It definitely, absolutely depends on where you live. Up in Pittsburgh where my mom’s family still lives they actually care if you’re Polish or Italian or whatever. Down here in the South the idea that it would matter to anybody what kind of white person you were is kind of shocking. You’d certainly never see cemeteries here like the one my great grandparents are buried in - perhaps we could sell them some vowels?
I’ve always found it odd (possibly because I’m not an American) how the South is the area most likely to identify as “American” when they are just as likely to have had ancestors come over as someone from Vermont or North Dakota …
My dad’s family has been here since before the Revolutionary War and my mom’s family for four generations. I consider myself American and not English (dad) or Lithuanian (mom).
I think this is how it should be. But it’s not always that easy. What happens when even the government of the country of your professed loyalty rejects you? I’m sure Japanese-Americans felt oh so American during WWII when the US government rounded them up and shipped their asses to internment camps for… not looking American enough?
My parents were born elsewhere but I was born here, and I’ve definitely always considered myself American. My parents are now citizens and they both consider themselves to be American now. For them it was a matter of just living here so long and being part of the culture, I suppose. I guess it’s really a matter of attitude, too, maybe.
Says someone who has probably never seen an elderly Quebecois wearing a speedo at Old Orchard Beach:D
I’m glad that trend has reversed. As a child my Mom would cover my eyes when a speedo walked by us on the beach. :eek: I was so clueless. Eventually I wondered why some men had bulgy bathing suits and they were usually hairy and wore a gold necklace. :dubious:
My Grand-dad always had hopes of seeing the Communists driven out of the “Motherland” and our dialect was his primary language to his death. He was naturalized but never really American.
Dad was maybe two when they came here; he fought for this country well, worked, hardly spoke the Old Tongues - but there was always that dream in the back of his head about going back and buying a potato farm somewhere one place or another where the tribe settled. Call him about a 50/50 toss up.
I can cuss in the Old Tongues and make it through a funeral mass without being totally lost. The Old Religion isn’t for me and I like the relatives “back there” but other than a short visit maybe every 20 years or so I don’t need to see them. I’m 90% there to being an American.
My Grand-nephew has no idea of his ancestry mostly because he doesn’t want one. And he isn’t sure he cares for “foreigners” much. Now THAT is what I call an American!
I think it depends on a lot of factors. Mostly I’m talking about the fact that my own 1/16th Estonian heritage is evident only in my Grandfather’s love of sardines.
I live in China right now and have seen my share of Chinese-Americans give the place a shot. Some go through the whole “I’ve finally found where I belong” thing. Others go “WTF this place is crazy. Where can I buy some cheese?” Some have embraced a partially Chinese identity. Others have realized how thoroughly American they are. I also imagine growing up Asian-American is going to be different in San Francisco or Honolulu than in Boise. People growing up in areas with large Asian-American communities are not going to feel as different. My experiences come from a pretty diverse part of California. But yeah, I know the feeling. In Cameroon, we had a group of Polish nuns in my area. I used to be so excited to see them, assuming we’d have something in common. But pretty quickly I’d realize that I actually had nothing in common with middle-aged Polish nuns.
In my (admittedly limited) experience, East Asian cultures also regard race as a bit more defining than other cultures currently do. I’ve heard a lot of references to ideas like “thoughts only Chinese people could have” and the like. My school is currently holding a forum by scholars who are trying to prove that Chinese people are descended from a different human ancestor than the rest of the world (!). Most people I know here are confused about the very idea of assimilation (once again, I live in the sticks) and don’t really get the idea that they could become American.
I imagine some of these ideas sometimes continue into the second generation in a way that they wouldn’t in, say, an Estonian American family.
Anyway, interesting stuff. I have a friend who is the only American in her family. Her mom is Mexican and her dad is French. She grew up in America while they were grad students, but her siblings grew up mostly in France or Mexico. Now her parents live in Mexico and her siblings in France. She is as American as it gets- she lived a completely normal American childhood and young adulthood, full of hayrides and college football and the works.
And she’s the only one like that in her whole family. Everyone else sees themselves as French-Mexican. She longs for the day that SOMEONE in her family will celebrate Thanksgiving with her. But alas, she is the only one!
The keyword here is probably “elderly”. Most people I know seem to be as horrified by Speedos as you are. I, for one, don’t see what the fuss is although I usually wear bathing trunks.
If you were born and spent 80%+ of your childhood in the USA, then you are American.
To be honest I think most American ‘heritage’ stuff is absolute nonsense – notice the way national identity is reduced to foodstuffs and ‘traditions’.
If you were born and raised in the USA, grew up in US political culture, went to American schools, interacted with the media involved in the USA, then you are American. If you are born to someone who immigrated as an adult, then you are, on balance, American-- but an interesting borderline case.
For people who were born and raised in the US, and whose parents were born and raised in the US to claim to be anything other than American is laughable.
pdts
This is false, at least for some European countries. I know that in the UK a surprisingly large proportion of people have a foreign-born grandparent, but would never describe themselves as anything other than English/British. If asked about their ethnic origins they might say ‘oh, my granddad was Polish’, or ‘I’m a quarter Polish’ but they would never say ‘I’m Polish’.
Though the most common response would probably be ‘I have no idea’ – in the UK we just care a lot less about the whole thing, I think. Not that the UK doesn’t have massive problems with racism, but anyone white who was born in the UK is unquestioningly described as British.
For example, where I grew up there are lots of Irish people (ie, people born and raised in Ireland). So many of my childhood friends had one or even two Irish parents. But they would never describe themselves as anything other than Welsh, and probably wouldn’t know what you mean if you asked about their ‘heritage’ – that’s an Americanism.
pdts