Pub friend brought that up last week. Why do Americans (US) do this?
I figured people basically fell into it while constructing personal identity (Who am I? Where do I belong? What sets me apart?) because strong labels, such as stereotypes, are the easiest pre-made answers available.
Her idea was that it indicates a need for community that Americans often miss, perhaps subconsciously, and sometimes try to find by resurrecting ancestral identities and traditions, or adopting ones they have no connection to at all.
As to why it happens here, she mentioned individualism and the melting pot metaphor. Our make-your-own-way ethos inhibits transmission of identities and traditions across generations, and our cultural amalgam tends to blend whatever does get passed. So within a handful of generations most connections to the old country are lost and distinctive traditions and cultural identities are replaced by various chimeric versions that are generally considered “American.”
Basically it’s harder for them to pinpoint any traditions, places, or people uniquely “theirs” and it makes them feel isolated and alone. Sometimes their solution is to reclaim hereditary identities and traditions or, if they have no idea, to just adopt ones they like.
Much of the “cultural melting pot” is superficial since it’s subsumed into “American culture” which not only bastardizes and commercializes it, but also reduces it in order to fit in with the terrible work and social culture. The more “authentic” a diaspora in the US, the less likely it is to be mainstream. I imagine it’s similar elsewhere but I don’t hear too many people IRL complaining about other places often in terms of culture.
I've said it before, people in the US do this because they're copying their parents. Their parents and grandparents did this because it was actually very relevant information. People held on to their cultures, and you could tell a decent amount about someone by their particular ethnic background - attitudes, practices, religion, zip code, and broadly who they associated with.
I am not old, and my white grandparents had to be careful in white neighborhoods of other ethnicities - not just poorer ones, richer ones too. Some of their marriages were seen as sort of interracial. Some of their parents and grandparents had fled ethnic violence from other white people.
So this behavior got culturally ingrained for a lot of good reasons (as well as plenty of completely stupid reasons). Its dying out though. Being half/half or even 25/25/25/25 makes people feel like it might still matter, but no gen alpha kid is going "see the difference between you and me is im 3% this and 6 % that and 1.5% this and 3% that and 12% that and 6% that and..."
Good point, like my block is mostly 1st/2nd gen immigrant families and the question of what places your family is from or your “mix” (often abbreviated to “so what are you” lol) is like the second question my friends and neighbors here will ask you, right after your name and that’s considered normal and polite. If you don’t ask they will tell you anyway. By contrast I (4th gen) never think to ask that, not because it would be taken as othering, but because I’m simply not used to it being relevant or useful information. For my friends who grew up on this block though, clearly it was.
It doesn't help people across our nearest cultural neighbors have spent the entire time we've existed telling us we have no real culture and are just less savage than the other brutes outside Western Europe. My view is biased by the sheer number of arrogant Euros I've met though.
Pub friend brought that up last week. Why do Americans (US) do this?
I figured people basically fell into it while constructing personal identity (Who am I? Where do I belong? What sets me apart?) because strong labels, such as stereotypes, are the easiest pre-made answers available.
Her idea was that it indicates a need for community that Americans often miss, perhaps subconsciously, and sometimes try to find by resurrecting ancestral identities and traditions, or adopting ones they have no connection to at all.
As to why it happens here, she mentioned individualism and the melting pot metaphor. Our make-your-own-way ethos inhibits transmission of identities and traditions across generations, and our cultural amalgam tends to blend whatever does get passed. So within a handful of generations most connections to the old country are lost and distinctive traditions and cultural identities are replaced by various chimeric versions that are generally considered “American.”
Basically it’s harder for them to pinpoint any traditions, places, or people uniquely “theirs” and it makes them feel isolated and alone. Sometimes their solution is to reclaim hereditary identities and traditions or, if they have no idea, to just adopt ones they like.
Much of the “cultural melting pot” is superficial since it’s subsumed into “American culture” which not only bastardizes and commercializes it, but also reduces it in order to fit in with the terrible work and social culture. The more “authentic” a diaspora in the US, the less likely it is to be mainstream. I imagine it’s similar elsewhere but I don’t hear too many people IRL complaining about other places often in terms of culture.
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I've said it before, people in the US do this because they're copying their parents. Their parents and grandparents did this because it was actually very relevant information. People held on to their cultures, and you could tell a decent amount about someone by their particular ethnic background - attitudes, practices, religion, zip code, and broadly who they associated with.
I am not old, and my white grandparents had to be careful in white neighborhoods of other ethnicities - not just poorer ones, richer ones too. Some of their marriages were seen as sort of interracial. Some of their parents and grandparents had fled ethnic violence from other white people.
So this behavior got culturally ingrained for a lot of good reasons (as well as plenty of completely stupid reasons). Its dying out though. Being half/half or even 25/25/25/25 makes people feel like it might still matter, but no gen alpha kid is going "see the difference between you and me is im 3% this and 6 % that and 1.5% this and 3% that and 12% that and 6% that and..."
Good point, like my block is mostly 1st/2nd gen immigrant families and the question of what places your family is from or your “mix” (often abbreviated to “so what are you” lol) is like the second question my friends and neighbors here will ask you, right after your name and that’s considered normal and polite. If you don’t ask they will tell you anyway. By contrast I (4th gen) never think to ask that, not because it would be taken as othering, but because I’m simply not used to it being relevant or useful information. For my friends who grew up on this block though, clearly it was.
It doesn't help people across our nearest cultural neighbors have spent the entire time we've existed telling us we have no real culture and are just less savage than the other brutes outside Western Europe. My view is biased by the sheer number of arrogant Euros I've met though.
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