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America is the greatest country in the history of the world... period! Why not be proud to be an American? And why hang onto someplace you left behind? The problems were are having in America today stem from people that want to come to America for what they can get for themselves, while hanging onto the culture and ways of their country of origin. If you don't love being an American, and are not interested in learning our ways (the ways that made our country great), please LEAVE, and don't let the border door hit you on the bottom!!!
Do you know the difference between opinion and fact
Actually they usually do know what they are, but they're mixed with so much stuff, and their families have been in America so long that they just call themselves American.
1. No one knows for many reasons. Folks have been here a long time. Many were killed in the Civil War. Living in rural areas outside of ethnic enclaves it was harder to preserve an ethnic identity.
2. White and black mattered far more than Italian, Irish, German or what have you for a long time in the South.
3. Ancestry is very mixed, and in the rural South you often have known or family anecdotes of Indian and European heritage in the white population. Some can even lay claim to black ancestry as well.
I wish I could say I was something, but my family doesn't know. It'd be cool to have some special holiday or food. All I can honestly lay claim to is Southern and American though.
Personally I don't think anybody born in America (with maybe the exception of a first generation child) can truly call themselves "Italian", "French", "Kenyan" you name it. If you were born here you are American plain and simple.
I have noticed that Mormons though ethnically are from similar stock list English as ancestry. (look at Utah on these types of maps)
Mormons sent missionaries to England while they were still HQed in the eastern part of the US so there were already a lot of English-immigrant Mormons living in the US when they first went west.
right, but ethncity is one's cultural heritage. if theyve been in the US long enough they feel that their cultural heritage lies in America, not Europe
I think its too bad they can't just put upcountry white southern as their ethnicity. Thats really what it is, and its a long and proud heritage, and anyone with a good feel for our cultural geography would know what that means. What does it matter exactly what percentage of Scots Irish, of English, and of Cherokee it is?
That excellent map shows that most white Southerners, unlike other Americans, chose "American" as their ancestry when they filled out the 2000 census. Obviously, they were from somewhere else: I'm guessing Scotland is one of the most common countries of origin for those with roots in the South. Did they choose American because...
1) Their family has been here so long...
2) It's more patriotic
or
3) Some other reason?
I'd be interested to know, especially if real, live Southerners here have anything to say.
What about northerners? Why do blacks get classified as African-American? Those Negroes of today sure as hell didn't come from Africa, they weren't born in Africa but get a racial identity unlike WHITE AMERICA?
How about jews, they get the greatest protection of any race and have their own HOMELAND and this America that I live in gives SIX BILLION DOLLARS annually to ISRAEL???
I think all WHITE southerners should write not YANKEE but CONFEDERATE on the census!
1. No one knows for many reasons. Folks have been here a long time. Many were killed in the Civil War. Living in rural areas outside of ethnic enclaves it was harder to preserve an ethnic identity.
2. White and black mattered far more than Italian, Irish, German or what have you for a long time in the South.
3. Ancestry is very mixed, and in the rural South you often have known or family anecdotes of Indian and European heritage in the white population. Some can even lay claim to black ancestry as well.
I wish I could say I was something, but my family doesn't know. It'd be cool to have some special holiday or food. All I can honestly lay claim to is Southern and American though.
Good post.
My family history has been traced back to the 10th century in Normandy (France)...but we certainly don't identify as French. It's nice to know my heritage, but it's not important to me to indicated that I'm French on a questionnaire...it's kind of silly in my opinion. I'm American - not because I'm ultra-patriotic, but because that's where my family has lived for a few centuries now.
Simply put, WHITE AMERICAN should basically be equated as EURO-American, non-jewish. now this would give White Americans a greater and stronger identity and jews simply jewish-American since they have always wanted to be seperate from the WHITE AMERICAN race identity!
It's strange that African-American can be a racial classification for all Black Americans, yet not one damn Black today was born in Africa, IT IS FUNNY AND BIASED!
Im in VA. My dad is direct from Sicily and my mom is from VA. Her heritage is a mix of Irish, and German and other european stock. Her dad was adopted and had no clue what his ancestry was, so I could understand why someone like my mom would claim just American. While I was born here and am American, I do claim my Italian heritage, as my last name is Italian, and half of my family still lives overseas, and I joke that I can hardly understand my dad because of his accent. But I am american.
But as to the original ? Many probably claim American because there has been so much mixing of heritages down through the years that people honestly do not know. I have a friend from CT, and he claims to be of Italian heritage because of his moms side. But, his dad has a polish name, so obviously my friend does too. He is pale white and freckled with no italian characteristics, and none of his "italian" family speaks any italian as they have been in the US for generations. Their only claim to being italian is their name. My point is that you should be proud of your heritage, but claiming to be authentically italian, irish, or whatever because you think it's cool or you visited the "homeland" once is kind of dumb. Unless you were actually born in said country, you are considered american.
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Good post.
