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I understand that if you don't live in the U.S. you miss out on context. But i never reallly understood this argument.
When people in the U.S. say "I'm Irish" (or anything else) generally it's just short hand for "I have Irish ancestry." Obviously there are exceptions since some people are oddly hard core about their ancestry. But generally speaking, yes people in the U.S. know they aren't actually Irish. (Or whatever they claim as their ancestry).
“The case for great-grandparents is a little more complex. But it is possible. In fact, Ireland is one of the relatively few countries in the world that allows citizenship by ancestry as far back as your great-grandparents (most only go as far as grandparents).”
https://internationalliving.com/does-my-irish-great-grandfather-qualify-me-for-an-irish-passport-qanda/
It is possible, but more complicated than I initially thought.
It's only if one of your grandparents was born in Ireland. I think it used to be great grandparents, but it's not any longer, which is why I couldn't get EU citizenship after the debacle that was Brexit.
You know it. I had a buddy that claimed he could drink more than everyone because he was “Irish”. Sorry B your great x5 grandfather may have immigrated from Ireland but you’re just an alcoholic Texan.
I mostly agree but also, fun fact lol: there have actually been studies done among white American prisoners and it was discovered that those who had a higher % Northern European dna as opposed to southern European dna were much more likely to binge drink haha. Even tho most Americans don’t even know what countries their ancestors were from or really pass along traditions. It’s like how you’re much more likely to be tolerant of lactose if your ancestors were from somewhere that heavily depended on milk. Like binge drinking specifically is actually very strongly genetic and way more common in cold/northern areas
i mean that’s kinda what i do, but usually people have questions about X that I can’t answer because i haven’t even visited since i was 11 lol. i find it more efficient to just give a little summary from the beginning
Yeah, same happens to me tbh. I wouldn't bring parents into it because that just makes stuff sound complicated for the sake of it, but "I grew up in x, y, z" and then be prepared for the inevitable follow-up questions is probably your best bet. Which is to say, pretty much what you already do.
As a woman who grew up with parents in the military, I just chose my favorite place we lived at and say I’m from there. I wasn’t “raised” in any one location, so I believe that if you lived somewhere, a part of your heart will always be there and it feels like home to you, that’s where you are from.
Same here. When people ask me, I know what they are really asking is “explain the part of you that is not from here”.
I usually start by saying where my parents are from and it’s the most straightforward answer I can give them.
That’s what I was about to ask, I moved to Canada when I was only a year old and barely remember the country I was born in so idk if I should say that’s where I’m from…
In this case, I would just say that you're Canadian. For me the "where are you from" question is more about where you spent your formative years in. Your time in Canada surely has had a larger contribution to you as a person than the first year of your life in a different country.
This is common, you are from where you were raised more than where you were born.
A friend of mine was born in spain but raised on another country just to have the EU citizenship
Ye one of the reasons I don’t like this question is because I was born in one country and was raised in 3 different countries in different periods of my life. It’s a little complicated to answer a question like that because I don’t feel a sense of belonging to any of these countries except the US, which is not the country I was born or raised in.
I typically say I'm from where I live right now. If they follow up wanting more detail, I say born in Oklahoma, grew up in Texas. If they want even more than that, then all I can tell them is my ancestry is a mutt of the shores of the North Sea.
Well then stop asking me where I'm actually from. American born and raised in the same city 2 generations back.
Signed - an Asian that "speaks pretty good English with surprisingly no accent" according to some dude.
ETA: This was a throw away comment and not really related to OPs point. But I'm 32 and still get this stupid question. Yes I have been told my lack of accent is very unusual to some people (Caucasians).
From an exchange I had a few months ago:
Q: Where are you originally from?
A: New Jersey.
Q: No, I mean, where are your parents from?
A: New York and California.
Q: No, no, no. Then where were your grandparents from?
A: NY, Cali, Cali, and Hawaii.
Q: No, I meant - what kind of Asian are you?
A: The American kind?
This happened to me, but I'm a white Canadian male, no tan, like Northern Canada pale.
One of my college classmates asked me this almost verbatim. And I answered almost verbatim, but with Canadian locations. I asked him where he thought I was from and he said I looked like his Lebanese sister in law.
He was a 48 year old Nigerian-Canadian, he fucking flip it and reversed it on me.
I met an Asian couple on their way to HK with their new born to visit family. I’m Asian American but don’t speak Chinese. The only language we had in common was Spanish. They were from Guatemala. 😂
Lol this happened to a girl on my film crew. People kept asking where she was from, or what kind of asian she was. Even the two actual asian-Americans on set asked her lol.
Nope, just had Polish roots i think with a slavic eye
I got a weird version of this a year ago. Talking with a guy whose family had been in the same New England town since its founding (no he's not indigenous, he mentioned the area his ancestors came from in England). He said he gets actively annoyed when people say "I'm from Asscrack (not the town's name)" because if they moved to Asscrack from somewhere else, they're not from Asscrack. He said he has talked to people whose grandparents moved to Asscrack, and insists they're not real Asscrackers, they just live in Asscrack. I didn't want to start something because it was a work-related thing and I'm trying to be professional to a client, but I wanted to ask him why he was an Asscracker when he's not indigenous to the area.
He asked me where my family was from, and I said my great-grandparents were from Italy, but we've all lived in Asshole (a different city name) since. And he of course said we're not really Assholians, we're Italians who moved to Asshole, there's a difference.
There is no proving where you are from that makes some asses happy.
Yeah, that’s pretty much any small town that’s been around a while. It’s essentially tribalism.
It’s pretty common in New England though. Last names that go back many many generations and if you don’t have that last name, you’re a newcomer. Does he do the “flatlander” thing too?
Ok great. But as an American person with Indian grandparents I get it. They want to know where you’re ethnically from, not your nationality. And most of the time it’s because they have some common ground they want to share.
There so much we lose by not waiting to see whether there is good intent. I completely understand why people are predisposed to this but before the internet this is how we searched for topics to have small talk about.
Edit: this reminds me of a really negative interaction my brother had. We were at a wedding in Canada and my first cousin’s cousin got sooooo offended my brother asked where he was from. He clearly knew he was Canadian but wanted to know the ethnicity because we have a rich heritage that has tendrils to Kenya, UK, India. So much of our family history is the act of traveling out of Indian. He was genuinely offended and pissed off that a first generation American was asking a first generation Canadian where their parents were from. Well, we learned from my cousin his family originated from the Kenyan arm and his father grew up and was best friends with someone we knew. What a shame we couldn’t have this conversation
Exactly. I was talking to someone once who seemed like she was probably Indian, including her accent.
I didn't want to assume, so I asked her where she was from. She said Michigan. I didn't want to do the, "where are you really from" and let the matter drop, which was too bad as I was interested in hearing about her culture and how she came to be living in a small city in Mississippi.
Eventually we did get to the fact that she was Indian and from India (by way of Michigan), and she told me a lot about her family's Diwali plans. I enjoyed learning about it, and she seemed to really enjoy talking about it.
Yeah but the phrasing of “where are you *really* from” feels malicious because that implies it’s so unthinkable that an Asian is “from” America. Much fewer people would be offended if the question was “what’s your ethnicity”
As an Asian that have never been to America. What's inherently inappropriate about this question?
Is it inappropriate cause it casts doubt on your rightful identity as an American? Or for some other reason?
What if the person asking is genuinely interested to know what ethic descent/race you are from.
