If you are of European descent…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, i feel a yearning to return to my ancestors’ land. It’s not guilt but I definitely don’t feel great or proud about being descended from colonizers. I wish my family had maintained Irish citizenship through the generations.

Just move out of Montgomery County. That would be a good start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, i feel a yearning to return to my ancestors’ land. It’s not guilt but I definitely don’t feel great or proud about being descended from colonizers. I wish my family had maintained Irish citizenship through the generations.

Well if it makes you feel any better the Irish were not “colonizers”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, i feel a yearning to return to my ancestors’ land. It’s not guilt but I definitely don’t feel great or proud about being descended from colonizers. I wish my family had maintained Irish citizenship through the generations.

Just move out of Montgomery County. That would be a good start.

DP. Why are you so hostile to people expressing a very normal and understandable feeling? Are you the same person posting angrily in this thread or are there multiple?

I don't understand the hostility here. People are saying "I don't feel like I belong, I wonder if I would belong more in my ancestral home." Even if you disagree with them, which is a totally valid perspective, I don't understand why it's making people so hostile. It is a vulnerable, very human desire, to admit you feel adrift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, i feel a yearning to return to my ancestors’ land. It’s not guilt but I definitely don’t feel great or proud about being descended from colonizers. I wish my family had maintained Irish citizenship through the generations.

Well if it makes you feel any better the Irish were not “colonizers”.

All European settlers/immigrants in the US are "colonizers" in the sense that they have created and maintain a colony of white people here that displaced and oppressed native populations. You can be a colonizer without being in charge of the place being colonized. Europeans came to the US and took over and are still basically in charge. And imposed their language and culture. That's colonization.

[Anonymous]

So don't own slaves or colonize other countries. See how easy it is to take responsibility for you own actions? Frankly, I applaud my Scandinavian ancestors for finding a better life here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So don't own slaves or colonize other countries. See how easy it is to take responsibility for you own actions? Frankly, I applaud my Scandinavian ancestors for finding a better life here.

You don't get it. Try actually reading what the OP wrote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So don't own slaves or colonize other countries. See how easy it is to take responsibility for you own actions? Frankly, I applaud my Scandinavian ancestors for finding a better life here.

OP said that her ancestors came here on a whim. I know the famine and brutality that my ancestors fled from when the came here, so yes, I think they made a good choice - but OP's ancestors were just bored and decided to cross an ocean because they liked the weather. She doesn't have any reason to respect any decisions that her ancestors might have made - so she's unhappy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So don't own slaves or colonize other countries. See how easy it is to take responsibility for you own actions? Frankly, I applaud my Scandinavian ancestors for finding a better life here.

You don't get it. Try actually reading what the OP wrote.

No, I don't get it, because it's ridiculous to feel guilty for something that happened 400 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:… do you ever think you should move to Europe to “go back where you came from”?

I have started to feel this way. I feel like no matter how much I work to be inclusive and tolerant, there’s no getting around the fact that my presence as a white person in North America is the result of colonization, slavery, and racism. All things I fundamentally oppose.

Sometimes I think it would be better for everyone, including me, if I returned with my family to my ancestral roots (Germany or Norway). Not just because I feel the US really belongs to Native people and the descendants of enslaved people who built the country, but because I wonder if living where my family lived for thousands of years before immigrating to the US in the early 20th century would make me feel like I belonged more.

I just feel like I’m not supposed to be here. It wasn’t my choice to come but maybe it could be my choice to leave.

Does anyone else feel this way?

No. But my family on both sides only came with my great grandparents and grandparents so at the turn of the 20th century.

[Anonymous]

I actually do get what you’re saying OP. I lived in Germany for a while and it was strangely reassuring. In the US, I always have the low-level feeling that I’m the villain no matter what I do. In Germany most everybody is white so I’m not the bad guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, i feel a yearning to return to my ancestors’ land. It’s not guilt but I definitely don’t feel great or proud about being descended from colonizers. I wish my family had maintained Irish citizenship through the generations.

Well if it makes you feel any better the Irish were not “colonizers”.

All European settlers/immigrants in the US are "colonizers" in the sense that they have created and maintain a colony of white people here that displaced and oppressed native populations. You can be a colonizer without being in charge of the place being colonized. Europeans came to the US and took over and are still basically in charge. And imposed their language and culture. That's colonization.

And that is not changing. I understand the feeling and empathize with it. But, there is not going to be a mass exodus of white, European descent Americans as a result of colonization. It's just not happening. This is my home and that's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, i feel a yearning to return to my ancestors’ land. It’s not guilt but I definitely don’t feel great or proud about being descended from colonizers. I wish my family had maintained Irish citizenship through the generations.

Just move out of Montgomery County. That would be a good start.

DP. Why are you so hostile to people expressing a very normal and understandable feeling? Are you the same person posting angrily in this thread or are there multiple?

I don't understand the hostility here. People are saying "I don't feel like I belong, I wonder if I would belong more in my ancestral home." Even if you disagree with them, which is a totally valid perspective, I don't understand why it's making people so hostile. It is a vulnerable, very human desire, to admit you feel adrift.

See 10:46.

I'm not hostile to OP or her feelings of rootlessness - many people feel that, in the DMV and the US. I'm suggesting that living in MoCo and feeling White guilt for being a colonizer are hurting her and are easily fixed by moving somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

You may just want to move to Norway and are looking for an excuse to do it. I would too, if I could!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, i feel a yearning to return to my ancestors’ land. It’s not guilt but I definitely don’t feel great or proud about being descended from colonizers. I wish my family had maintained Irish citizenship through the generations.

Well if it makes you feel any better the Irish were not “colonizers”.

All European settlers/immigrants in the US are "colonizers" in the sense that they have created and maintain a colony of white people here that displaced and oppressed native populations. You can be a colonizer without being in charge of the place being colonized. Europeans came to the US and took over and are still basically in charge. And imposed their language and culture. That's colonization.

Yes, just as human groups have been doing to other human groups since the dawn of humankind. Nothing unique about the USA with regards to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, that's racism applied to yourself. And worse, if you apply it to others, you would bar any current immigration as well.

As a French multiethnic national living in the US on a visa and hoping to get a green card and citizenship, I utterly reject your premise. Countries NEED immigration. Just not too much too fast, as it creates cultural integration tensions and shortages in public services. But immigration and mixing of cultures is a GOOD thing.

As I mentioned, I am multi-ethnic. What does your reasoning lead to concerning mixed-race people? Do you think they don't belong ANYWHERE?

So. Maybe think a little before you post.

I think you are misreading my post. I’m not saying anyone should feel this way, only that I do.

I feel no connection to this country. I’m fourth generation on both sides, but have no sense of roots here. I know people who trace their family in the US to native tribes that predate colonization, to Spanish families who settled in the western US back when it still belonged to Spain, or when it was Mexico. I know people whose story of belonging in the US is traced to ancestors who were enslaved in the US, which I think makes them deserving of belonging in a way I am not.

I’m not anti-immigration. People should immigrate if the want or need to, I understand the value of immigration.

But I did not choose to immigrate to the US and don’t feel like I have a place here. I wonder if living somewhere that I have deeper roots might offer more belonging on some level, even if it meant learning a new (to me) language and culture.

You are a lonely drama queen. You feel like you don’t have a place here because you aren’t connected to a community. My husband is second generation and I’m third generation American. It’s laughable you think you will “belong more” in a country you don’t speak the language of and didn’t have any exposure to (via a parent or grandparent]. You are crazy or a troll.