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I can remember when many didn't. In the Forties and Fifties people where I lived in western NY State used "nationality" in everyday speech to mean what is now termed ethnicity. "What nationality are you?" usually got an answer like Italian, Polish, Irish, etc., unless you're roots in the U.S. went back far enough that you were a mixture. And even then people would answer "English, German, Dutch and Welsh," or whatever.
I did not learn the term ethnicity until I went to college in the late Fifties and ran into it in sociology courses.
Well, that is not the correct definition or usage of the word "nationality", and there's always going to be people who use words incorrectly.
A LOT of white Americans who "claim" Cherokee (or other native) ancestry actually have Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The sad and pathetic woman in the video actually CRIED when she learned that her "Cherokee" ancestor was actually black.
Hardly sad and pathetic. A person's family thinks they are something for generations and finding out they are not would be disheartening to most people.
In NYC everyone has a foreign identity and demands to know what your nationality is or where you are from. I have a hard time convincing people that I'm just an American.
I've adopted "nativism" as an identity. We, the american blacks and whites that have ancestry in the U.S from before the revolution, are the natives.
I see it like this: 300 some odd years ago a new, unique ethnic group was created in the U.S from the combination of various different african ethnicities and called "black/negro". I'm not a "mutt", and I'm not from any other country. Our genesis was in the 17th century American South. We are the native black people of the U.S.
I get blank stares when I tell people this but I'm persistent.
In NYC everyone has a foreign identity and demands to know what your nationality is or where you are from. I have a hard time convincing people that I'm just an American.
I've adopted "nativism" as an identity. We, the american blacks and whites that have ancestry in the U.S from before the revolution, are the natives.
I see it like this: 300 some odd years ago a new, unique ethnic group was created in the U.S from the combination of various different african ethnicities and called "black/negro". I'm not a "mutt", and I'm not from any other country. Our genesis was in the 17th century American South. We are the native black people of the U.S.
I get blank stares when I tell people this but I'm persistent.
I'm southern Appalachian and I approve this message. Lol. Is there another country in the world where someone can have zero ancestors from anywhere else in the past 350-400 years and still have people trying to convince them that they have meaningful roots in another continent??
I'm southern Appalachian and I approve this message. Lol. Is there another country in the world where someone can have zero ancestors from anywhere else in the past 350-400 years and still have people trying to convince them that they have meaningful roots in another continent??
I don't know for sure but why not? The US is by far the first place in history that had immigration waves. Also the US South (in which I derive the majority of my ancestry) is also far from the first semi-insular region in world history as well. So Im sure there are other places and people that say exactly what you seem to think is so unique. I'm sorry but the US and it's populations just aren't that unique... That's not to say that I don't have American identity and pride for aspects of that, but there's no need to exaggerate things.
I don't know for sure but why not? The US is by far the first place in history that had immigration waves. Also the US South (in which I derive the majority of my ancestry) is also far from the first semi-insular region in world history as well. So Im sure there are other places and people that say exactly what you seem to think is so unique. I'm sorry but the US and it's populations just aren't that unique... That's not to say that I don't have American identity and pride for aspects of that, but there's no need to exaggerate things.
?? I'm not sure what I'm exaggerating. It doesn't seem strange to me that people with parents or grandparents or even great grandparents from another country still feel connected to it. But it's bizarre for anyone to expect me to feel any kind of attachment to my non-American ancestry when it's so far removed that it ceased to mean anything to my family many generations back. The most recent immigrant ancestor I've ever traced down stepped off ship in Virginia in the 1630s. That's most recent, not earliest. 1/16,584th of my ancestry. Or roughly 0.006%. Of the handful of early colonial ancestors whose previous nationality I've been able to determine - no two are from the same country. All of the places and ancestors that my family remembers, tells stories about, etc. are southern Appalachian. I'm not sure exactly when we ceased being colonial era mutt hybrids and became Appalachian but it was well before my g-g-grandparents time.
Someday maybe I'll do one of those ancestry tests to find out exactly "what I am"... I've been told (and it makes sense based on grandparent and great-grandparent surnames) that I'm Danish, Irish, French and English.
Having lived in Europe for a few years, and worked a lot in England, I'm glad I'm a mutt! I don't know what's in the English gene pool (maybe not enough chlorine?), but honestly, I found most of them to be quite unattractive and just odd looking. I think American white people are better looking, the more they're mixed. Probably same thing for black Americans.
