Where are you from? (ethnically)

[MERIZoC]

You're misinterpreting my point. Language is an indicator of ancestry, and one of the key components of culture. Is it the be all end all? No, of course not. But someone whose parents are Chinese, speak Chinese, and are the kids of chinese immigrants probably has a better claim to the label "Chinese" than a dude who works in a New York pizzeria, has ancestors who've been living in the US further than he can trace, and doesnt speak a lick of Italian has a claim to the "Italian" label.

I think it would still be fair for him to call himself Italian-American, though. I've adopted a lot of stereotypically Italian habits and so on that aren't actually Italian, including Italian-American words derived from English. Germanese instead of Aleman (or Tedesco), tichetta instead of biglietto, and gabagool instead of capicola.

Aren't you sort of proving my point that "identifying" with some far off ancestry is rather meaningless?

[Santa Leah]

I would bet you anything that I'm gonna be the only one with this ancestry, My father is Niuean.

[Novsvacro]

By N'American standards probably. People get pretty silly here about fractional 'descent'.

By North American standards I'm a purebred White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

By European standards I'm a Germanic pagan Anglo-Saxon-Jute Celto-Norman barbarian who is resisting Norman invasion at all costs.

You really take pride in this "I have no actual cultural so yay American nationalism," thing, eh?

[Yorkers]

People say they have "hints of Cherokee" or a "dash of Native American" as if their ancestry was a recipe for a baked good.

[Lady Scylla]

He can still be part Italian. I'm mostly Irish-German, which I can have traced all the way back to the 100 years war.

Can it now? You have traced thousands of ancestors?

Well, my family's been doing geneology work for decades. Furthest back we've gotten is 1539. We have an attic full of nothing but documents, journals, ledgers, photos and boxes.

[Camicon]

Which is why I don't claim French or English ethnicity.

You're not Québécois are you?

Parents grew up in Saskatoon, I grew up in Calgary. Prairie boy, through and through.

[Yorkers]

By North American standards I'm a purebred White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

By European standards I'm a Germanic pagan Anglo-Saxon-Jute Celto-Norman barbarian who is resisting Norman invasion at all costs.

You really take pride in this "I have no actual cultural so yay American nationalism," thing, eh?

I don't have an actual culture?

What?

[Novsvacro]

I think it would still be fair for him to call himself Italian-American, though. I've adopted a lot of stereotypically Italian habits and so on that aren't actually Italian, including Italian-American words derived from English. Germanese instead of Aleman (or Tedesco), tichetta instead of biglietto, and gabagool instead of capicola.

Aren't you sort of proving my point that "identifying" with some far off ancestry is rather meaningless?

I wasn't arguing your point, I was just saying that the line is obviously blurred between "I'm [X non-American ethnicity]," and "I'm one hundred percent American."

[Novsvacro]

You really take pride in this "I have no actual cultural so yay American nationalism," thing, eh?

I don't have an actual culture?

What?

I was joking about the stereotype that America in uncultured.

[Yorkers]

He can still be part Italian. I'm mostly Irish-German, which I can have traced all the way back to the 100 years war.

Can it now? You have traced thousands of ancestors?

If you go back far enough, all Europeans are related. It's due to the plagues killing about 60% of people, so all whites today are descended from the relatively small group of survivors.

As it stands, all Anglo people are related to Alfred the Great, and generally speaking, all Western Europeans are related to Charlemagne.

[Kyratistani]

Wait what is bad about this thread?
Forum 7?

[Camicon]

Wait what is bad about this thread?
Forum 7?

There is little content in the OP, and the topic doesn't really encourage discussion beyond one or two lines. That's what F7 is for.

[Yorkers]

I don't have an actual culture?

What?

I was joking about the stereotype that America in uncultured.

My culture consists of Protestantism, L.L. Bean boots, donuts, baseball, and Freemasonry.


Especially the donuts.

[Bogdanov Vishniac]

Aren't you sort of proving my point that "identifying" with some far off ancestry is rather meaningless?

I wasn't arguing your point, I was just saying that the line is obviously blurred between "I'm [X non-American ethnicity]," and "I'm one hundred percent American."

Again if you learned Italian and spoke Italian in your family you have a pretty good justification for identifying with Italian culture. Same with speaking English and identifying as an American. In such a situation you'd be entirely justified in identifying with both - as you, presumably, do. It's when you lose your direct connection with that culture, like not speaking Italian, that you lose your justification in identifying with it. Such as the Americans who claim to be Irish when the only 'Irish' thing they do is get plastered drinking green beer on St. Patrick's Day.

[Kyratistani]

Wait what is bad about this thread?
Forum 7?

There is little content in the OP, and the topic doesn't really encourage discussion beyond one or two lines. That's what F7 is for.

Oh...okay I'll remember that, thank you!

[Italios]

I was joking about the stereotype that America in uncultured.

My culture consists of Protestantism, L.L. Bean boots, donuts, baseball, and Freemasonry.


Especially the donuts.

Even as a joke, I would define that as more of a selective strain of bourgeois Americanism culture since we're all so fond of labels.

[2nd Thij Empire]

Italian Spanish,Mexican and Serbian.

[Collatis]

Half Jewish, a quarter Italian, and then a cluttering of other ones (Ukrainian, Irish, Welsh, Lenape) though I certainly can't say I identify as any of the latter ones. I've lived in America all of my life, as did my parents and grandparents, so most of this stuff is just arbitrary. I'm proud to be Jewish, and I suppose I would identify as an Italian-American to a certain extent, but it hardly affects the way I live my life.

Collatis pls y u do this

im ukrainian, i eat pierogies

[Soviet Canuckistan]

Collatis pls y u do this

im ukrainian, i eat pierogies

It's pedehe, you infidel

[Astrolinium]

On my mother's side, Jewish (All Ashkenazi, but half Galitzianer and half Litvak) and German. On my father's side, Irish and Italian.

[Conoga]

Switzerland

I would bet you anything that I'm gonna be the only one with this ancestry, My father is Niuean. :P

I've never even heard of Niue. What's it like?

[Luziyca]

Well... Russian, Ukrainian, Dutch, Norwegian, Irish, English, German, and Polish. Don't know the exact number, though.

[Imperium Sidhicum]

Born and bred Latvian for at least five generations.

[New confederate ramenia]

Californian

[Neutraligon]

Austria, Germany, Poland Russia.
Guess my religion....