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I can only say that I love being an American, but I REALLY love being an African American, and I can't imagine a life as rich as the one I have if I wasn't black in America.
Being an African American was even more meaningful when I Iived abroad and dealt with non-Americans. But when I dealt with my fellow Americans abroad, it was amazing how much less race meant to all of us. We were just Americans at that point.
even though you state you are african american, I never equated you as such. no insult intended.
I just always equated you as someone from the city.
as someone who lives in a rural setting, I could never really know how people in the city could live. just as I dont expect people living in cities to know how we live out in the country.
Puerto Rico isn't a foreign country -- it wouldn't be much different from someone in a state waving their state flag -- like Texans do. Puerto Rico is part of the USA so it's not the same as foreigners coming here and obnoxiously shoving their flags in our faces and acting as though they're super-proud of the nations they could only abandon.
100% on the money, but I think they're being too obnoxious about it. Hell, I don't have a PR flag shirt, pants, shoes, necklace, or rearview mirror thing lol. That's just taking it too far, I just have a 6' x 3' flag on one wall, and an American flag of the same size on my bedroom door. Been meaning to get a PA flag as well, but I can't find one other than online, and I prefer buying them from a store.
Last edited by theunbrainwashed; 03-02-2013 at 06:09 AM..
For my American compatriots, I wonder if your ethnic heritage is a big part of your American self-perception. My genetics are pretty much a dog's breakfast. Largely northern European, with some Native American mixed in. Mostly I feel American, but I have lived in Europe twice, and enjoyed it a great deal.
For me, I like that you can have an ethnic and national identity here, largely without judgment or persecution, if you work hard, treat others with respect, and don't act like a loon.
How about you?
Of course ethnic heritage changes the way you experience America.
For my American compatriots, I wonder if your ethnic heritage is a big part of your American self-perception.
yes
Quote:
My genetics are pretty much a dog's breakfast. Largely northern European, with some Native American mixed in. Mostly I feel American, but I have lived in Europe twice, and enjoyed it a great deal.
For me, I like that you can have an ethnic and national identity here, largely without judgment or persecution, if you work hard, treat others with respect, and don't act like a loon.
How about you?
i think of my heritage as historical and cultural, moreso than genetic.
genetically i'm 'kin' to the white australians, kiwis, scots, and canadians who settled their areas under the british crown. a lot of blue-eyed scots and anglo-scandinavians. I don't feel any particular closeness to those genetic kinfolk.
historically it is more specific -- I associate with certain events -- the Yamasee War, protestant settlement of the south, the American revolution, the confederate states. And i have to acknowledge the bad -- both my ancestors and my "cultural heritage" killed a lot of indians, owned and espoused slavery and racism, et cetera. On the other hand I feel like "my people" had a hand in creating this great democracy. i've always been proud that i'm going to inherit a some farmland that was taken from king george, by my ancestors, during the revolution. It isn't much, it isn't about the money, it is just the idea of it.
i don't think it's something people should go around talking about in their day-to-day lives, but it's fine to talk about among your family, or on message boards and such, if you're sharing things with others.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
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Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneTraveler
Do you think your feelings are spread throughout most of your ancestral group, though?
I just all too often see people (coworkers did this recently in fact), who tend to try to hold on so deeply to a foreign culture that they are so removed from. My boss for instance is Italian and French, but it was her great grandparents! (and she is in her 60s) who came here to America. Whoever she is descended from must have arrived in the 19th century! Why does she feel the need to scream she is Italian at every social gathering?
I just don't see English descended people doing this. I see Irish, Italian, Greeks, Brazilians, Puerto Ricans, and so many others do it all the time.
I hear 'ya, and agree that kinda boastful ''pride'' is annoying, whether it's some loud-mouthed ''paisano'' (who'd probably be a jerk in any nationality), or a Scots-Irish ''son of the south'' talking like they have a corner on patriotism, just 'cuz ''their people'' go back to the Revolution (or more likely, the Irish Potato Famine). And BTW, I have relatives who died in WWII & Vietnam. Did they contribute any less than someone's ancestors who fought in the Revolution?
Though it's true, ''Mediterranean'' cultures do seem to have more of a flair for the ''dramatic'' than their 'reserved' northern European neighbors.
I'm astonished at just how precisely people can state the percentage of their heritage. After the duration of human beings on this planet (for however long that might be), that someone can say they are 50% this, 20% that, etc. is simply remarkable.
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A white American will always have a different experience than an African-American. Sorry, that's just the way it is. I'm assuming that you are white?