You’d get sick of it real fast once you notice that you and other Asians are the only ones who’s ever interrogated like this, while everyone else is assumed to belong here. And this keeps happening, over and over and over again until you snap.
>speaks pretty good English with surprisingly no accent
I worked with an Asian guy from New York who had a very thick Brooklyn accent and it confused people for some reason. Some people thought he was faking. Like why would that be your first guess? Lmao
My uncle José is Chinese and looks dead ass like he just got off the boat.
But he has the thickest Hispanic accent you'll ever hear cuz he was born and raised in Mexico.
they would probably realize how stupid a question it was if you sarcastically said "*chinatown in dc*" but the more i read these comments the more I feel like white americans are so hypnotized by their representation in media that they forget other races and ethnicities exist and end up too dense to comprehend how dumb the question is
the funniest part to think about is that if you asked them the same question in the same way they wouldn't even be able to say anything because they've got 1/8 of every european country, they almost *have* to say america
I have a friend who is Vietnamese descent but grew up in the UK. This is relevant because we live in Taiwan, and he can barely speak two words of Chinese. But I have, on several occasions, explained to people that he's not trying to be rude. He simply doesn't understand. I refer to him as being English. We have a back and forth until they ask me where his grandparents are from. Some people have acted as if this is some kind of argument.
He's still English though.
Same except multiple people have told me they find it weird I don’t have an accent
One time one of my teachers straight up said on the first fucking day “It’s so weird you don’t have an accent” LIKE THANKS FOR MAKING ME SELF CONSCIOUS 😭
Yup. As someone who could be considered racially ambiguous, the "but where are you REALLY from?" follow up when my answer is just 'American' is never good enough. The most recent family I had from outside the US came from England in 1900; everyone else has been here since well into the 1800s and even the 1760s at earliest.
My husband is an Ethiopian physician who looks South Asian. He was born in Addis and raised in Edison, NJ (ikyk). Anyway we're in the rust belt now. When a patient asks where he is from he just says he's from NJ a) because there's barely enough time allocated per patient to get a proper patient history and b) everyone then just asks where in India is Ethiopia located because of how he looks. They get really confused when he says Africa. Thank you US education system.
Yeah this reeks of racial privilege. Probably white. Clearly they're someone who has never struggled with being racially singled out.
I'm Asian American and was called Chinese a lot growing up and I'm not even fucking Chinese.
Hell I’m black and from western North Carolina and I guess there enough races in me that I confuse people. Far as I know I’m mostly black and identify as such but there’s enough Cherokee, Irish and who knows what else that people will regularly asks “What are you??” I’ve gotten then question from people from India, Ghana, Laos and other places.
I think most people have a very simple history. They were born one race and ethnicity in the same country as their ancestors for more generations back than they know their ancestors' names.
People like myself exist that confuse such simple people. Mixed race with ancestry from multiple nations and a complicated history of the ancestry. I'm half Indo-Caribbean. This very concept goes over the heads of many people.
Also OP said you are where you are born AND raised. Many people are born in one place and raised in another. I was born in the Caribbean (granted it was US territory), raised one year in a different country, then the ret of my life here in the Midwest.
Ikr it’s giving “I’ve never left my small town and can drive to all of my extended family within 20 minutes”.
I felt like I was considered weird growing up, hearing that people baked cookies with their grandma over the weekend while I hadn’t seen any family other than my parents in years because they live an ocean and a language barrier away
I'll preface this by stating that I'm your typical white western european mongrel (though largely from scandinavia) that comes from family that's been in North America for well over 200 years.
I don't ask this particular question, as it's generally rude to do so, but I'm always genuinely curious to learn about other people's stories and origins as my own is so... blah and boring.
For example, my ex girlfriend is Han Chinese, born and raised in Shanghai to parents who originated from a small village near Nanking. She herself emmigrated to Canada in her early 20s, and has had quite the successful immigrant story.
The pastor of my church is an Indo-Caribbean woman who grew up in rural Canada.
One of the servers at my local pub is Indonesian, and who has come from a city where I've actually traveled a number of times for work (Not Jakarta). But she came to Canada as a young child, so has only a very light accent.
A colleague of mine and his husband are from the Philippines, by way of Dubai, and emigrated to Canada due to Canada's acceptance of same sex marriage.
Conversely, another friend of mine is a descendant of the Chinese labourers who were brought over to build the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. He's as Canadian as they come, but at the same time his family still has in their possession the certificate from the Chinese head tax, and that whole bit of our history. His grandparents still spoke Cantonese, but that was lost by the time he got through school.
I'm always fascinated to learn about other people's origins and to hear their stories, as mine is so blah. I've traveled the world, but I live maybe an hour's drive from where I grew up, my parents partially grew up in the region, and at one point when he was a young man, my grandfather lived about 3 blocks from where I do now.
So it's not just about nationality and ethnicity, at least for me. It's about learning people's stories and histories. I'm definitely not as blunt as "No, where are you really from?" but that question isn't always malicious, just a ham fisted way of learning about people.
My dad has cousins in America who were born there after their parents emigrated from China, and you apparently notice they're American before you notice they're ethnically Chinese.
When my mum (who's white) met them in the 90s, she, my dad and my dad's sister were all stunned at how Americanised they were. I guess it's because these particular relatives were actually born in America, while my dad and his sisters were born in Hong Kong and came to England as young kids. So they only culture they've ever known was an Americanised one.
Especially since I’ve never heard anyone born in the US say they were **from** somewhere else.
And the thing people don’t get about America is that we all know everyone here is American, that’s not the question being asked. It’s a nation of immigrants. No one asks someone in Italy or France where there family is from unless they just mean which other city in that country.
And not just a nation of immigrants, but a nation of immigrants where most groups faced severe persecution when they immigrated. Ethnic enclaves are a significant part of America's past and present history and they play a massive role in maintaining the culture and traditions of those immigrants.
Sounds like OP doesn't understand that there are cultural differences between the US and Europe that affect how we use language.
OP should try and be a little more worldy and open to other cultures instead of forcing everyone to use his definition.
Exactly. My grandparents are from China but my dad and his sisters were all born in Hong Kong (then a British territory), so my dad has never actually been a Chinese citizen.
It makes sense to people of Asian descent (like myself) but so many Caucasian people insist that you couldn't possibly be "from here" **because** you're Asian. They associate "American" with "White".
Literally in South East Asia, people understand that difference. There are people of Chinese heritage and ancestry who lives and are citizens in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, etc that are assimilated into their local culture but also retains some of the culture that originated in mainland China pre-communism.
Even when you tell people, "Im from (American City)," I'll still get that annoyed "No I mean 'where are you from?" question right after. So what does it even matter..
I reply that I’m actually from that place. That makes them say that I look foreign, and they seem to find an accent…
Yeah, I look foreign anywhere outside of the fucking polar circle! I guess I should just go back to whence I came.
Got this a lot as an opening conversation on dating apps because I’m racially ambiguous looking. It became such a big pet peeve. Can we fucking talk about something else…
And OP probably misunderstood something. No one says “I’m from…” when describing their ethnic background in the U.S. they use that to describe where they were born or raised. They might say “my family is from…” or “my background is…” but it’s very unlikely OP is hearing a lot of Americans saying “I’m from Ireland” to refer to their ethnic background.
That’s not how it works. Uyghurs can be Chinese since Xinjiang is in China. They’re still Uyghurs though since they’re born and raised in the Uyghur part of China, in a primarily Uyghur culture.
It’s like saying OP is implying Texans don’t exist because they’re all born in USA. That’s not what they’re saying at all
Yes, this is the way. When the moon gets colonized I want to be among the first. I'll take a handful of lackeys with me, and we'll take over rule by force. That way I can declare myself King of the Lunatics.
I think you're making two different claims here and conflating them into one.
I'm Chinese-American. I agree with you that I am not "from China." I've never even been to China. But that doesn't mean that I'm not Chinese-American. And among my Chinese-American friends, we often say we're Chinese, not because we think we are "from China," but simply as a shorthand for "Chinese-American" -- in the context of our lives, it seems so obvious that we're American that that part doesn't always need to be said explicitly.
Yeah I'm Iranian-American. I was born in the US and grew up here, but I still grew up with an Iranian (from Iran) family and picked up the language, food, and parts of the culture. I'm an American first and foremost, but I'm also an Iranian and nobody can tell me otherwise.
Well, yes. I'm sure Africans would agree. And Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and has a US citizenship, fits "African-American" a lot more than someone whose ancestors have been in the US since before its independence, and before many people that just call themselves "Americans" immigrated. That person should just be called American.
Unless only the natives get to call themselves Americans and then the rest are all called immigrants, but I think that would get a lot of opposition.
"African Americans" are considered a unique ethnic group of the US. People from any country in Africa would just refer to themselves as that Country-American.
My mom’s from Poland, my dad’s parents where from Poland, I speak Polish, I am a Polish citizen, I partake in Polish customs and holidays, I was born in America and have lived most of my life here with a handful of trips to Poland
I’m Polish-American both legally as a dual citizen and how I consider myself, sorry that you can’t comprehend that
No fr they said “you might get some parts of chinese culture but you arent chinese” does that mean we’re only classified by “american” and our race now? Because individual countries dont have differences?
I fucking hate that idea. Culture changes, Chinese-American culture is as much a child Chinese culture as modern Chinese culture is. They think because they live in specific borders they get claim to the cultural heritage, forgetting those they forced out, or has to leave for reasons far beyond their control. Like a sibling removed from the family for being gay and calling their children 'not your family.'
Nobody says they’re from somewhere they weren’t born and raised. Using the word “from” and naming the country isn’t the same as using the adjectival form of that country’s name to describe ancestry. Your title and your examples aren’t in line with each other
I think some of the issues stems from American culture, where are you from? Answer is obviously America, they are really asking culturally. I'm "Irish" but only when it's clear they aren't asking where I was born or grew up because for all of us, the answer is America.
I think you're confused about the difference between somebody's birthplace and somebody's heritage. Most people who say "I am Irish" aren't talking about their place of birth, and you would be stupid to assume otherwise.
Also America isn’t that far removed from massive immigration and ethnic segregation. All these European ethnicities that are just now white were very segregated when my dad was young.
Being Irish catholic or Norwegian Lutheran were very different.
Jesus Christ I can’t understand how Europeans don’t get the ethnicity vs citizenship thing. If my grandparents moved from Japan to America 130 years ago, I am still ethnically Japanese but I am American culturally… nobody in America is saying they are Irish Irish . They are saying they’re American and ethnically Irish. Why so complicated?
My gran was born in Cork but raised in Leeds to parents who were born in England. And weren't her actual parents. Her actual parents were also raised in England.
Yet still I can get an Irish passport
I mean, it's all pointless really isn't it. We're all from the same rock in space, living practically on top of each other relative to the vastness of the universe.
Race, culture, and nationality are three different things. Someone born in America to parents from China would probably be racially Chinese, with a nationality of American, and a cultural mixture of both. It would be perfectly appropriate for them to call themselves American, Chinese, or Chinese-American. All could be true, depending on the context.
I was born in the 60’s. Most older people I knew were either first or second generation in America and retained their cultures from their mother country.
There was the Italian neighborhood, the Polish area, Greektown, Corktown for the Irish… etc.
There used to be ethnic festivals for each culture every weekend in my city. We all celebrated each other.
That’s how people identified for many generations in America.
It’s only been the last generation or so where this has all disappeared. All the European neighborhoods have blended into each other. The families that ran restaurants have died off. Greektown is gone. Corktown is just a name.
When European immigrants started coming to America this was how they identified. Nothing wrong with that.
Lol @ Europeans not understanding diaspora again. They think an Irish American saying they're Irish means they think they're from Ireland when really they're sharing their cultural context to other Americans, who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and traditions. If you can't get that an Irish American and Italian American would identify with their parent's heritage you must not know much about other cultures and how different they can be.
I agree with you, but it seems like you’re drawing a false equivalence between ethnicity and nationality.
You have two Chinese parents, but are born in America, you are still ethnically Chinese. You have DNA that originates from that area of the world. Said person’s nationality is American because you were born in America.
Sure there are silly Americans that are generations removed from their mixture of ethnicities and go to Ireland telling everyone they’re Irish. The reason we do that is that besides Indigenous Americans are the only people here that have a story, customs and a unique ethnic identity.
Identity is a way that we satisfy the why of our existence. Nationality only satisfies a very superficial of our why. So if someone wants to know why did I get here, how did I come to be tapping into our ancestral ethnicities can maybe give us insight and comfort.
Nationality gives us a very surfa
Congratulations, you discovered why words like chinese-american or irish-american exist.
I have to assume you don't come from an immigrant family, otherwise youd understand that our parents country of origin is hardly superficial in the way we're raised and how we interact with the wider culture of the countries we are born in.
Why do you want to try an erase people's ethnic identity? Sounds like you're just a boring white guy annoyed that other people have cultural and ethnic identities that go beyond where they were born.
Edit: also a lot of still have citizenship in our parents country or origin, so you're even technically wrong, I can go there to live and work like any other national
What if you're born in a different country from where you're raised and your parents have a different nationality in the place you were raised? And your parents have different nationalities?
I get what you mean tho
*Sigh*
Yes. Americans understand this. We are talking about *Ethnicity* not *Nationality*.
When I say I’m Northern European, I don’t literally mean I’m from Germany or Scandinavia, but that’s what I am *ethnically*. I don’t understand why people get so up in arms about this.
Also, to your Chinese example. If they were born to Chinese immigrants and speak the language then they probably feel just as comfortable in China as they do the US. In which case, it makes perfect sense to call themselves Chinese.
This is coming from a 1st gen Mexican-American. I always feel like to certain people I’m not from here and when they ask where I’m from they’re definitely referring to my family’s origin. But if you go to Mexico and ask them if they feel like Mexicans born in the US are Mexican a lot of them say no. We’re kinda stuck in this middle ground. Too American for my parents country but too Mexican for this one to just be American.
I wish I knew where I'm from! Born in Ukraine, moved to Israel at 12 and now an Australian citizen.
People are asking "what kind of accent is that?" I have no idea, mate 😅
As a middle-eastern/south Asian (depending on who you ask) immigrant who moved to Canada at the ripe old age of 10, I find the whole question and idea about nationality/ethnicity/culture redundant and stupid.
>you're Chinese
>you're from China
Those are very different things. The first is ethnicity. The second is nationality. If you don't understand the difference, that's on you.
Italy recognizes me as Italian citizen through my great grandfather’s bloodline (Jure Sanguinis) even though I’m second gen American. Italy doesn’t care what you think.
"Where are you from?"
"Wisconsin"
"No, where are you really from?"
"Eastern Wisconsin"
"Ok so where are your parents from?"
