I had to look up Abenaki, for what it’s worth.
I’m with the OP. My theory is that it’s easier for some people to claim ancestry rather than develop an interesting personality. It’s akin to claiming that your from a city, but upon closer questioning your from a suburban development 15 miles out of the city.
A friend of mine used to say (well, she probably still says it, I just haven’t seen her in a decade) you’re only proud of where you’re from when you can’t find any pride in who you are - no character, no achievement, no career, no special relationship, no personality, no outstanding kids, no exceptional siblings, not even a notable perversion. Birth-pride is the very last resort. The only other alternative would be sports team-pride, which really is birth-pride in disguise.
So far she hasn’t been wrong about any nationalists I’ve ever met.
Not that it has ever happened to you, but could it be that this person didn’t want that other person to know where they lived?
“Ummm… yeah… sure. I live WAAAAY Up-Town… in a gated community… with guardtowers with search lights. Patrolled all night by watchmen with German Shepherds. And schmeisers. Whats… whats my number? 555-1212…”
Some people just can’t take a good stalking…
<sudden nervous breakdown>DIFFERENT PLACES ! cry</snb>
This performance brought to you by the movie Showgirls.
Oh, pardon me Mr. Politically Correct, but around here we still just call them White Trash.
Okay, okay, yes there is a non-trivial difference between the mass of Scots-Irish DNA bearing individuals spread all over the country and the more strongly heritage minded enclaves you get in big northern cities. Still, Irish genetic inheritance is so well dispersed in the population that I don’t take seriously anybody calling themselves Irish if they’ve never visited cousins in Killblarney or some shit.
Your average self-identified Irish American is a person who will flay the unenlightened over the stereotype that the Irish are all drunkards while also insisting that their Irish blood means they can seriously drink you under the table. You, in this case, often being Americans of German descent, go figure.
Relax, buddy. I know it takes a lot of concentration to reach for government handouts with four arms.
I’m more Irish than most of the Americans I see claiming to be Irish and/or Irish-American.
I only tell people about it if we are actually discussing our heritage. I am, however, never English (despite the accent). I’m British due to that pesky Mother coming from Renfrew.
No, it’s more like this quote from David Sedaris’ When You are Engulfed in Flames:
Claiming Irish decent to make yourself more interesting is the equivalent of, “well, just outside Ireland, still in the Northern Hemisphere.”
I’d never noticed this before, but as soon as you mentioned it I could think of hundreds of examples. :eek:
A fair point. Thank you!
Youtube showed that quote as happening after the lead threw a big-gulp (the drink, people) on a table. I’m not sure which is more insulting to the Irish: that Americans pretending to be Irish would buy 60-ounce Big Gulps.
Or thinking that that all the residents of NI & ROI know & can quote ‘Showgirls’.
“Oi was just out getting a quart of milk when I saw they was projecting that damned Elizabeth Berkley up on the city walls again!”
“Showgirls!? spit I wouldn’t have that shown on a flaming city bus! Where’s me half-bricks at…?”
Most people say that because they get tired of answering “Oh, it’s 15 miles north of Dallas.” Easier to just say Dallas.
I think 15 years might be an Irish generation.
[D&R]
Ha, I’ve done that exact thing. It’s because saying, “I’m from Silver Spring” or “I’m from College Park” to some stranger on a plane will get you a blank stare, but “I’m from DC” will get you a look of understanding. They all blend together anyway; who cares?
On preview: what Odesio said.
Well, I thought I was clear in my post that I find people who claim to be from cities they are not, or from countries that they are not, they are trying to give themselves cachet. “I’m Irish!” really? cuz you seem like just a boring white guy from the burbs.
Are these the same Irish-Americans who felt they had a duty to fund the IRA during the Troubles the OP is talking about?
True and the average Irishman had, at the time, a better diet than the average Englishman, who survived on something close to the stereotypical beer, red meat and cheese and died much earlier from clogged arteries.
I call myself a Canadian of English descent.
It’s a little weird to say English-Canadian and mean it that way, because the term gets mixed up with all our linguistic politics. “English-Canadian” tends to be used instead of “English-speaking Canadian” to distinguish people from “French-speaking Canadians”. Who may or may not be the same as “Quebeckers”. Who are not necessarily the same as “Québecois”.
Roughly, that vast multilingual mass of people who use English as their common language are English-Canadians, and the vast multilingual mass of people who use French as their common language are French-Canadians.
I have a close-ish relative by marriage who has always insisted that she is Irish, to the point of having Irish-themed decorations around the house, taking trips back to the “homeland” - the whole nine yards. We always thought this was a bit odd, because she actually knew very little about her ancestry, but, you know, whatever. Not long ago, she got in touch with a long-lost relative who actually DID have documentation on their family’s history. It turns out that every line that has been traced stays firmly in West Virginia for as long as records exist. Obviously the family came from somewhere, but there’s not a shred of evidence for any specific origin at all. The facts haven’t changed her mind a bit, of course. She’s still pure-blooded Irish in her mind.
A lot of it has to do with American history and culture. We’re a nation that was built on immigration, and as others have said, a lot of people were forced to live in their own little ethnic ghettos. So people tended to keep some of their own customs – holiday celebrations, names, food, even certain stories, etc. You even see it in some towns. Food is a big one – for example, here in Pittsburgh, Polish food is extremely popular, because we had a large Polish population settle here. My family still uses some old traditional recipes from “the old country”, as they would say.
So that’s just how our culture was shaped, when you had that big wave of immigration from about, oh the 1840s up until WWI I’d say. It had a huge impact on how the U.S. was built, and our way of life. The whole “melting pot” thing is largely a myth. People didn’t just automatically assimilate. They brought their customs with them. They became “Americanized” in various ways, but they were still there.
I don’t mean to sound so “we have much to learn from them”, but hey, them’s the facts. U.S. culture, for whatever it’s worth, was majorly influenced by other cultures. And that’s why people tend to say they’re “Irish-American”, “Italian-American”, etc. Because sometimes, you have those old world traditions being observed in your own families. shrugs
(Think of various places in big cities – “Chinatown”, “Little Italy”, etc)
Then they’re lazy. I’m from a small town outside of Coventry. I am not from Coventry. Coventry is in a different county to where I am from, it just happens that the county I am from has no cities and Coventry is the closest large settlement.
So I always say something a long the line of “a small town just outside of Coventry, you won’t have heard of it”.
Hipster! :mad: