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African american,irish american.why not just american ?

craig g

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Firstly,I haven't started this thread as a wind up or to insult anyone but im genuinely intrigued as to why the Americans (im from England and i don't really see the same thing in Europe ) cling onto the whole "African American" "Irish American" thing.surely if your born in America there is no need for the "my mothers mother is Irish so" or even if your mother is Irish etc.same goes for African Americans,just because your black and an American why isn't it just good enough to be American, no matter what skin colour or family background ? dont get me wrong im not saying you shouldn't celebrate your heritage but the fact that a 100 year old family tree of coloured people who have all been born and raised in america need an "african" tag before the american just strikes me as odd.same goes for irish etc,i have a friend who`s great great great grandfather drank a pint of guiness and he is forever going on about his "irish roots" and it can get quite heated when he is brought up on it.

like i said (and i cant stress this enough) i didn't post this to upset anyone or cause offence so please don't take it that way.i would just like to understand the point.
 

FLMountainMan

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Everyone wants to keep up the image of trying to be unique. Furthermore, people will often claim whatever nationality is more advantageous. The Irish people come out of the woodwork on St. Patty's Day. The number of people identifying themselves as of Germanic heritage decreased during WWI & WWII, in disproportion to the demographic shifts underway then.

People are deeply flawed. Everyone of us. Thinking otherwise is vanity.
 

SoCal2NYC

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Anything to spice up a rather dull life.
 

tiecollector

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The whole thing is ridiculous and people just use it because it allows them to form social circles more easily to try and feel more special and our "leaders" promote it for various reasons.

My favorite is when people who were born and raised here and only spea English try to pretend they are actually a foreigner and call some foreign country they have been to once at age 5 for a week as "home". I

n any case, it only serves to autodivide and partition people until we get a virtual Tower of Babel. It's much easier to control people when they aren't unified. The ruse that we are still a "nation of immigrants" (and I can't believe some people in England try to use this as well in England) is preposterous and only serves to get more cheap labor and a larger tax base.

I must say, as bad as the term "X-American" is, it is more endearing than the "British Born" prefix you have over there. It sounds like, oh hey, I'm not British, I'm actually Pakistani, I was just born here to fill a quota and get on welfare.
 

Southern-Nupe

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To be honest, this is something that's never bothered me. Just because one correlates cultural origin to the term "America", doesn't make them any less patriotic. It has more to do with cultural identity, which is why I don't get upset when people hold a Mexian-American day parade, or a Chinese-American or Irish-American festival....I think there's nothing wrong with recognizing your ancesterial country of origin, last I checked, we are all from somewhere.
 

jpeirpont

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Different cultures, with so many distinctions it would make no sense for anyone to call themselves just an American.
 

jpeirpont

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Originally Posted by craig g
Firstly,I haven't started this thread as a wind up or to insult anyone but im genuinely intrigued as to why the Americans (im from England and i don't really see the same thing in Europe ) cling onto the whole "African American" "Irish American" thing.surely if your born in America there is no need for the "my mothers mother is Irish so" or even if your mother is Irish etc.same goes for African Americans,just because your black and an American why isn't it just good enough to be American, no matter what skin colour or family background ? dont get me wrong im not saying you shouldn't celebrate your heritage but the fact that a 100 year old family tree of coloured people who have all been born and raised in america need an "african" tag before the american just strikes me as odd.same goes for irish etc,i have a friend who`s great great great grandfather drank a pint of guiness and he is forever going on about his "irish roots" and it can get quite heated when he is brought up on it.

like i said (and i cant stress this enough) i didn't post this to upset anyone or cause offence so please don't take it that way.i would just like to understand the point.

I've heard the term Afro Caribbean used by the English many times. Many people of Jamaican descent but born in England simply refer to themselves as Jamaican.
 

Southern-Nupe

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Originally Posted by jpeirpont
Different cultures, with so many distinctions it would make no sense for anyone to call themselves just an American.
Good point.
 