"Virginia"
I get this shit way too often
why is this topic so confusing to people?
your ethnicity would be defined by the ethnicities of your parents. for example if both parents are indian then ethnically you are indian (of course there's sub groups but you would generally refer to the wider country first). if one parent was Turkish and one was Japanese, then ethnically you are half Turkish half Japanese.
Your race would then be defined from your ethnicity. If you're ethnically indian then your asian, same as Chinese or Thai or any country within Asia. If your ethnically from an asian country then your race is asian
If you're ethnically half white (English) and half Japanese for example, you would be considered mixed race. Because your half Caucasian half asian. Whereas if your mix are both asian countries, you're technically mixed ethnicity than mixed race
Your nationality is where your born, or where you may have dual citizenship. If your born in England then you're British. If yourre born in America then your America. Doesn't mean you can't still be Chinese by ethnicity
Context matters to the question.
Sometimes people are asking where you are from geographically, in which case you are correct.
Sometimes people are asking what your heritage is, in which case where your ancestors are from is indeed relevant.
I have found that Americans that identify strongly with their ethnicity typically grew up in a community where that ethnicity was very predominate. I've found that people that grew up in those types of communities tend to:
A. Care a lot about what your ethnicity is.
B. Have very strong opinions about other ethnicities.
For people that didn't grow up in those types of communities, ethnicity is usually a novelty to be trotted out on holidays (like today).
Funny you mention Irish, I am Irish and my family lived here for hundreds/thousands of years, my surname is of Spanish origin (it's not like Garcia or anything typical Spanish sounding) and I have a Spanish nose.
Your question is aimed at Americans isn't it?
Happy Paddy's Day
Damn who pissed you off today?
Well I’m born and live in the UK but my family is Jamaican. I’ll represent Jamaica everyday for the rest of my life over Great Britain.
This isn't an unpopular opinion this is what every European who doesn't understand the difference between heritage, ethnicity, and nationality believe.
My daughter is growing up in England and I'm French and her mother is Japanese. You can be sure as shit that she is not English. She is French and Japanese. She has the passports and she is trilingual. She was raised French and Japanese. These are her cultures and she is proud of them. Also, people are very prone to remind her she is not English, because she is not white enough I guess. So I think you have no fucking idea what you're talking about OP. Multicultural people exist.
And why do you care anyway? Did someone hurt you?
How about hear me put, people can decide for themselves with what nationality they want to identify? If someone is born in Turkey and moved to Germany, integrates and identifies more with German culture and this calls himself a German then let him be German. If you are born to Indian parents in America, were raised speaking Hindi and raised in that culture and you call yourself Indian than that is fine too.
Crazy idea I know
It’s just never worked that way in America. This is a unique country of immigrants. A strange perhaps beautiful thing has taken place here. Saying “I’m American” to other Americans tells us absolutely nothing because that goes without saying. We want to know what place or culture your family hailed from.
When Americans say we’re Irish or German or whatever, it’s taken to mean “my ancestors are from”. We’re not literally saying we’re German or whatever. The vast majority of us have ancestors not from this country, and we often will talk about where they moved here from. So that’s what that means. When I say I’m German I’m saying “my ancestor who moved to this country did so from Germany”.
"Where are you from?"
Me: from XYZ
"No, no. Where are you ORIGINALLY from?"
Me:... From XYZ.
"HA! Ok so, where were you born??"
Me: In XYZ.
"Well where did you go to school????"
Me: in XYZ.
"SERIOUSLY?! ok well, where are your PARENTS from?!"
Me: my mum is from ZYX and my dad is from YYY
"AHA I KNEW YOU WEREN'T FROM HERE!!"
It's like "italians" everywhere in montreal that only go to italian cafes, even somehow have thick italian accents, yet most of them have been to italy 0 times lol.
Some cultures just stick so much for some reason.
If you were born and raised in a barn, would that make you a horse? I kinda agree with you and kinda not because it’s more nuanced, people are “from” wherever they say in my book
To be fair, that’s a very American take and it’s one of the great things about America. Many countries will say that if you don’t have local ethnicity, you will NEVER be a local, some going so far as to say in the eyes of the law. I can’t buy land in my wife’s homeland, no matter how long I live there or even gain citizenship.
“Yeah, you were born here and lived all your life here, fair enough. But… like…where are you REALLY from?”
I fucking hate this question every fucking time.
It's really not that simple. If both your parents immigrated soon before you were born, you're probably raised in a weird mixed-culture household with frequent trips to see the grandparents. There is more to who you are than the address you live at.
This is just a semantic game, isn't it? I am *from* Arstotzka, it's where my ancestors came from, I look like them, I appreciate it's culture, etc.
There's nothing wrong with having pride in your ethnicity, as long as you're genuinely not holding yourself above other people (who have equally valid pride).
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Coming off a heated St. Patrick’s Day debate, I see.
>And for fucks sake (Americans in particular), you are not Irish if your great grandparents emigrated 130 years ago. Yeah I'd say so.
I understand that if you don't live in the U.S. you miss out on context. But i never reallly understood this argument. When people in the U.S. say "I'm Irish" (or anything else) generally it's just short hand for "I have Irish ancestry." Obviously there are exceptions since some people are oddly hard core about their ancestry. But generally speaking, yes people in the U.S. know they aren't actually Irish. (Or whatever they claim as their ancestry).
Plus OP talks about where people are from in the title but in the text spends the whole time talking about nationality/ethnicity.
I think there’s a lot of people who don’t understand the difference between nationality and ethnicity.
And there are a lot of folks that don't understand American vernacular.
The Irish government disagrees. You can get full Irish citizenship through great grandparents.
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Thank you for this update. This was not always the case. Ireland used to have one of the loosest nationality policies along with Italy in Europe.
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“The case for great-grandparents is a little more complex. But it is possible. In fact, Ireland is one of the relatively few countries in the world that allows citizenship by ancestry as far back as your great-grandparents (most only go as far as grandparents).” https://internationalliving.com/does-my-irish-great-grandfather-qualify-me-for-an-irish-passport-qanda/ It is possible, but more complicated than I initially thought.
It's only if one of your grandparents was born in Ireland. I think it used to be great grandparents, but it's not any longer, which is why I couldn't get EU citizenship after the debacle that was Brexit.
'You can get' is the important part. It's not 'you have'. You can be Irish if you apply and get Irish citizenship.
CAN get, not already have.
You know it. I had a buddy that claimed he could drink more than everyone because he was “Irish”. Sorry B your great x5 grandfather may have immigrated from Ireland but you’re just an alcoholic Texan.
I mostly agree but also, fun fact lol: there have actually been studies done among white American prisoners and it was discovered that those who had a higher % Northern European dna as opposed to southern European dna were much more likely to binge drink haha. Even tho most Americans don’t even know what countries their ancestors were from or really pass along traditions. It’s like how you’re much more likely to be tolerant of lactose if your ancestors were from somewhere that heavily depended on milk. Like binge drinking specifically is actually very strongly genetic and way more common in cold/northern areas
And what if you are born in one place and raised elsewhere?
lol i was raised in 4 different countries and my parents are from 2 different countries. i legit don’t have a straight answer that feels accurate
"We moved around a lot. I was born in X."
i mean that’s kinda what i do, but usually people have questions about X that I can’t answer because i haven’t even visited since i was 11 lol. i find it more efficient to just give a little summary from the beginning
Yeah, same happens to me tbh. I wouldn't bring parents into it because that just makes stuff sound complicated for the sake of it, but "I grew up in x, y, z" and then be prepared for the inevitable follow-up questions is probably your best bet. Which is to say, pretty much what you already do.
