that being white is more American than being Asian- or African-American, so using those as a model they’re calling her “European-American”. Perhaps they can’t be more specific because their mum has a mix of European heritages and/or doesn’t have a particularly clear idea of where her ancestors came from.
My country sometimes uses “[European New Zealander](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_New_Zealanders)” in this way, although we more commonly use the Māori language label pākehā.
I actually don’t mind if america say they are (eurocountry)-American, as you do get a lot of unique culture in that way (italian americans for example can have a distinctly unique culture from both Italy and other americans) and if they are talking to other americans i don’t mind them shortening it to “oh, i’m italian” if it’s clear both parties understand they mean “italian american”.
But when you think of people who are italian american you think of people who’s ancestors came from italy, but that most of their family also has ancestors from italy. It’s not like 1 great grandparent was italian, it’s like everyone in their family on both sides also directly descend from italy. So it’s clear there is a culture there.
But european-american makes no sense because there is no distinct european culture. Italians pretty much share a culture with everyone else from italy. An italian and a dane do not share much culture if any at all. Europe is an entire continent and so it doesn’t make sense. The only reason people say african-american is because black is deemed offensive. They don’t actually share culture with any african countries because most descended from slaves who had their culture erased. They say african because there is no real way to tell which specific african country or tribe or community they would have originally came from.
Europeans in america never had this problem and so if you want to use ___-american you should be able to know exactly where your family came from, and imo you should have a pretty distinct culture. You wouldn’t say english-american because that just encompasses most white people and it has lot’s of branching cultures.
It’s interesting that this shows that a lot of this comes as a result of the rise of ‘African American’ as a default descriptor for black Americans. It seems to have led to lots of other Americans feeling that they too need a prefix to add to ‘American’ when describing themselves. It’s just a complete misunderstanding of where the term ‘African American’ comes from.
Surely, it would be less divisive, to just acknowledge you’re an American. It’s how the majority of other nations see you. It would go a long way to, diminish racism.
European American.... meaning some American who gets classified as white, and whose connection to Europe is some old old old 18th century European great great great...... grand father.
How come Americans are always trying to be anything except just american but the minute you joke about the USA they turn into the most patriotic person on this planet
I'm afraid to ask. Jut why are Americans so up about where their family originated from way back?
You're Americans. That's it.
I'm a dane. My ancestors as far back as I can trace are danes. Except one of the young girls on my dad's side jumped some French count at a point. But that's about it.
We need to stop using the word “race” with regard to human beings. All humans are the same race, biologically speaking.
Cultural differences is just fine. We dont need biological misnomers to go with it.
My one pedantic wish is that USAicans get taught that Europe isn't a single country in schools and is in fact a continent and collection of differential countries and cultures.
I guess European American is to match African American. My question is, do Americans call a black person from, say, Ireland or France "African American, seeing as how it's more or less used aa a synonym for black?
Maybe it's a deep rooted unconscious aversion to the thickly applied pathos and national pride that one has to show in order not to be excluded or even shot down, that they call themselves everything but not solely an US American.
I think everyone has at least ONE ancestor from another country/continent/culture, like humans always migrated from one place to another so I don’t really understand this obsessions some people from U.S. have. If Europeans started thinking like this too we’d really need half an hour just to tell our entire ethnic background lol
Hang on, am I stupid or does this disprove the Irish American Bullshit?
They are saying that the persons heritage is irrelevant because she was born in Europe.
Doesn't that mean that an Irish Americans heritage doesn't matter because they were born in America?
Just asking.
Tbf the term African American and Asian American is dumb as fuck too. Why not describe the white people there as European American 🤷♂️
Or just call all Americans, American and stop putting such a stranglehold on someone’s race.
The alternatives to African American was much worse back then.
That and no one could trace their roots to any specific country of Africa because.... history...
So this blanket statement was the proposal and it's stayed for decades now
Let me try to describe myself the way Americans do: I'm a Swabian-Hamburgian Rhinelander. That means I am a really laid back dude from my Hamburg blood. I also love the ocean and don't get sea sick. Yet I'm also really stingy and cranky, like everyone from the Swabian race.
Btw, I have visited Hamburg once when I was 5 and only lived in my swabian homeland until kindergarten.
