why are americans all ~land of the free USA #1~ but also SO desperate to pretend that they're from other places? like bestie you were born in ohio, you're just american, stfu
Yeah this person is unhinged, but to answer your question, it mattered up until like 80 years ago and we're riding the momentum. Being a settler state with a lot of immigration and segregation means peoples' ethnic background was more important than their citizenship. "I'm half Italian half Polish" was actually useful information to partially understand someone's cultural practices, religion, attitudes, relationships, and so on. I mean I know some Dutch people who live in a German area and they eat all different shit from everyone around them and have different traditions, still.
That's what Americans mean by that- in my experience they would never be like, oh did you hear about the sports game between Switzerland and Germany? Switzerland got owned! Fuck you I'm Swiss you German bastard! That's not it, it's not the nationality.
But for the most part now, white people are all like 4th 5th 6th 7th generation or more, and that shit doesn't matter, but they're used to their parents or grandparents talking about it, so they sometimes think it still matters. I mean people do talk about that a lot less than they used to. Kids aren't like, "oh, Brayden's one of those god damn 6% Scottish 6% Filipino 12% Japanese 12% Italian 12% English 12% French 12% Spanish 25% German kids, you know how they can fuckin be"
Because, deep down, (white) Americans know that it sucks to be "just American". They see people of color or people with a legitimate European community and are jealous and upset or sad that they don't have that. My distant family is Italian. Great grandma (or something) didn't teach grandma about it, so it was lost, and now we have no connection other then vague stories. My dad's boomer brained, but even he seems a little sad he doesn't know any distant cousins in Italy or something. Vs a nice lady I met recently who goes back to Albania occasionally and has a good time and reconnects with distant family and seems much more well adjusted.
Because they don't want to feel guilty and be associated with what it means to be white in America and what their ancestors probably did. Especially around stuff like slavery, which is why it always comes up around that.
why are americans all ~land of the free USA #1~ but also SO desperate to pretend that they're from other places? like bestie you were born in ohio, you're just american, stfu
Yeah this person is unhinged, but to answer your question, it mattered up until like 80 years ago and we're riding the momentum. Being a settler state with a lot of immigration and segregation means peoples' ethnic background was more important than their citizenship. "I'm half Italian half Polish" was actually useful information to partially understand someone's cultural practices, religion, attitudes, relationships, and so on. I mean I know some Dutch people who live in a German area and they eat all different shit from everyone around them and have different traditions, still.
That's what Americans mean by that- in my experience they would never be like, oh did you hear about the sports game between Switzerland and Germany? Switzerland got owned! Fuck you I'm Swiss you German bastard! That's not it, it's not the nationality.
But for the most part now, white people are all like 4th 5th 6th 7th generation or more, and that shit doesn't matter, but they're used to their parents or grandparents talking about it, so they sometimes think it still matters. I mean people do talk about that a lot less than they used to. Kids aren't like, "oh, Brayden's one of those god damn 6% Scottish 6% Filipino 12% Japanese 12% Italian 12% English 12% French 12% Spanish 25% German kids, you know how they can fuckin be"
Because, deep down, (white) Americans know that it sucks to be "just American". They see people of color or people with a legitimate European community and are jealous and upset or sad that they don't have that. My distant family is Italian. Great grandma (or something) didn't teach grandma about it, so it was lost, and now we have no connection other then vague stories. My dad's boomer brained, but even he seems a little sad he doesn't know any distant cousins in Italy or something. Vs a nice lady I met recently who goes back to Albania occasionally and has a good time and reconnects with distant family and seems much more well adjusted.
yeah as a rule if you've never been to a place you aren't from there
Because they don't want to feel guilty and be associated with what it means to be white in America and what their ancestors probably did. Especially around stuff like slavery, which is why it always comes up around that.
I'm 18% Irish, 26% Italian 4,34% German and ⅖% Navajo and...
My brother in Christ, you're 100% American.