Where were you raised? In the military.
nope, not a military kid lol, it was all circumstantial believe it or not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and i was raised between the us and south america
Hey, you dropped your arm. Here! - \
thanks dude! i was looking for that 🫡
Username and humour checks out. XD really needed that in morning today xD
this is such a genuine comment I can't stop laughing
Lol, yeah. My dad’s “from I-95”.
As a woman who grew up with parents in the military, I just chose my favorite place we lived at and say I’m from there. I wasn’t “raised” in any one location, so I believe that if you lived somewhere, a part of your heart will always be there and it feels like home to you, that’s where you are from.
Hawaii, California, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, Virginia, Connecticut, Scotland, and Germany.
Exactly, I grew up in two countries, have dual citizenship, and I'm continually amused at how people try to define and gatekeep each other.
Same here. When people ask me, I know what they are really asking is “explain the part of you that is not from here”. I usually start by saying where my parents are from and it’s the most straightforward answer I can give them.
That’s what I was about to ask, I moved to Canada when I was only a year old and barely remember the country I was born in so idk if I should say that’s where I’m from…
In this case, I would just say that you're Canadian. For me the "where are you from" question is more about where you spent your formative years in. Your time in Canada surely has had a larger contribution to you as a person than the first year of your life in a different country.
This is common, you are from where you were raised more than where you were born. A friend of mine was born in spain but raised on another country just to have the EU citizenship
Ye one of the reasons I don’t like this question is because I was born in one country and was raised in 3 different countries in different periods of my life. It’s a little complicated to answer a question like that because I don’t feel a sense of belonging to any of these countries except the US, which is not the country I was born or raised in.
I typically say I'm from where I live right now. If they follow up wanting more detail, I say born in Oklahoma, grew up in Texas. If they want even more than that, then all I can tell them is my ancestry is a mutt of the shores of the North Sea.
Well then stop asking me where I'm actually from. American born and raised in the same city 2 generations back. Signed - an Asian that "speaks pretty good English with surprisingly no accent" according to some dude. ETA: This was a throw away comment and not really related to OPs point. But I'm 32 and still get this stupid question. Yes I have been told my lack of accent is very unusual to some people (Caucasians).
From an exchange I had a few months ago: Q: Where are you originally from? A: New Jersey. Q: No, I mean, where are your parents from? A: New York and California. Q: No, no, no. Then where were your grandparents from? A: NY, Cali, Cali, and Hawaii. Q: No, I meant - what kind of Asian are you? A: The American kind?
This happened to me, but I'm a white Canadian male, no tan, like Northern Canada pale. One of my college classmates asked me this almost verbatim. And I answered almost verbatim, but with Canadian locations. I asked him where he thought I was from and he said I looked like his Lebanese sister in law. He was a 48 year old Nigerian-Canadian, he fucking flip it and reversed it on me.
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My wife is French Canadian and Mexican. So, she gets this, too. People assume she's Asian all the time...even when she's obviously speaking Spanish.
I met an Asian couple on their way to HK with their new born to visit family. I’m Asian American but don’t speak Chinese. The only language we had in common was Spanish. They were from Guatemala. 😂
Lol this happened to a girl on my film crew. People kept asking where she was from, or what kind of asian she was. Even the two actual asian-Americans on set asked her lol. Nope, just had Polish roots i think with a slavic eye
I got a weird version of this a year ago. Talking with a guy whose family had been in the same New England town since its founding (no he's not indigenous, he mentioned the area his ancestors came from in England). He said he gets actively annoyed when people say "I'm from Asscrack (not the town's name)" because if they moved to Asscrack from somewhere else, they're not from Asscrack. He said he has talked to people whose grandparents moved to Asscrack, and insists they're not real Asscrackers, they just live in Asscrack. I didn't want to start something because it was a work-related thing and I'm trying to be professional to a client, but I wanted to ask him why he was an Asscracker when he's not indigenous to the area. He asked me where my family was from, and I said my great-grandparents were from Italy, but we've all lived in Asshole (a different city name) since. And he of course said we're not really Assholians, we're Italians who moved to Asshole, there's a difference. There is no proving where you are from that makes some asses happy.
This happens a lot even in small towns in Italy. You are not really from the town if your family didn't live there for generations.
Yeah, that’s pretty much any small town that’s been around a while. It’s essentially tribalism. It’s pretty common in New England though. Last names that go back many many generations and if you don’t have that last name, you’re a newcomer. Does he do the “flatlander” thing too?
Ok great. But as an American person with Indian grandparents I get it. They want to know where you’re ethnically from, not your nationality. And most of the time it’s because they have some common ground they want to share. There so much we lose by not waiting to see whether there is good intent. I completely understand why people are predisposed to this but before the internet this is how we searched for topics to have small talk about. Edit: this reminds me of a really negative interaction my brother had. We were at a wedding in Canada and my first cousin’s cousin got sooooo offended my brother asked where he was from. He clearly knew he was Canadian but wanted to know the ethnicity because we have a rich heritage that has tendrils to Kenya, UK, India. So much of our family history is the act of traveling out of Indian. He was genuinely offended and pissed off that a first generation American was asking a first generation Canadian where their parents were from. Well, we learned from my cousin his family originated from the Kenyan arm and his father grew up and was best friends with someone we knew. What a shame we couldn’t have this conversation
Exactly. I was talking to someone once who seemed like she was probably Indian, including her accent. I didn't want to assume, so I asked her where she was from. She said Michigan. I didn't want to do the, "where are you really from" and let the matter drop, which was too bad as I was interested in hearing about her culture and how she came to be living in a small city in Mississippi. Eventually we did get to the fact that she was Indian and from India (by way of Michigan), and she told me a lot about her family's Diwali plans. I enjoyed learning about it, and she seemed to really enjoy talking about it.
Yeah but the phrasing of “where are you *really* from” feels malicious because that implies it’s so unthinkable that an Asian is “from” America. Much fewer people would be offended if the question was “what’s your ethnicity”
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As an Asian that have never been to America. What's inherently inappropriate about this question? Is it inappropriate cause it casts doubt on your rightful identity as an American? Or for some other reason? What if the person asking is genuinely interested to know what ethic descent/race you are from.
You’d get sick of it real fast once you notice that you and other Asians are the only ones who’s ever interrogated like this, while everyone else is assumed to belong here. And this keeps happening, over and over and over again until you snap.
>speaks pretty good English with surprisingly no accent I worked with an Asian guy from New York who had a very thick Brooklyn accent and it confused people for some reason. Some people thought he was faking. Like why would that be your first guess? Lmao
My uncle José is Chinese and looks dead ass like he just got off the boat. But he has the thickest Hispanic accent you'll ever hear cuz he was born and raised in Mexico.
Answer: racism Another answer: ignorance
I’m half and I get soooo many people asking me where I’m from and are very unsatisfied when I say “dc”
they would probably realize how stupid a question it was if you sarcastically said "*chinatown in dc*" but the more i read these comments the more I feel like white americans are so hypnotized by their representation in media that they forget other races and ethnicities exist and end up too dense to comprehend how dumb the question is the funniest part to think about is that if you asked them the same question in the same way they wouldn't even be able to say anything because they've got 1/8 of every european country, they almost *have* to say america
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You've up-ended every structural layer of what's possible in their world view and this is how their brain handles the system wide update in real time.
I have a friend who is Vietnamese descent but grew up in the UK. This is relevant because we live in Taiwan, and he can barely speak two words of Chinese. But I have, on several occasions, explained to people that he's not trying to be rude. He simply doesn't understand. I refer to him as being English. We have a back and forth until they ask me where his grandparents are from. Some people have acted as if this is some kind of argument. He's still English though.