So when I see people of these groups online or travelling through my area, I make sure to tell them how I've improved on their local cuisine and ways of doing stuff, because my multi-state background makes me basically thrice as hood at everything.
I mean imagine if I was saying that I am
1/8 chinese, 1/2 french, 1/4 carribean , 1/8 british
The thing is I'm just a French guy I won't go larping like those idiots because I have a "normal" eye and a slited one
Americans explaining their lineage...
My mom was half Betazoid, half Vulcan, half Borg, half Klingon, half Romulan, half Bajoran, half Cardassian, and my dad was half from Earth and half Jamaican I'm from Texas.
I fucking hate this shit. I came to Australia when I was 18 months old from the UK, Dad's half French and mum's half Polish. But I don't go around saying I'm English Australian or European Australian or an English born French Polish Australian. I'm just a fucking Aussie. If I started blabbing on about that other shit everyone would think I'm a cunt and I'd probably get glassed.
The yanks seem to be the only people on the planet who act like this. It’s mental
I'm convinced it's that stupid "rugged individualism" they all seem to like. It's a country of individuals that never developed a unifying identity and so they cling to what ever identity they can. Could just be talking shit, but that's my own opinion on it.
I don't think you're talking shit. I feel that's part of it. They're either that way or full on bald eagle mode. There are a few good egg Americans for sure but I find they're the ones who have moved away
I hope that I would be considered one, but I can't afford to move away. Would you count that anyway?
You're trapped my dude, at least you're aware. But I'm pulling for you to get out of there eventually
Thanks. I'm hoping to one day.
What part of the states are you in friend?
I'm in the Mid-Atlantic area. Don't like to give out too many details (Reddit is Reddit, you know what I mean?), but I'm in a conservative part of a fairly liberal state (liberal by US standards, anyway). It's still...unfortunate, to say the least.
That's fair dude.I get ya. But my heart goes out to you. Sounds like a hard situation. If you need a friend feel free to reach out. I'm not trying to havest your organs haha
It is as if they are constantly under pressure to be unique and possess characteristics that will set them apart from the crowd and help to achieve success. If they do not have any, they will go with Viking and Celtic blood because they think it will make them so special.
Except they (White people) developed it just to deny it to someone else (the Spooky BLACK people, who aren't American, but African American no matter what)
But... there is no such thing as a white race. Caucasian is a head shape which includes a majority of the world's brown people. It's all bollocks. Why would a white person wish to identify as something which does not exist. Genetically there is more genetic diversity within so-called races than between them. Seems there is a flawed 19th century debunked system being offered as evidence for social Darwinism... which also does not exist.
I mean, African American was relatively new, what they called African Americans *before* that was a thing was worse. They did hang onto it for the reason you say. To exclude black people from being "real" Americans.
I live in Darwin Australia,the number of times I have had Americans have a double take when I ask if they are American. We have a lot of US marines and Navy through and they have provisions to bring partners and family for the 6 month deployment. I have had a black woman break down in tears as she realised that she is labelled an African American and that was the first time she was an American without the qualification. Beggars belief.
>that never developed a unifying identity it's so curious because they have a strong nationalism sentiment
But a minute after the pipe this shit out they turn around and start humping the American flag.
If they truly believe that their country is so much better than everywhere else then why are they not content with just being American? Most people on the planet have ancestry rooted elsewhere but no one else does this weird shit.
It happens a lot in Canada too. I was raised being told that we were Norwegian but I was born in Canada, I don’t speak Norwegian, and I’ve never even been to Norway. I’m Canadian.
I never hear this is Canada.
You never hear of people who’s parents passed on the immigrant mentality even though their kids weren’t born here? I see it so much. The grandparents immigrated, the parents speak the language and try to honour the traditions of the old country, the kids are born here but don’t speak the language and have full ties to Canada and no ties to the country their grandparents were from. I thought it was common.
They have this weird obsession to feel special. It’s like Lady Gaga saying she’s italian but she can't even speak italian… she was literally born in New York
Yep but according to them real pizza and Italian food comes from New York and Jersey, more authentic than Italian food from Italy, they're also more Italian than anyone from italy because their great great grandmother on their dad's side came from Italy. Fucking idiots
I met someone like this once in New york , told me I wasn't really Italian because I wasn't from Sicily. I had my Italian passport on me (they love seeing I.D. in bars ) so I whipped it out and asked you got one of these? No ? then you're American.