Augusto86

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Originally Posted by tiecollector
The whole thing is ridiculous and people just use it because it allows them to form social circles more easily to try and feel more special and our "leaders" promote it for various reasons.

My favorite is when people who were born and raised here and only spea English try to pretend they are actually a foreigner and call some foreign country they have been to once at age 5 for a week as "home". I

n any case, it only serves to autodivide and partition people until we get a virtual Tower of Babel. It's much easier to control people when they aren't unified. The ruse that we are still a "nation of immigrants" (and I can't believe some people in England try to use this as well in England) is preposterous and only serves to get more cheap labor and a larger tax base.

I must say, as bad as the term "X-American" is, it is more endearing than the "British Born" prefix you have over there. It sounds like, oh hey, I'm not British, I'm actually Pakistani, I was just born here to fill a quota and get on welfare.


ZOMG conspiracy.

In a country of 300 million the size of America, there are gonna be differences. Big ones. Some people, oddly enough, are proud of them. Get used to it.
 

lawyerdad

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Originally Posted by craig g
Firstly,I haven't started this thread as a wind up or to insult anyone but im genuinely intrigued as to why the Americans (im from England and i don't really see the same thing in Europe ) cling onto the whole "African American" "Irish American" thing.surely if your born in America there is no need for the "my mothers mother is Irish so" or even if your mother is Irish etc.same goes for African Americans,just because your black and an American why isn't it just good enough to be American, no matter what skin colour or family background ? dont get me wrong im not saying you shouldn't celebrate your heritage but the fact that a 100 year old family tree of coloured people who have all been born and raised in america need an "african" tag before the american just strikes me as odd.same goes for irish etc,i have a friend who`s great great great grandfather drank a pint of guiness and he is forever going on about his "irish roots" and it can get quite heated when he is brought up on it.

like i said (and i cant stress this enough) i didn't post this to upset anyone or cause offence so please don't take it that way.i would just like to understand the point.

I believe that in part such terms developed as a response to attitudes and nomenclature that reflecting the attitudes of people like the late mattjames, which tended to suggest that Americans of non-anglo ancestry were somehow not "real" Americans.
Originally Posted by tiecollector
The whole thing is ridiculous and people just use it because it allows them to form social circles more easily to try and feel more special and our "leaders" promote it for various reasons.
If by "people" you mean "some people" I suppose this might be literally true. As an attempt to explain how such terms came into use, it is grossly off-base.
 

Piobaire

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Originally Posted by Augusto86
In a country of 300 million the size of America, there are gonna be differences. Big ones. Some people, oddly enough, are proud of them. Get used to it.

So then China, which is larger land mass wise, and multiples of the US population, must have a ton of hyphenated Chinese?

laugh.gif
 

WN2

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Originally Posted by Piobaire
So then China, which is larger land mass wise, and multiples of the US population, must have a ton of hyphenated Chinese?

laugh.gif


Actually China is not nearly as homogenous as one would think.
 

Piobaire

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Originally Posted by WN2
Actually China is not nearly as homogenous as one would think.

I did not say it was homogenous. However, I am unaware of any hyphenated Chinese. I'll ask my wife's paternal grandparents if they come out for St. Paddy's tonight
laugh.gif
 

tiecollector

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Originally Posted by Augusto86
ZOMG conspiracy. In a country of 300 million the size of America, there are gonna be differences. Big ones. Some people, oddly enough, are proud of them. Get used to it.
This is coming from a guy who had no idea how dangerous cities in Brazil were yet claims to be "patriotic" when wearing green, blue and gold? It wasn't until recently that immigrants started demanding we cater to them. Becoming a US citizen used to be their crowning achievement, now it is seen as an entitlement. And yes, it is very odd.
 

Dragon

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Personally, I think it`s a little annoying.

I just use words like Black, Asian, etc to describe race instead of African-American, Asian-American, etc.

When I am not describing race, I just use American.
 

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