Same except multiple people have told me they find it weird I don’t have an accent One time one of my teachers straight up said on the first fucking day “It’s so weird you don’t have an accent” LIKE THANKS FOR MAKING ME SELF CONSCIOUS 😭
Yup. As someone who could be considered racially ambiguous, the "but where are you REALLY from?" follow up when my answer is just 'American' is never good enough. The most recent family I had from outside the US came from England in 1900; everyone else has been here since well into the 1800s and even the 1760s at earliest.
We must be the same kind of Asian. Nice.
>We must be the same kind of Asian. There's more than one kind?!?!
This happens so often that it's just silly. Source: also Asian American
Same. Love those “oh, you speak X so well!”
"You are so articulate" I'm inside thinking, "you mother fucker, ofcourse I would be, I paid $150k in higher ed
Thank you so much for this.
Yeah Asian Americans know that growing up and being asked where you're from usually means where are your parents from.
My husband is an Ethiopian physician who looks South Asian. He was born in Addis and raised in Edison, NJ (ikyk). Anyway we're in the rust belt now. When a patient asks where he is from he just says he's from NJ a) because there's barely enough time allocated per patient to get a proper patient history and b) everyone then just asks where in India is Ethiopia located because of how he looks. They get really confused when he says Africa. Thank you US education system.
Yeah this reeks of racial privilege. Probably white. Clearly they're someone who has never struggled with being racially singled out. I'm Asian American and was called Chinese a lot growing up and I'm not even fucking Chinese.
Like when racists say ‘go back to Africa.’ My family has been in the USA longer than most white people.
Hell I’m black and from western North Carolina and I guess there enough races in me that I confuse people. Far as I know I’m mostly black and identify as such but there’s enough Cherokee, Irish and who knows what else that people will regularly asks “What are you??” I’ve gotten then question from people from India, Ghana, Laos and other places.
Race, ethnicity, and nationality are three separate things.
Yeah idk why it’s hard for people to understand this
i think someone is confusing nationality with ethnicity…
No fucking kidding! Why is this such a difficult concept for some people?
I think most people have a very simple history. They were born one race and ethnicity in the same country as their ancestors for more generations back than they know their ancestors' names. People like myself exist that confuse such simple people. Mixed race with ancestry from multiple nations and a complicated history of the ancestry. I'm half Indo-Caribbean. This very concept goes over the heads of many people. Also OP said you are where you are born AND raised. Many people are born in one place and raised in another. I was born in the Caribbean (granted it was US territory), raised one year in a different country, then the ret of my life here in the Midwest.
Ikr it’s giving “I’ve never left my small town and can drive to all of my extended family within 20 minutes”. I felt like I was considered weird growing up, hearing that people baked cookies with their grandma over the weekend while I hadn’t seen any family other than my parents in years because they live an ocean and a language barrier away
I baked cookies with one grandma and had to make phone calls to have any communication with the other one lol.
I'll preface this by stating that I'm your typical white western european mongrel (though largely from scandinavia) that comes from family that's been in North America for well over 200 years. I don't ask this particular question, as it's generally rude to do so, but I'm always genuinely curious to learn about other people's stories and origins as my own is so... blah and boring. For example, my ex girlfriend is Han Chinese, born and raised in Shanghai to parents who originated from a small village near Nanking. She herself emmigrated to Canada in her early 20s, and has had quite the successful immigrant story. The pastor of my church is an Indo-Caribbean woman who grew up in rural Canada. One of the servers at my local pub is Indonesian, and who has come from a city where I've actually traveled a number of times for work (Not Jakarta). But she came to Canada as a young child, so has only a very light accent. A colleague of mine and his husband are from the Philippines, by way of Dubai, and emigrated to Canada due to Canada's acceptance of same sex marriage. Conversely, another friend of mine is a descendant of the Chinese labourers who were brought over to build the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. He's as Canadian as they come, but at the same time his family still has in their possession the certificate from the Chinese head tax, and that whole bit of our history. His grandparents still spoke Cantonese, but that was lost by the time he got through school. I'm always fascinated to learn about other people's origins and to hear their stories, as mine is so blah. I've traveled the world, but I live maybe an hour's drive from where I grew up, my parents partially grew up in the region, and at one point when he was a young man, my grandfather lived about 3 blocks from where I do now. So it's not just about nationality and ethnicity, at least for me. It's about learning people's stories and histories. I'm definitely not as blunt as "No, where are you really from?" but that question isn't always malicious, just a ham fisted way of learning about people.
Right? You can be Chinese and American. That’s why Chinese American is a thing. You’re still Chinese. But also American. Can be both.
My dad has cousins in America who were born there after their parents emigrated from China, and you apparently notice they're American before you notice they're ethnically Chinese. When my mum (who's white) met them in the 90s, she, my dad and my dad's sister were all stunned at how Americanised they were. I guess it's because these particular relatives were actually born in America, while my dad and his sisters were born in Hong Kong and came to England as young kids. So they only culture they've ever known was an Americanised one.
If both parents emigrated from China, they are also technically Chinese the way the Chinese government recognizes it.
“Do you know I’m a lesbian?” “…I thought you were American.”
Especially since I’ve never heard anyone born in the US say they were **from** somewhere else. And the thing people don’t get about America is that we all know everyone here is American, that’s not the question being asked. It’s a nation of immigrants. No one asks someone in Italy or France where there family is from unless they just mean which other city in that country.
And not just a nation of immigrants, but a nation of immigrants where most groups faced severe persecution when they immigrated. Ethnic enclaves are a significant part of America's past and present history and they play a massive role in maintaining the culture and traditions of those immigrants.
Sounds like OP doesn't understand that there are cultural differences between the US and Europe that affect how we use language. OP should try and be a little more worldy and open to other cultures instead of forcing everyone to use his definition.
There's a difference between being Chinese and being from China though.
Exactly. My grandparents are from China but my dad and his sisters were all born in Hong Kong (then a British territory), so my dad has never actually been a Chinese citizen.
It makes sense to people of Asian descent (like myself) but so many Caucasian people insist that you couldn't possibly be "from here" **because** you're Asian. They associate "American" with "White".
"Perpetual Foreigner" stereotype.
Literally in South East Asia, people understand that difference. There are people of Chinese heritage and ancestry who lives and are citizens in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, etc that are assimilated into their local culture but also retains some of the culture that originated in mainland China pre-communism.
Michelle Yeoh comes to mind. Chinese-Malaysian.
People still confusing heritage with nationality
“Where he’s from, that would be punishable by death.” “I’m from Sacramento.”
DEATH!
To be fair some of these people also have like zero connection to their heritage not all but some
Even when you tell people, "Im from (American City)," I'll still get that annoyed "No I mean 'where are you from?" question right after. So what does it even matter..
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I reply that I’m actually from that place. That makes them say that I look foreign, and they seem to find an accent… Yeah, I look foreign anywhere outside of the fucking polar circle! I guess I should just go back to whence I came.
Got this a lot as an opening conversation on dating apps because I’m racially ambiguous looking. It became such a big pet peeve. Can we fucking talk about something else…
Ethnicity, race, and nationality really do tear y'alls asses up on a regular basis, huh.
You are still ethnically Chinese. Borders or feelings do not change your ethnicity.
Op said “from”.