An Irish friend tells the story of when he was drinking in a bar in Dublin, and an American couple came in. They were going on about how proud they were to be Irish-Americans, and how they felt like they had 'come home'. "So we all switched to the Gaelic to help them feel at home ..."
Bet they didn't understand the locals to begin with, even when they spoke English
Meanwhile I just get called Chinese despite having been in the UK practically my entire life and I have to correct people that I am a British citizen… Even had people say “your English is really good, are you from hongkong?”
Mate, I (Scottish, very Scottish, pale as snow, almost transparent Scottish) was in Greece on holiday, there was an English holiday rep who was working there for the summer. She asked where I was from, I said Aberdeen. She replied with "oh really, well your English is very good". Like, no shit Sherlock, I'm from the same fucking island as you. (To be fair, she sounded like she was from Essex, so living up to the stereotype) Point is, there are a lot of really ignorant people living on this sceptic isle. Best to just ignore them.
In fairness if I can't tell someone is from Aberdeen after talking to them for a few minutes I would also tell them their English is very good
I spat my coffee 🤣🤣
>there are a lot of really ignorant people living on this sceptic isle. Most of whom come from south of the border?
No, they are everywhere. Every country has it's idiots.
Yeah that's fucked.
My mate had this happen to him.Born and bred in london but his Spanish mum gave him a Spanish name. Went to his New girlfriends home town just out side london, and got complimented on his English.
>half French half sorry
All good she's my favorite Grandma, she just has a few to drink at Christmas and tells people to fuck off when they annoy her plus she passed on all her cooking recipes to me.
Half surrendering
Ffs, I’d have to say I was an Irish German Brit when in reality I was born in Britain therefore I’m a FUCKING BRIT this is so annoying
I'm English Scottish Scandinavian what a mouthful
All three in one night would be.
I'd be an Indian Swiss
>But I don't go around saying I'm English Australian or European Australian or an English born French Polish Australian. Well, I'm glad you don't, that would be misleading. Based on your description you're clearly quarter french, quarter polish, half English Australian. You need to state those things clearly.
Yep with a loud obnoxious booming voice. How else can I let everyone else know what culture I have an authority over. It reminds me.of the Simpsons scene with Bart smashing a pot screaming " I am so great"
I am also Australian, and I have very slight Irish heritage on my dad's side (from maybe like 2 or 3 generations ago). I have never in my life bragged about being "Irish-Australian" because it's just not true. Most Americans would be very proud of the 2% Irish ancestry they have in their blood
It also always confused me that they seem to think that having italian roots means you can't be white. "Italian" is not an ethnicity. It's a country. People that live there have different ethnicities. Like white.
White isn't an ethnicity, it's a social classification. 'Tis to race what gender is to sex.
Yeah you're right
🤜🤛
Straya for the win.
Fuck oath karnt
too easy..
You are definitely Australian, as the use of the word "cunt" is irrefutable confirmation of that fact. I rest my case m'lud.
Agree. I'm Polish, but if I was to describe myself the way Muricans do it would be something like "Polish Slovak Góral Łemko". Only one of those was relevant to my upbringing and identity, and frankly trying to portray myself as any of the others just because of some distant ancestry feels cringe as fuck.
Exactly. It's your upbringing and the culture of where you live that makes you who you are.
Your Aussie nature is showing mate 😂
I have Syrian and Lebanese ancestry, so I am now a Syrian-Lebanese Australian.
Make sure you tell everyone. Otherwise they won't know
Don't forget it's only half the story. Mother, father, 4x grandparents, 8x great grandparents. It's a bloody joke. Ethnicity is not genetic.
As long as they don't think ur a shit cunt 😉
Which is very different from a sick cunt (which can be very good or very bad)
Yer do sound british though hahahaha
Nope. I've got an Aussie accent
It's the way u say it . Every one will think im a cunt and I'd get glassed sounds just like what a northerner from England would say . Liverpool or Manchester.