?? I'm not sure what I'm exaggerating. It doesn't seem strange to me that people with parents or grandparents or even great grandparents from another country still feel connected to it. But it's bizarre for anyone to expect me to feel any kind of attachment to my non-American ancestry when it's so far removed that it ceased to mean anything to my family many generations back. The most recent immigrant ancestor I've ever traced down stepped off ship in Virginia in the 1630s. That's most recent, not earliest. 1/16,584th of my ancestry. Or roughly 0.006%. Of the handful of early colonial ancestors whose previous nationality I've been able to determine - no two are from the same country. All of the places and ancestors that my family remembers, tells stories about, etc. are southern Appalachian. I'm not sure exactly when we ceased being colonial era mutt hybrids and became Appalachian but it was well before my g-g-grandparents time.
The thing is whether you realized it or not, or they did, Southern Appalachian (of which I'm not exclusively descended from but is the largest portion of my ancestry) is itself a culture derived by the cultures that were brought by those people from previous places. It doesn't remove the previous cultures, at least not completely, it melded into other cultures to create the Southern Appalachian culture, which in itself is an over-simplification... There's a variety of different Souther Appalachian cultures, Say Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, etc... all those have their own different cultures, then counties and regions within those counties have different cultures as well. This is no different than numerous other places in the world. There are many regions around the world that haven't had major immigration into specific a specific location within the 300-400 year timespan you compare which seems old in the US but in the global history scale isn't nearly as old... in fact unless you are talking about Native Americans there are places around the world that have stayed separate for far longer with many deep heritages in their own locale.
Whether or not migrations were recent or not every culture is made up of all the cultures that influenced it... the fact it's a unique culture in itself is a constant testament to the cultures that make it up. There's nothing wrong with trying to dig deeper and understand what are the components that contributed to the culture that you see... this is not a new thing or something that wasn't done in the South, a perfect example is the Scotch-Irish mythos of the Appalachian south, stories and lore to tie Appalachian customs to Scottish clans etc and over-identify with that specific makeup of their culture (when it's far more complex than that since Scots-Irish was also often heavily of English origins).
One area of the world DNA has shown to be fairly insular is large portions of Ireland, despite influences from Britain in certain regions many of the older and less or mostly untouched regions of Ireland they find the DNA to be highly local and less diverse (far less diverse than much DNA in the US, considering Ireland has a much longer history for certain regions to be secluded for far longer).
The thing is whether you realized it or not, or they did, Southern Appalachian (of which I'm not exclusively descended from but is the largest portion of my ancestry) is itself a culture derived by the cultures that were brought by those people from previous places. It doesn't remove the previous cultures, at least not completely, it melded into other cultures to create the Southern Appalachian culture, which in itself is an over-simplification... There's a variety of different Souther Appalachian cultures, Say Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, etc... all those have their own different cultures, then counties and regions within those counties have different cultures as well....
I am aware of the variety of Appalachian culture, in the area I'm from there are three subcultures tied to three different periods of settlement and we still really don't mix because our extended families don't think much of each other. Perhaps herein lies the root of our difference of opinion. My flavor of Appalachian is from the Cumberland ridges of southeastern Tennessee and is blended with more native american than is usual. My euro-descended colonial ancestors separated themselves from organized colonial government in the late 1600s/early 1700s. They tended to be one-off misfits who were of mixed ethnicity and/or didn't match the majority ethnicity/culture of the areas they had previously been living in, they predated the first officially sanctioned wave of migration by 3-5 generations. Which is a long convoluted way of saying that when my ancestors came together as a group there was no unifying culture among them and they weren't into the culture they grew up in so they abandoned it with enthusiasm. It would make sense that the later waves of migration which were more ethnically homogeneous would preserve more of their ancestral culture.
I knew I was a "mutt" when I was about 6 years old;
Irish (McCauley)
Scots (Campbell)
German (Goetz, but different spelling)
A smidgen of Native American (an Eastern tribe that no longer exists, so I was told)
A little English
and a touch of French. (again, so I was told).
I am really not interested enough to pay for genetic testing.
I am a native born Pennsylvanian, raised in Montana, and an citizen of the United States. That is all I really need to know!
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), but honestly, I found most of them to be quite unattractive and just odd looking. I think American white people are better looking, the more they're mixed. Probably same thing for black Americans.