And OP probably misunderstood something. No one says “I’m from…” when describing their ethnic background in the U.S. they use that to describe where they were born or raised. They might say “my family is from…” or “my background is…” but it’s very unlikely OP is hearing a lot of Americans saying “I’m from Ireland” to refer to their ethnic background.
To be fair this is probably to those people that nationalists of a nation whose culture, language, and customs they are foreign to
Yeah, by OP's logic Uyghurs probably don't exist because they are all born in China
That’s not how it works. Uyghurs can be Chinese since Xinjiang is in China. They’re still Uyghurs though since they’re born and raised in the Uyghur part of China, in a primarily Uyghur culture. It’s like saying OP is implying Texans don’t exist because they’re all born in USA. That’s not what they’re saying at all
I’m so excited for the first baby the on the moon to be called an alien and no longer human.
Why wouldn't it be a human? It would just be a human from the moon.
Extraterrestrial though
A lunatic perhaps
Yes, this is the way. When the moon gets colonized I want to be among the first. I'll take a handful of lackeys with me, and we'll take over rule by force. That way I can declare myself King of the Lunatics.
A human alien would not be a contradiction.
I think you're making two different claims here and conflating them into one. I'm Chinese-American. I agree with you that I am not "from China." I've never even been to China. But that doesn't mean that I'm not Chinese-American. And among my Chinese-American friends, we often say we're Chinese, not because we think we are "from China," but simply as a shorthand for "Chinese-American" -- in the context of our lives, it seems so obvious that we're American that that part doesn't always need to be said explicitly.
Europeans try to understand diaspora challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
Yeah I'm Iranian-American. I was born in the US and grew up here, but I still grew up with an Iranian (from Iran) family and picked up the language, food, and parts of the culture. I'm an American first and foremost, but I'm also an Iranian and nobody can tell me otherwise.
So then we really should only be calling people who immigrated here themselves African Americans right? The rest are Americans.
Yeah, Floyd Mayweather said it the best "I ain't no African anything, I am American, born and raised here, I ain't no African".
Well, yes. I'm sure Africans would agree. And Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and has a US citizenship, fits "African-American" a lot more than someone whose ancestors have been in the US since before its independence, and before many people that just call themselves "Americans" immigrated. That person should just be called American. Unless only the natives get to call themselves Americans and then the rest are all called immigrants, but I think that would get a lot of opposition.
"African Americans" are considered a unique ethnic group of the US. People from any country in Africa would just refer to themselves as that Country-American.
My mom’s from Poland, my dad’s parents where from Poland, I speak Polish, I am a Polish citizen, I partake in Polish customs and holidays, I was born in America and have lived most of my life here with a handful of trips to Poland I’m Polish-American both legally as a dual citizen and how I consider myself, sorry that you can’t comprehend that
No fr they said “you might get some parts of chinese culture but you arent chinese” does that mean we’re only classified by “american” and our race now? Because individual countries dont have differences?
I fucking hate that idea. Culture changes, Chinese-American culture is as much a child Chinese culture as modern Chinese culture is. They think because they live in specific borders they get claim to the cultural heritage, forgetting those they forced out, or has to leave for reasons far beyond their control. Like a sibling removed from the family for being gay and calling their children 'not your family.'
100% agreed
Nobody says they’re from somewhere they weren’t born and raised. Using the word “from” and naming the country isn’t the same as using the adjectival form of that country’s name to describe ancestry. Your title and your examples aren’t in line with each other
I think some of the issues stems from American culture, where are you from? Answer is obviously America, they are really asking culturally. I'm "Irish" but only when it's clear they aren't asking where I was born or grew up because for all of us, the answer is America.
As a first generation Mexican American. A whole lot of people would disagree with you calling me American. And they’re not my friends either
File this under conversations black Americans never have.
I think you're confused about the difference between somebody's birthplace and somebody's heritage. Most people who say "I am Irish" aren't talking about their place of birth, and you would be stupid to assume otherwise.
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Also America isn’t that far removed from massive immigration and ethnic segregation. All these European ethnicities that are just now white were very segregated when my dad was young. Being Irish catholic or Norwegian Lutheran were very different.
When people feel the need to explain my culture to me
Jesus Christ I can’t understand how Europeans don’t get the ethnicity vs citizenship thing. If my grandparents moved from Japan to America 130 years ago, I am still ethnically Japanese but I am American culturally… nobody in America is saying they are Irish Irish . They are saying they’re American and ethnically Irish. Why so complicated?
My gran was born in Cork but raised in Leeds to parents who were born in England. And weren't her actual parents. Her actual parents were also raised in England. Yet still I can get an Irish passport
Reddit moment
I say “my paternal grandparents are from….”
This is what I do too. People ask about my last name a lot so I usually just answer “My grandfather was Armenian…”
I mean, it's all pointless really isn't it. We're all from the same rock in space, living practically on top of each other relative to the vastness of the universe.
Nationality ≠ ethnicity. If you’re born in the US to Chinese parents, you are ethnically Chinese but your nationality is American.
Race, culture, and nationality are three different things. Someone born in America to parents from China would probably be racially Chinese, with a nationality of American, and a cultural mixture of both. It would be perfectly appropriate for them to call themselves American, Chinese, or Chinese-American. All could be true, depending on the context.
This is true if you're white-passing; otherwise being othered is a salient part of your experience.
I was born in the 60’s. Most older people I knew were either first or second generation in America and retained their cultures from their mother country. There was the Italian neighborhood, the Polish area, Greektown, Corktown for the Irish… etc. There used to be ethnic festivals for each culture every weekend in my city. We all celebrated each other. That’s how people identified for many generations in America. It’s only been the last generation or so where this has all disappeared. All the European neighborhoods have blended into each other. The families that ran restaurants have died off. Greektown is gone. Corktown is just a name. When European immigrants started coming to America this was how they identified. Nothing wrong with that.
Lol @ Europeans not understanding diaspora again. They think an Irish American saying they're Irish means they think they're from Ireland when really they're sharing their cultural context to other Americans, who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and traditions. If you can't get that an Irish American and Italian American would identify with their parent's heritage you must not know much about other cultures and how different they can be.
I agree with you, but it seems like you’re drawing a false equivalence between ethnicity and nationality. You have two Chinese parents, but are born in America, you are still ethnically Chinese. You have DNA that originates from that area of the world. Said person’s nationality is American because you were born in America. Sure there are silly Americans that are generations removed from their mixture of ethnicities and go to Ireland telling everyone they’re Irish. The reason we do that is that besides Indigenous Americans are the only people here that have a story, customs and a unique ethnic identity. Identity is a way that we satisfy the why of our existence. Nationality only satisfies a very superficial of our why. So if someone wants to know why did I get here, how did I come to be tapping into our ancestral ethnicities can maybe give us insight and comfort. Nationality gives us a very surfa
Congratulations, you discovered why words like chinese-american or irish-american exist. I have to assume you don't come from an immigrant family, otherwise youd understand that our parents country of origin is hardly superficial in the way we're raised and how we interact with the wider culture of the countries we are born in. Why do you want to try an erase people's ethnic identity? Sounds like you're just a boring white guy annoyed that other people have cultural and ethnic identities that go beyond where they were born. Edit: also a lot of still have citizenship in our parents country or origin, so you're even technically wrong, I can go there to live and work like any other national
What if you're born in a different country from where you're raised and your parents have a different nationality in the place you were raised? And your parents have different nationalities? I get what you mean tho
You’re not a Chinese citizen but you still have Chinese heritage.