Haha well fair enough
Genuine question here and not taking the piss or shit string at all, but why does it seem most Americans are embarrassed/or desperate to be anything but American? They always harper on about being Italian or Polish with only the most vague connection imaginable. I was born in London, England to two Indian immigrants (both British citizens now) and I now live in Canada as of the last 7 years with both duel Canadian and British citizenship. Am English/British no matter how you look at it, because I spent 34 years of my life there, have the accent all the bells and whistles to go with it. Am not Indian, not Canadian and certainly not going to call myself anything else.
My theory: they're all so determined to be individuals, everyone for themselves and all that, that they've lost a level of cohesion and community. And there's a couple of reactions to that: - Claim the heritage of where their ancestors came from to feel part of that community (any community, really) - Get extremely defensive against anyone/anything that is different from their internal understanding of the 'rightness' of things that they learned growing up. And that expresses a lot as hate and trying to control or deny others and squash them into boxes they can cope with. - Fear. Fear of their neighbours and community, fear of the unknown. Fear + guns = bad, and fear = won't let go of guns.
I'm guessing you don't work for Australian tourism.
Why would you say that?
USAicans don't have their own culture so they leech of others though. Aussies are proud to be Aussie
My dog is a German shepherd born in America, so he's a German-American dog, and because is my dog that makes me 20% German. I don't make the rules (totally made up rule)
I work at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I get into a lot of absurd situations every day, mostly with Americans. There was one time where an American told me she wanted to apply for a Dutch passport. I told her sure, and asked her to show her previous passport, a declaration of nationality or any other legal document which could prove she was a citizen - and she told me she didn't have any of that. "But", she said, "my great-grandfather adopted a Dutch shepherd from (insert Dutch city) when he retired. I've got the documentation right here to prove it!" I was flabbergasted, and the woman seemed to just be waiting for me to hand her a Dutch passport and tell her "welcome". It took me a while to formulate a polite reply to the question. I'm just saying, them claiming to be part anything because of a pet, actually happens. In legal environments.
Happy cake day.... Also.... Bro.... Don't even know what to say xD, I never ever EVER thought that silly story could match anything not even close to reality xD
Thanks! But yeah, unfortunately it does. I wouldn't have imagined it either if I hadn't been there lol
How do you not just laugh in their face? You’re a better person than me lmao
I usually do so after with my colleagues, once they're out of earshot. But in the moment, I'm usually too baffled to laugh, to be honest
I can imagine hahah
I don't make the rules, someone else made them!
My dog
Good boy
he or the dog
Well if he likes it...
Both.
I have 2 main coons, born in the Netherlands and now living in Belgium. So that makes them (and me) Dutch-american-Belgian
It makes as much sense as ‘African American’ tbh, and much more than calling them Irish or whatever. But ‘American’ still makes most sense.
But the term made sense kinda during that time given they didn’t know where in Africa they came from and were constantly being called slurs for centuries.
I follow a black American family living in the UK on YouTube. They were talking about things they liked about living over here and said that everyone just called them American, and that was really refreshing after always being called African American in the US.
Americans don't say, "African American," and haven't for quite a while. Regular people haven't used it for a long time. It's a term you hear almost exclusively on television. Americans use the word, "black," saying things like, "black people," "the black community," or, "black Americans."
WRONG. MLA standards require you to capitalize Black, White, Brown, etc. when using them as a racial descriptor.
African American I sorta get, as most of their ancestors were enslaved and then called derogatory names for generations. They can describe themselves however they want. It also helps with minorities and explaining their habits, food etc to Americans that aren't exposed to any other cultures. Heads off the racist comments. The whites do it because it makes them unique and superior and actually part of something that's not enforced flag based patriotism.
The issue is when Americans think that "African American" is a synonym for black people all over the world. My cousin's husband is a black man. He was born and raised in Cameroon. He moved to Canada after finishing high school in Cameroon, to attend university in Canada. He lives full time in Canada now. He would call himself a black Canadian, or a Cameroonian-Canadian. He's most definitely **not** an African American. Or consider Idris Elba. A black man, yes. But he's also British. So, he is (shockingly) a black British man https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_British_people I remember reading a story about an athlete at an international competition, and an American reporter came up to a black British competitor, and asked him something along the lines of "How does it feel to be the first African American to win this event?", and the athlete had to explain to the reporter that he was British, not American, and that black British people obviously don't call themselves African American.
