American Ethnicity - Is it possible to be ethnically American?

[Anonymous]

Real life example; for International Night at our elementary school, each family is to bring a food item from a (foreign) country that represents their family's heritage.

I have to reach but typically make Irish soda bread in honor of our family's most recent immigrant, circa 1915. It would be more authentic to bring apple pie or biscuits; our family has been in the USA since the 1700s.

Ethnically and culturally, I'm American. To get specific, I identify with the distinctive culture of Central Pennsylvania and I am hundreds of years beyond a culture other than that of the USA.

[Anonymous]

The United States is, comparatively, a very young country. It's really just an infant, outside of its Native American history.

"Ethnicity" takes a lot of time to develop in relatively isolated communities. You don't get an "ethnicity" in a couple hundred years. To be honest, given the increasingly geographically accessible world, the days of "ethnicity" are likely on their way out, at least on any kind of genetic level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I'd agree with that. Southern is definitely an ethnicity. They have a unique language, food, attitude, cuisine, religion.... Maybe there's no one American ethnicity but many American ethnicities. Yankee might be another. California is a culture of its own. Texas, need I say more.

This is culture, not "ethnicity."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I'd agree with that. Southern is definitely an ethnicity. They have a unique language, food, attitude, cuisine, religion.... Maybe there's no one American ethnicity but many American ethnicities. Yankee might be another. California is a culture of its own. Texas, need I say more.

This is culture, not "ethnicity."

Ethnicity is strongly defined by shared cultural bonds. I hate to go to wiki, but it is a pretty precise definitions:

"Ethnicity or ethnic group is a socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on a perceived shared social experience or ancestry.[1] Membership of an ethnic group tends to be associated with and ideologies of shared cultural heritage, ancestry, history, homeland, language or dialect, and with symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, physical appearance, etc."

Ancestry is only one part of ethnicity; in mostly homogeneous countries, that distinction isn't really necessary. It becomes more tricky in multicultural, blended societies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I honestly don't think so, unless you're referring to Native American ancestry. Everyone else is a descendent of an immigrant and their ethnicity comes from elsewhere.

Where did the Native Americans come from?

Why do they need to have come from somewhere? Do you ask where the long-dead Irish folks in Ireland came from?

[Anonymous]

Ethnicity IS culture, though.

(What else do people think it could be?)

[Anonymous]

I think there are many different ethnic groups that are distinctively American. I was just reading something about the "Mardi Gras Indians" in NOLO, definitely a cultural practice that is unique to this country, and associated with a specific ethnic group. Mormons in Utah have ethnic/cultural practices and shared history that is unique to this country.

I don't think there is one universal American ethnicity, but as a member of a family whose ancestors have been here for hundreds of years (the most recent "foreign country" to which anyone, on any branch of my family can trace ancestry is the Republic of Texas), who can trace our ancestry to the slave trade, and the Manhattan Dutch, and the settlers at Jamestown and on the Mayflower, I think our ethnicity is unique to America, even if we're one of many American ethnicities.

[Anonymous]

Imagine any of us left the US for good. In several generations, some of our descendants would feel ethnically American, despite being French, Australian...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Heritage is more about self-identification due to social circumstance than biology. It makes little sense to force people into buckets based on their genome. It doesn't work for Blacks, it doesn't work for American Indians, and it doesn't even work for European immigrants. For instance, I am probably 1/2 Italian, 3/8 German and 1/8 French. But I have no identification with that 1/8 French, and we have little connection to cultural traditions of Germans. I was raised by an Italian mother with an Italian grandmother who were closely connected to their immigrant history. So generally I identify as Italian-American.

I definitely second this! Identity is a complicated matter of self-perception. I identify as Irish because my father is from Ireland and has moderately exposed me to that heritage. I consider myself American because I was born and raised in this great nation. I consider myself Anglo-Saxon, because America's cultural heritage stretches back to England, and is linked with nations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, though I have no English ancestry either. I consider myself Western, and affiliate with the cultural inheritance of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem, despite having no Mediterranean or Semitic blood. I am Catholic, and so I identify with the early martyrs and Biblical figures, despite being separated by 2,000 years, a continent and bloodlines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Even the native americans came from somewhere else first.

But, we ALL came from somewhere else.... Human history is a history of migration. We're all African.

I guess the question is, how long does it take for a population to acquire its own ethnic identity? Not sure that's even possible nowadays because, what population evolves in isolation, giving a distinct ethnicity an opportunity to develop?

Please, the white folks don't want to hear that "we're all African".

More like we recognize what a silly claim it is when you consider our ancestors left Africa before they were even homo sapiens. Might as well call me an Arab because the human race settled in Mesopotamia first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"My ancestors are English, and French, and Scottish, and Dutch, but they've all been here long enough that none of the original traditions remain."

Do you speak English, moron?

Do you speak asshole, asshole?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have Chinese-american friends whose fAmilies have roots in the us longer than my white family .... Ditto for black friends. So who is ethnically American?

All of them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not tink so when I lived in NY where everyone in my high school was first or second generation Irish-, Italian- or Jewish- American. But then I moved to the South and started meeting people who were "Irish-Scots-German-NativeAmerican" mix and whose families had been here 300 or 400 years. Then I started thinking, yeah, those people are ethnically American. Or Southern, at least.

Add in a touch of African and hispanic blood and I think you come pretty close, at least as far as genes go. Culturally, I think we're definitely our own thing, laid on a strong foundation of English-Scots-Irish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Even the native americans came from somewhere else first.

But, we ALL came from somewhere else.... Human history is a history of migration. We're all African.

I guess the question is, how long does it take for a population to acquire its own ethnic identity? Not sure that's even possible nowadays because, what population evolves in isolation, giving a distinct ethnicity an opportunity to develop?

Op here, good question.

Agree, too. I was going to say in about 400 years the racial mixing might be sufficient enough, but I hadn't considered the global cultural influence of modern technology, travel, economics, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we need to agree what "ethnicity" is. The way some people are using it is how I would define nationality or culture. I think of ethnicity as bloodlines, not traditions/culture.

Also keep in mind that the continent consists of Canada, the US, and Central America.

FIFY