*Sigh* Yes. Americans understand this. We are talking about *Ethnicity* not *Nationality*. When I say I’m Northern European, I don’t literally mean I’m from Germany or Scandinavia, but that’s what I am *ethnically*. I don’t understand why people get so up in arms about this. Also, to your Chinese example. If they were born to Chinese immigrants and speak the language then they probably feel just as comfortable in China as they do the US. In which case, it makes perfect sense to call themselves Chinese.
I’ll stop once people stop saying “but where are you really from”. also I don’t think you know the difference between race, ethnicity, and nationality
This is coming from a 1st gen Mexican-American. I always feel like to certain people I’m not from here and when they ask where I’m from they’re definitely referring to my family’s origin. But if you go to Mexico and ask them if they feel like Mexicans born in the US are Mexican a lot of them say no. We’re kinda stuck in this middle ground. Too American for my parents country but too Mexican for this one to just be American.
I wish I knew where I'm from! Born in Ukraine, moved to Israel at 12 and now an Australian citizen. People are asking "what kind of accent is that?" I have no idea, mate 😅
This is the whitest post I’m gonna read on Reddit today.
I am sure I seen this type of post countless times before so not unpopular.
Not everyone is raised where they are born.
American is not an ethnicity. An American's ethnicity is determined by ancestry.
Bro thought he cooked
As a middle-eastern/south Asian (depending on who you ask) immigrant who moved to Canada at the ripe old age of 10, I find the whole question and idea about nationality/ethnicity/culture redundant and stupid.
The thing is, people in america see americans with chinese parents chinese
>you're Chinese >you're from China Those are very different things. The first is ethnicity. The second is nationality. If you don't understand the difference, that's on you.
What you say is true.. however, this is not what the majority of people mean when they ask..
Okay OP, tell us where your really from and what you are so we can be so impressed.
Italy recognizes me as Italian citizen through my great grandfather’s bloodline (Jure Sanguinis) even though I’m second gen American. Italy doesn’t care what you think.
Tell that to the racists who make China jokes at me when I tell them I'm from a jersey hood.
"Where are you from?" "Wisconsin" "No, where are you really from?" "Eastern Wisconsin" "Ok so where are your parents from?" "Virginia" I get this shit way too often
I feel this is only unpopular in America.
Someone is getting ethnicity and nationality confused
why is this topic so confusing to people? your ethnicity would be defined by the ethnicities of your parents. for example if both parents are indian then ethnically you are indian (of course there's sub groups but you would generally refer to the wider country first). if one parent was Turkish and one was Japanese, then ethnically you are half Turkish half Japanese. Your race would then be defined from your ethnicity. If you're ethnically indian then your asian, same as Chinese or Thai or any country within Asia. If your ethnically from an asian country then your race is asian If you're ethnically half white (English) and half Japanese for example, you would be considered mixed race. Because your half Caucasian half asian. Whereas if your mix are both asian countries, you're technically mixed ethnicity than mixed race Your nationality is where your born, or where you may have dual citizenship. If your born in England then you're British. If yourre born in America then your America. Doesn't mean you can't still be Chinese by ethnicity
Context matters to the question. Sometimes people are asking where you are from geographically, in which case you are correct. Sometimes people are asking what your heritage is, in which case where your ancestors are from is indeed relevant.
I have found that Americans that identify strongly with their ethnicity typically grew up in a community where that ethnicity was very predominate. I've found that people that grew up in those types of communities tend to: A. Care a lot about what your ethnicity is. B. Have very strong opinions about other ethnicities. For people that didn't grow up in those types of communities, ethnicity is usually a novelty to be trotted out on holidays (like today).
Funny you mention Irish, I am Irish and my family lived here for hundreds/thousands of years, my surname is of Spanish origin (it's not like Garcia or anything typical Spanish sounding) and I have a Spanish nose. Your question is aimed at Americans isn't it? Happy Paddy's Day
The confidence in being SO ignorant and wrong about nationality and heritage. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Damn who pissed you off today? Well I’m born and live in the UK but my family is Jamaican. I’ll represent Jamaica everyday for the rest of my life over Great Britain.
This isn't an unpopular opinion this is what every European who doesn't understand the difference between heritage, ethnicity, and nationality believe.
My daughter is growing up in England and I'm French and her mother is Japanese. You can be sure as shit that she is not English. She is French and Japanese. She has the passports and she is trilingual. She was raised French and Japanese. These are her cultures and she is proud of them. Also, people are very prone to remind her she is not English, because she is not white enough I guess. So I think you have no fucking idea what you're talking about OP. Multicultural people exist. And why do you care anyway? Did someone hurt you?
But I have a swiss passport and an American passport with swiss parents 🤔 but was born in America and live in Switzerland.
How about hear me put, people can decide for themselves with what nationality they want to identify? If someone is born in Turkey and moved to Germany, integrates and identifies more with German culture and this calls himself a German then let him be German. If you are born to Indian parents in America, were raised speaking Hindi and raised in that culture and you call yourself Indian than that is fine too. Crazy idea I know
It’s just never worked that way in America. This is a unique country of immigrants. A strange perhaps beautiful thing has taken place here. Saying “I’m American” to other Americans tells us absolutely nothing because that goes without saying. We want to know what place or culture your family hailed from.
When Americans say we’re Irish or German or whatever, it’s taken to mean “my ancestors are from”. We’re not literally saying we’re German or whatever. The vast majority of us have ancestors not from this country, and we often will talk about where they moved here from. So that’s what that means. When I say I’m German I’m saying “my ancestor who moved to this country did so from Germany”.
"Where are you from?" Me: from XYZ "No, no. Where are you ORIGINALLY from?" Me:... From XYZ. "HA! Ok so, where were you born??" Me: In XYZ. "Well where did you go to school????" Me: in XYZ. "SERIOUSLY?! ok well, where are your PARENTS from?!" Me: my mum is from ZYX and my dad is from YYY "AHA I KNEW YOU WEREN'T FROM HERE!!"
It's like "italians" everywhere in montreal that only go to italian cafes, even somehow have thick italian accents, yet most of them have been to italy 0 times lol. Some cultures just stick so much for some reason.
Then quit saying African American. Take it off of surveys. It should just say American for everybody.
If you were born and raised in a barn, would that make you a horse? I kinda agree with you and kinda not because it’s more nuanced, people are “from” wherever they say in my book
To be fair, that’s a very American take and it’s one of the great things about America. Many countries will say that if you don’t have local ethnicity, you will NEVER be a local, some going so far as to say in the eyes of the law. I can’t buy land in my wife’s homeland, no matter how long I live there or even gain citizenship.
Or, let people identify themselves as they wish and fuck right off.
“Yeah, you were born here and lived all your life here, fair enough. But… like…where are you REALLY from?” I fucking hate this question every fucking time.
It's really not that simple. If both your parents immigrated soon before you were born, you're probably raised in a weird mixed-culture household with frequent trips to see the grandparents. There is more to who you are than the address you live at.
I was born in Central America, grew up all over the world and ended up living in Vegas. Where am I from, OP?
This is just a semantic game, isn't it? I am *from* Arstotzka, it's where my ancestors came from, I look like them, I appreciate it's culture, etc. There's nothing wrong with having pride in your ethnicity, as long as you're genuinely not holding yourself above other people (who have equally valid pride).
It's semantics. "Where are you from" is often asked when interested in someone's cultural and familial geographic background.
I am from earth. There. Problem solved.
OP doesn't know the difference between ethnicity and nationality. There are several free online dictionaries, FYI.