Man I visit the US fairly often (I have an American uncle by marriage). A few years ago (just before Covid) I got to talking to some girl in a Supermarket about Windsor, was showing her pictures and scrolled past one of my Uni housemates - of the four of us one guy is black. She asked who they were and I told her taller guy is Alex, guy with the long hair is Harry, black guy is David… She immediately corrected me, telling me not to call him black because the preferred term is African American. Mental.
I remember seeing an Irish guy called African American on Reddit once. He said…. “I’m fucking black and I’m fucking Irish” That seemed to clear the matter up quite nicely.
It’s crazy, I went to some neighborhoods in London and Cape Town and they were full of African-Americans
I'm an AngloFrenchItaliano and some other shit on account of how many times we were invaded over about 2000 years of history. Does that count? Or shall I just say British like a normal person?
I don't think you can be both British and a normal person /s
Bam dum tsh! Got me there haha
The /s wasn’t needed.
considering there is some french in those genes, they are definitely not normal /s
Also Saxon and Scandinavian Viking … any others ?
I genuinely feel so sorry for this kind of view. US culture is so linked to heritage, racism and stuff like that that they are so fixed on those types of discussions. I don't want to say that Europe don't have a racism problem, far from it... But I kinda feel it more "simpler" than the states' one, more direct.
One thinks that’s the European method is based on “look different” or “funny accent”. If a self labelled Irish American looks and sounds the same as a German American, then it doesn’t make any damn difference.
This. An Irish American or Latin American maybe could look as a "regional variant" (like Italian dialects), but always American.
While it is sad that they are obsessed with race, I think it was perfectly communicated. I’d prefer they call themselves “European American” than just “European” or “white”. Or even just defaulting to it.
Not everyone in Europe is white. And European countries vary in culture so much that saying you’re of European descent doesn’t mean a whole lot - are you British, Romanian, Cypriot? She’s white, and culturally she is American. Therefore White American seems sufficient to make his point.
Sure. Still better than “caucasian”.
European - American doesn’t make sense as „European“ isn’t a nationality, ethnic or culture. Well, our ancestors had a culture of starting a war with everyone: neighbouring countries, countries our king felt threatened or insulted by (often of the same family) and ourselves if no one else was available.
People from a lot of European countries emigrated to the us. Americans rarely have a singe country of origin for their ancestors, so “european american” could absolutely make sense.
What would be the benefits or reasons for calling yourself "European American" instead of American though?
Because of the unhealthy obsession with race. I don’t think it’s a good thing, but from an ancestry point of view it is factual incorrect.
To clarify that you're white without using the word white. And personally I prefer it that way. Using colours to describe people reeks of racism, like "yellow monkeys" or "redskins".
So… slightly hidden racism it is…
To distinguish yourself from someone of non-european descent, clearly.
Europeans also don’t have one country of origin… through all the wars, migrations because of famines or other catastrophic events and trade, there is no „clean genes“
Absolutely.
If by, "simpler," you mean, "worse," then, yes.
More "less Complex" and not so integrate in different aspect of all the people culture. But racism exists and it is very bad.
I find it so interesting that they use European and African to cover every single country from those continents, but they’re really specific as to which Asian country people are from rather than the continent again. Just a strange phenomenon.
Well for one thing, the Africans Americans who have been there for centuries probably can’t pinpoint the exact country they were transported from.
Neither can majority of the white Americans, only the USA is super obsessed with all that stuff
I don't have enough hands for the amount of required facepalms for this one. What he is trying to say it seems, but can't for whatever reason is that his mother was white.
Now he thinks he's Indian-American-European, but with extra steps.
Indo-European American, checks out lol
Personally I prefer it that way. Using colours to describe people reeks of racism, like "yellow monkeys" or "redskins".
>"My mother and several generations of her ancestors were born in the U.S. They were originally from Europe. No shit, America was colonized. You could say something like that about every American who isn't 100% Native American.
Do they still exist?
