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Most Americans now, I guess, from looking at CD and ethnic celebs seem to be aware of English/British descent but as a Briton we were too often portrayed as aristocrats and bullying in history, especially Ireland, and losing the Americas. We arn't that bad really, very down to earth
I agree with you that Britain is too often portrayed in a negative light by the media. Much of the old British empire occupies the happiest most prosperous parts of the world today. The UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are some of the most popular places in the world to immigrate too and to visit. They are also places where the standard of living is second to none. Obviously the British made the world better. Our Hollywood movies have misrepresented yall, and we owe our UK friends an apology for that. One movie that comes to mind is The Patriot. I love the movie, it makes any American feel patriotic but its portrayal of the British committing all those atrocities is just inaccurate. In fact some of the things the British do in that movie, like burning a church full of people is something the Nazis did. Brits have good reason to not like that movie.
Also I have been over to the UK once, nicest people and I would love to visit again. Its just so expensive to travel to the other side of the Atlantic, but one day I hope to see it again.
We can go on about what percentage English vs other groups exist in this nation but in the end it is the British influence that counts.
1. We speak English
2. Our culture is based in the British culture that was brought here
3. Our government is largely based off of British ideas
4. Our laws are based off British law.
5. Our nation shares a huge amount of cultural commonality with our sibling Anglo nations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and of course the UK.
Given these undisputable facts we must admit that America was built upon a good solid British base. If you are a black American your blood may be African but your culture is Anglo. If you are an Italian American the same is true. If You are a German American only your blood is German, your culture is still Anglo. All the people of this nation who came here from somewhere else adopted our dominant Anglo culture. Of course we are not identical to the mother country, we have taken their culture and put an American spin on it. The Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders have all put their own spin on the Anglo culture as well, but all in all we share that heritage given to us by the British.
I don't understand why anyone would want to diminish this link to our founding culture. It is part of our history, and the history of Britain is part of our history. We Americans should be proud of what we come from. We can be patriotic, proud of our revolution, proud of standing up to the King, BUT still be proud of our British heritage. It is that British heritage that has made us what we are.
As for why people would want to diminish their link to Britishness, especially Englishness, it may have something to do with the genocide of the Native Americans.
I think most white Americans would be a mixture of mainly German, British and Irish descent
Personally I'm 1/2 German, 1/4th Irish, 1/8th English, 1/16th Swedish, and 1/16th Sephardic. In almost all of those cases I've got good records of family immigrating from Europe in the 19th or early 20th century as well, so there's not much of a shred of doubt as to what I am.
Curiously 23andme has me as 30% British and Irish and only 18.7% French/German. Hell, my grandmother, who is actually 100% German (both her parents were German speakers from Austria-Hungary) comes out as only 30.3% French/German and 8.8% British/Irish on 23andme. Thus I feel the admixture analysis on these sites is still a bit wonky.
Personally I'm 1/2 German, 1/4th Irish, 1/8th English, 1/16th Swedish, and 1/16th Sephardic. In almost all of those cases I've got good records of family immigrating from Europe in the 19th or early 20th century as well, so there's not much of a shred of doubt as to what I am.
Curiously 23andme has me as 30% British and Irish and only 18.7% French/German. Hell, my grandmother, who is actually 100% German (both her parents were German speakers from Austria-Hungary) comes out as only 30.3% French/German and 8.8% British/Irish on 23andme. Thus I feel the admixture analysis on these sites is still a bit wonky.
I took the 23andMe test myself years ago. It's also a bit wonky for me. My father has no British ancestry. Two of his grandparents and all of his great grandparents were born in what is today the Czech Republic, but it only has my Slavic ancestry at 3% or something. Strange given that my paternal haplogroup is R1a1a, which simply explained is the quintessential Slavic haplogroup.
As for why people would want to diminish their link to Britishness, especially Englishness, it may have something to do with the genocide of the Native Americans.
After our independence the US government continued the abuse of Indian people. The same argument for slavery exists, as the British did bring it here. However we continued on with it for another 80 years. We own our sins, the British own theirs. We have made mistakes but its no reason not to be proud of all the good that has come from our nation. Left wing types especially like to focus on these negative things, but never do they mention the diseases weve cured, the inventions we have made that helped civilize the world, the sacrifices our nation has made to rid the world of evil powers like Nazi Germany. All nations have their sins, slavery and the abuse of the American Indian belong to us. Not fair to the Brits to attempt to deflect all the blame for those upon them.
I don't think that people are ashamed to have British Ancestry, and most people who's family were here before 1900 probably do have it. I think the issue is that English haven't been a high percentage of immigrants since the early 1800's, and outside of Utah and parts of New England, most of those families have intermarried with other groups. If you are a standard white Midwesterner, you probably have some British Heritage. But after a few generations, someone in your family married a second generation German in the late 1800's, and since that person had much closer cultural ties to their ethnic homeland than the British family that had been here for several generations, the descendents considered themselves German. Then the decendents of that family married a second generation Italian in the 1940's, and their kids now have the closest cultural ties to Italy.
I consider myself American ethnicity, because the last person on either side of my family born overseas had been dead for over 100 years by the time I was born (unless a sibling born on a US military base overseas counts). In reality, we're most likely a mix of several European Ethnicities, but I don't feel any cultural ties to those countries. My spouse, on the other hand, immigrated to the US with her parents when she was pre-school age. I have a feeling that when our kids get old enough, they'll probably consider themselves either plain American or my wife's ethnicity, instead of English or French or German (even though my family probably has those backgrounds). Why? Because they are not being raised eating sauerkraut or celebrating Bastille Day (Nothing wrong with those things, just not something I feel a cultural tie to). They may feel those ties to my spouse's birth country, because she does occasionally cook traditional food. Also, while she is not fluent in her birth country's language, she does occasionally use a few words here and there.
After our independence the US government continued the abuse of Indian people. The same argument for slavery exists, as the British did bring it here. However we continued on with it for another 80 years. We own our sins, the British own theirs. We have made mistakes but its no reason not to be proud of all the good that has come from our nation. Left wing types especially like to focus on these negative things, but never do they mention the diseases weve cured, the inventions we have made that helped civilize the world, the sacrifices our nation has made to rid the world of evil powers like Nazi Germany. All nations have their sins, slavery and the abuse of the American Indian belong to us. Not fair to the Brits to attempt to deflect all the blame for those upon them.
I meant Britishness & Englishness in more of an ethnic sense. Sure, Americans did these things as well (as Americans), but it's more associated with "WASPs": i.e., the original colonists. Also, another contributing factor is the long history of mistreatment of the Irish, so many people claim Irish heritage, even when it's only a small part of the background (and even if the "Irish" ancestry in question is Scotch-Irish).
I don't think that people are ashamed to have British Ancestry, and most people who's family were here before 1900 probably do have it. I think the issue is that English haven't been a high percentage of immigrants since the early 1800's, and outside of Utah and parts of New England, most of those families have intermarried with other groups. If you are a standard white Midwesterner, you probably have some British Heritage. But after a few generations, someone in your family married a second generation German in the late 1800's, and since that person had much closer cultural ties to their ethnic homeland than the British family that had been here for several generations, the descendents considered themselves German. Then the decendents of that family married a second generation Italian in the 1940's, and their kids now have the closest cultural ties to Italy.
You're absolutely right and that's why the number of British ancestry is underestimated and difficult to determined.
As for why people would want to diminish their link to Britishness, especially Englishness, it may have something to do with the genocide of the Native Americans.
Oh, also enslavement of the Africans.
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