Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I just am a Black American. Being black IMO is a great thing to be and being American to boot is wonderful for me.
I have found out a lot about the other ethnicities in my bloodline via genealogical research, but that has never changed the way I view myself.
I consider myself an American first and foremost. I never have claimed to be an "African American" primarily due to not having any recent connection to Africa. I have traced my family back to the early 1800s and mid 1700s on some lines and have yet to find an African connection. Being that it is 200+ years removed, I don't see the need to call myself any part of an African, though I am not ashamed of those distant roots or the others. Being American means we are multi-ethnic and so that is enough for me.
Are you ethnically "American" if your ethnicity is a combination that isn't really found anywhere else in the world? It kind of ties into what the OP is saying.
I haven't done any tests, but I have done some family research and I am probably about 75% Scots-Irish and 25% German. If I were to pick I would pick Scots-Irish as my ancestry because it is such a large part and I identify with the culture that they created in the United States. (My family still even uses words that are specific to Appalachia even though I grew up in Southeast Missouri)
If I was mixed with ancestry from 7 or 8 different places and living in the United States, wouldn't that be an American ethnicity? Or am I thinking about this incorrectly?
I consider myself American before anything else. My ethnicity is pretty clean-cut, unlike many I know ... my maternal grandfather was entirely British (born in New Jersey and raised in Chicago but with all British stock), both grandmothers were full-blooded German, and my paternal grandfather was full-blooded Italian. My last name is Italian, but I have always identified more with my German ancestry.
My girlfriend, on the other hand, calls herself a "mutt." Her mother is half-Italian and half-Hungarian. Her dad's side is much less clear, with at least some Finnish and Native American ancestry among other things I can't remember. Her last name is Richards, so there almost has to be some British in there. And building on another discussion going on, she doesn't consider herself Indian in the least. At best, she is 1/32nd.
I get a kick out when I hear white Americans whose grandparents and great-grandparents came fresh off the boat from Europe call themselves mutts.
My grandfather's dna results just came back. He is:
Beninese, Togolese, Nigerian, Cameroon, Ghanaian, Senegalese (75 percent African) AND Scandinavian, Western European, British, Spanish/Portugal, with traces of Eastern European, Central Asian and South-central hunter gatherers and south eastern Bantu blood.
That is just from one branch. I don't even know about my other three grandparents.
Last edited by TiltheEndofTime; 12-13-2015 at 01:01 AM..
My 10th grade Social Studies teacher once went around the room and asked "what nationality are you"?
Everyone was proud to claim Euro Mutt.
Until ~~
The 1st gen Korean girl Eileen said "American".
Our teacher yelled at us. "THAT'S RIGHT! YOU ARE ALL AMERICANS!!!"
A few days later my friend got on her nerves & she asked "What nationality were you the other day".
"You never called on me but I was going to say American".
Good save George.
She'd also say, "If ya don't vote, ya can't complain".
Loved that class!
My 10th grade Social Studies teacher once went around the room and asked "what nationality are you"?
Everyone was proud to claim Euro Mutt.
Until ~~
The 1st gen Korean girl Eileen said "American".
Our teacher yelled at us. "THAT'S RIGHT! YOU ARE ALL AMERICANS!!!"
A few days later my friend got on her nerves & she asked "What nationality were you the other day".
"You never called on me but I was going to say American".
Good save George.
She'd also say, "If ya don't vote, ya can't complain".
Loved that class!
I've never known any American to say anything other than "American" when asked what their nationality is. This topic is about ancestry and ethnicity, not necessarily the same thing.
I love the learning but I am what I am, a Las Vegas buffet in America
I was really surprised though when I got the DNA results. Not what I expected. I'm sure that happens lots when you don't know too much background on your ancestors. I definitely now can wear green on St. Patrick's Day! Never knew we had a drop of Irish descent!
Nationality and ethnicity are two different things. Usually when people ask someone else what their nationality is, what they actually want to know is what their ethnic background is. People usually ask that of someone who looks a little different, or has an accent, and I view that as a natural curiosity. It can even be a little educational.
There are a lot of Americans who consider themselves mutts. Couldn't begin to guess how many times someone has told me that "they don't know" what their blood lineages are, which I'll admit is something that I cannot comprehend at all.
My parents were both Azoreans (Portuguese), with traces of Irish, French and Dutch that are too small to even claim. The Irish one was a g-g-g-grandmother who added an "interesting" change into the lineage, so I always think of her on St. Patrick's Day.
I grew up in Azorean communities of California and was exposed to much of the culture, and I never fully left it. So while I was born here, I still gladly tell people that I am Portuguese when they ask. And I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been asked.
I've never known any American to say anything other than "American" when asked what their nationality is. This topic is about ancestry and ethnicity, not necessarily the same thing.
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.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