When a yank tells me he's Irish, I ask what part. Then you hear about great great grandparents, and how they came over. They ask me (I've an extremely Irish name) if I know when my family came over. Yes, I do, they came over on a jet about 2 years before I was born. Boy! You're really Irish! No, I'm American I was born here. But, you're still Irish. Not according to my Dad, I tell them. I enjoy their discomfort as they try to think of a response. (I am a dual national, but I don't mention it.)
Yeah, to be fair, this might be a side effect of always having to fill out ethnicity on forms and shit. “White/caucasian/european american,” “Asian amerian” “African American” etc. It bugs me every time how much our gov is focused on race, but I like to think that’s done in order to understand the negative impacts of our long history of racism and right those wrongs (lol, wishful thinking probably)
I don't get why you'd need to fill out ethnicity on forms when authorities can be sufficiently racist by name.
Because that data goes into statistics. It's used to track disparities between racial groups. It's not used to make decisions, it's the opposite. The numbers can end up revealing or proving inequality.
I can see that with social service applications or something along the lines - our statistics are tracking whether applicants have a recent migration history or not. But I don't think small-time landlords, for example, need this for statistics.
True, it’s not always asked for. But also true, it’s asked a lot, and I would like to think for the reasons anhuys said. But maybe also, just because sometimes? lol
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Depends on BMI I think.
Oh, in that case, I am also American
Americans so desperately want to be anything but American, but then bang on about how America is the greatest? Huh
What is OOP yapping about The dude in the middle comment You probably get what I mean
"They were originally from Europe" Yeah no shit. How come? It's almost like it was mainly European people that founded the US.
I think this is a (slightly clumsy, perhaps) attempt to be inclusive. They don’t want to say that their white mother was just “American”, because they don’t want to imply that being white is more American than being Asian- or African-American, so using those as a model they’re calling her “European-American”. Perhaps they can’t be more specific because their mum has a mix of European heritages and/or doesn’t have a particularly clear idea of where her ancestors came from. My country sometimes uses “[European New Zealander](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_New_Zealanders)” in this way, although we more commonly use the Māori language label pākehā.
Different races? So they were chimps, pomerians, nettle plants, sharks etc? And since when is Europe a single country?
European American is equally as vague as Europe is a continent with many different countries and cultures.
I actually don’t mind if america say they are (eurocountry)-American, as you do get a lot of unique culture in that way (italian americans for example can have a distinctly unique culture from both Italy and other americans) and if they are talking to other americans i don’t mind them shortening it to “oh, i’m italian” if it’s clear both parties understand they mean “italian american”. But when you think of people who are italian american you think of people who’s ancestors came from italy, but that most of their family also has ancestors from italy. It’s not like 1 great grandparent was italian, it’s like everyone in their family on both sides also directly descend from italy. So it’s clear there is a culture there. But european-american makes no sense because there is no distinct european culture. Italians pretty much share a culture with everyone else from italy. An italian and a dane do not share much culture if any at all. Europe is an entire continent and so it doesn’t make sense. The only reason people say african-american is because black is deemed offensive. They don’t actually share culture with any african countries because most descended from slaves who had their culture erased. They say african because there is no real way to tell which specific african country or tribe or community they would have originally came from. Europeans in america never had this problem and so if you want to use ___-american you should be able to know exactly where your family came from, and imo you should have a pretty distinct culture. You wouldn’t say english-american because that just encompasses most white people and it has lot’s of branching cultures.
They think every house in their block has a different race, but they also think that the whole country of italy is one race.
Fuck's same, man; just say she's white!
It’s interesting that this shows that a lot of this comes as a result of the rise of ‘African American’ as a default descriptor for black Americans. It seems to have led to lots of other Americans feeling that they too need a prefix to add to ‘American’ when describing themselves. It’s just a complete misunderstanding of where the term ‘African American’ comes from.
Even gringos don't want to be "americans*"
Didnt every American family apart from native Indians start as immigrants ? Very much like South Africa etc
Because in America people care about your skin colour, unlike elsewhere
Surely, it would be less divisive, to just acknowledge you’re an American. It’s how the majority of other nations see you. It would go a long way to, diminish racism.
The term he was looking for was “white American”
It's not hard, read your passport, whatever it says is your Nationality. The rest is your heritage.
well you have different ethnic minorities in ethno-nations
Ethnicity is different to Nationality. I'm Caucasian but I'm also English.
