It gets confusing, because ‘American’ correctly applies to people of all sorts of ethnicities. But ‘generic American’ implies to me that this entire breadth isn’t what’s meant, or anything like it.
And it also gets confusing, because people tend to think of ‘ethnicity’, in the USA, as having to do with how and where one’s family lived hundreds of years ago in some other country (which may be what you’re actually asking about), and ‘generic American’ is both relatively new and what people are living here and now. Other ethnicities are of course often also what people are living here and now, including quite a few Americans; but the people who think of themselves as just ‘generic American’ with no ethnicity aren’t thinking of such living patterns as ‘generic American’ even if they do think of the people living them as Americans.
I’m reminded of a conversation years ago with an uncle of mine in which he kept insisting that English-speaking people from Nebraska had no accent at all. Because he thought of his accent as ‘normal’, he thought everybody else in the world had an accent, but Nebraskans/Upper Midwest people didn’t.
Yes. Rather than sharing your experiences maintaining your ethnic / cultural heritage
Let’s be clear here, you were interested in whether people did or did not maintain their ethnic cultural heritage. you’ve said that several times.
you insisted ethnic/ cultural heritages don’t exist
No I have not. I have given personal opinion on whether I think such things are important to me…you know…the original question you asked? And no they aren’t important…to me. Other opinions are available and have been provided.
and if those racist Japanese don’t consider you Japanese its their fault.
Hang on, You are the one who said they wouldn’t consider me “ethnically Japanese”. I simply don’t care if they do or don’t because…as I said…“ethnicity” is not important to me. That would their opinion to hold and to deal with as they choose. No-one talked about “faults” or “racism” until you brought it up
I believe in my OP, I identified as a person of Irish-German descent who now views himself as a generic white American. I was curious as to other Americans of various ethnicities viewed themselves and how they may or may not relate to their heritage.
I do not view “American” as an ethnicity. It is a nationality. Han Chinese is a ethinicity. Not all Chinese are Han.
you are proving my point. you are color blind, you don’t see race, ethnicity is not important. why would anyone care if I was ethnically Japanese, shame on them if they do. But, Would you not bring any of your “Britishness” with you to Japan? or would you teach your children English? maybe how to make proper cup of Earl grey tea? play Cricket? Would your children respect the queen?
“American” is a nationality. “Americans” include people of a whole lot of ethnicities. ‘Generic American’ IMO is one of them.
Those people are all Americans; but you clearly don’t see yourself as sharing an ethnicity with them. That doesn’t mean that you haven’t got one. It means that you’re thinking like my uncle, who didn’t think he had an accent.
you are proving my point. you are color blind, you don’t see race, ethnicity is not important.
Please do not put words in my mouth. I have the ability to see very different coloured skins, I can tell the difference between some races, Ethnicity is important to some people.
I leave it to the good judgement of the dopers to see if your words are an accurate reflection of my views in this thread.
why would anyone care if I was ethnically Japanese, shame on them if they do.
You really are struggling with this aren’t you? I made no value judgement on what the Japanese think about my ethnicity. I literally do not care. I’ve said so multiple times. You are seeing antipathy and judgements where none exist. There is no “shame” involved nor even implied.
But, Would you not bring any of your “Britishness” with you to Japan? or would you teach your children English? maybe how to make proper cup of Earl grey tea? play Cricket? Would your children respect the queen?
I might, but not because they are in anyway “British” as such, I wouldn’t elevate them as a practice simply because they are representative of where I was born. As for food, our family already eat far more Asian, Mexican, Italian, Japanese and oriental food than they ever do “british” food.
And the children would be free to treat the queen with whatever level of respect they so choose.
This is correct. I guess most people would call Chinese etc ‘East Asian’. But if you say ‘Asian’ to a Brit, we’ll picture someone from the Indian Sub Continent.
Yes it is because you were born British, that is your culture. People raise their children the way they were raised. Good for you that you eat Italian food, Mexican “Asian/Japanese/Oriental food”. (your multiculturalism might of slipped up there).
Your children would most likely treat the queen as you do.
They would watch the sports you watch.
they would follow the religion you follow, or be atheist if you are
if you like bangers and mash for breakfast so will they
if you drink English tea, they will
now your grandchildren might be different, they are assimilating into Japanese culture.
things start to change. green tea taste better than English tea, they like baseball instead of cricket
I’m asking your great grand children if they might keep a British flag in their office, know the words to rule brittania, remember great grandads recipe for curry (yes I know its Indian) take English language classes. study Shakespeare? just for the sake of their ethnic identity
oh lord, I give up. just semantics about nationality and ethnicity.
Oh Wait, what if I concede ethnicity and nationality are the same thing. Then can people in multi cultural societies share their stories about keeping their cultural traditions alive.
Yes it is because you were born British, that is your culture. People raise their children the way they were raised.
No, Some do, some don’t. You seem very fond of the broad brush there. My parents raised us very differently than they were, We’ve done the same with ours. If that weren’t the case you wouldn’t have asked your original question.
Good for you that you eat Italian food, Mexican “Asian/Japanese/Oriental food”. (your multiculturalism might of slipped up there).
Yeah, I’m not fishing for patronising praise here. We eat it because we like it. It isn’t a social duty. I can’t fathom why our eating of a wide range of foods somehow shows that our “multiculturalism has slipped”. Surely that shows the opposite?
Your children would most likely treat the queen as you do.
They would watch the sports you watch.
they would follow the religion you follow, or be atheist if you are
if you like bangers and mash for breakfast so will they
if you drink English tea, they will
I’m somehow thinking you don’t have kids…none of that is a given. It doesn’t happen now so why would it happen in Japan?
I’m asking your great grand children if they might keep a British flag in their office, know the words to rule brittania, remember great grandads recipe for curry (yes I know its Indian) take English language classes. study Shakespeare? just for the sake of their ethnic identity
Well when we hypothetically have moved to Japan you can ask my hypothetical grand-children and we’ll see. Until that happens you’ll have to make do with this grand-child talking about whether I set any store by my previous generations cultural and ethnic identify…answer…meh! not really.
Did you raise your your children to speak Pashtun? or English? Do you raise your children to believe in Parliamentary democracy? Or the wisdom of the Chinese Communist Party? It’s utter nonsense to think your cultural upbringing has nothing to do how you are raising your children.
"My parents raised us very differently than they were, We’ve done the same with ours. " Think about that… Yes perhaps your parents broke the mold from British child rearing, but now you are following your parents mold. Because that how you were raised.
It’s utter nonsense to think your cultural upbringing has nothing to do how you are raising your children.
Yes, that would be utter nonsense. The culture of the parents will most likely have some effect on how people raise their children. I don’t know why you are assuming I think differently.
However, it is not guaranteed to be the only effect, nor even the most important, nor be in any way predictable or fixed and the variation will be wide and complicated.
Which was what you were getting at in your question was it not?
Grew up in the deep south. No one identified by their ancestors homeland (German, Irish, etc). I think we all thought that was weird. I am sure we were all a mix and it would take too much work to find out what we were the most of.
People were pretty much put into one of three categories: White, Black, and Hispanic (there were no Asians).