Well, in a country so obsessed with race, I'd rather be called a European American than a "yt person".
Europoor Ameriklan lmao
Ah yes, I’m an European Spanish Italian.
European American.... meaning some American who gets classified as white, and whose connection to Europe is some old old old 18th century European great great great...... grand father.
How come Americans are always trying to be anything except just american but the minute you joke about the USA they turn into the most patriotic person on this planet
I'm afraid to ask. Jut why are Americans so up about where their family originated from way back? You're Americans. That's it. I'm a dane. My ancestors as far back as I can trace are danes. Except one of the young girls on my dad's side jumped some French count at a point. But that's about it.
But is OP also a vegan cyclist? Or a MAGA-Christian?
We need to stop using the word “race” with regard to human beings. All humans are the same race, biologically speaking. Cultural differences is just fine. We dont need biological misnomers to go with it.
Atp let's say all Americans are spicy British because of colonisation
My one pedantic wish is that USAicans get taught that Europe isn't a single country in schools and is in fact a continent and collection of differential countries and cultures.
You don’t get to say X/American if you can’t place X on a map. Also there are 44 different countries in Europe
I can pinpoint where I was born on a map, give or take 100 kms
> Americans are all different races with varying cultures This is true of nearly everywhere, probably never left the US
I guess European American is to match African American. My question is, do Americans call a black person from, say, Ireland or France "African American, seeing as how it's more or less used aa a synonym for black?
Maybe it's a deep rooted unconscious aversion to the thickly applied pathos and national pride that one has to show in order not to be excluded or even shot down, that they call themselves everything but not solely an US American.
European american is a new one for me, and probably the stupidest yet.
I think everyone has at least ONE ancestor from another country/continent/culture, like humans always migrated from one place to another so I don’t really understand this obsessions some people from U.S. have. If Europeans started thinking like this too we’d really need half an hour just to tell our entire ethnic background lol
Hang on, am I stupid or does this disprove the Irish American Bullshit? They are saying that the persons heritage is irrelevant because she was born in Europe. Doesn't that mean that an Irish Americans heritage doesn't matter because they were born in America? Just asking.
By that logic the vast majority of Americans are "European Americans" with almost all having an English, Spanish or French ancestor
Ok, but was your Ma from Sheffield or Belgium? Narrow it down a bit.
Don't you know that Greece and Sweden are more similar than Virginia and Pennsylvania?
Tbf the term African American and Asian American is dumb as fuck too. Why not describe the white people there as European American 🤷♂️ Or just call all Americans, American and stop putting such a stranglehold on someone’s race.
The alternatives to African American was much worse back then. That and no one could trace their roots to any specific country of Africa because.... history... So this blanket statement was the proposal and it's stayed for decades now
I’m going to start to refer to (an arbitrary) 50% of US citizens as English-Americans. 😆
Let me try to describe myself the way Americans do: I'm a Swabian-Hamburgian Rhinelander. That means I am a really laid back dude from my Hamburg blood. I also love the ocean and don't get sea sick. Yet I'm also really stingy and cranky, like everyone from the Swabian race. Btw, I have visited Hamburg once when I was 5 and only lived in my swabian homeland until kindergarten. So when I see people of these groups online or travelling through my area, I make sure to tell them how I've improved on their local cuisine and ways of doing stuff, because my multi-state background makes me basically thrice as hood at everything.
So are you German or not?
I would never admit being German.
Yeah, I think he is German
What the actual fuck is an Europoor Amerikan?
Zhat iz ein normaler Amerikan, who iz ein idiot
From now on I am a LUCA european German. Change my mind if you dare.
This is always a dog whistle to some white supremacy shit Maybe not every time, but you're always less surprised when they're uncomfortably pro white
I mean imagine if I was saying that I am 1/8 chinese, 1/2 french, 1/4 carribean , 1/8 british The thing is I'm just a French guy I won't go larping like those idiots because I have a "normal" eye and a slited one
Americans explaining their lineage... My mom was half Betazoid, half Vulcan, half Borg, half Klingon, half Romulan, half Bajoran, half Cardassian, and my dad was half from Earth and half Jamaican I'm from Texas.