Can you be a native of America/United States of America if you are not Native American?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it so embarrassing that Columbus Day is still celebrated. It should banned entirely.

Every time this comes up, it's a slippery slope to then erasing any and all traces of western European exploration and settlement.

America is named after a European explorer. Whether does it end?

I can’t tell if this is sarcasm.
Any and all traces of European exploration are visible by looking at all of us white people living here.

Right? Also, Columbus was a terrible person, even by the standards of his own time. He was so brutal that some of his contemporaries complained to the Crown. Not really someone we should emulate. We don't need to celebrate him personally to acknowledge the very obvious fact that Europeans colonized the Americas.

If you think Columbus Day is about emulating Columbus, no wonder you want to cancel it...

If Columbus Day is not about celebrating Columbus, what IS it about? And if it's not about celebrating Columbus, maybe we could call it something else, so that it gets out from under his unpleasant legacy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only natives to this country are the indigenous peoples. Which makes white supremacy in this country all the more laughable.

Nah. The indigenous people all came from somewhere else, mostly from Asia. And those people originally came from somewhere else too.

By your definition, no one is native once you get away from the people living in southern Africa.

+1. Native Americans didn't spontaneously spring from the ground in America.

But when does being Native American include those not indigenous to America or the first to arrive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it so embarrassing that Columbus Day is still celebrated. It should banned entirely.

Every time this comes up, it's a slippery slope to then erasing any and all traces of western European exploration and settlement.

America is named after a European explorer. Whether does it end?

I can’t tell if this is sarcasm.
Any and all traces of European exploration are visible by looking at all of us white people living here.

Right? Also, Columbus was a terrible person, even by the standards of his own time. He was so brutal that some of his contemporaries complained to the Crown. Not really someone we should emulate. We don't need to celebrate him personally to acknowledge the very obvious fact that Europeans colonized the Americas.

If you think Columbus Day is about emulating Columbus, no wonder you want to cancel it...

If Columbus Day is not about celebrating Columbus, what IS it about? And if it's not about celebrating Columbus, maybe we could call it something else, so that it gets out from under his unpleasant legacy?

Not all states "celebrate" Columbus Day. We found out the hard way. We moved from the DMV to the Midwest for work. Took a three-day trip over Columbus Day weekend. The school called on Monday asking where our kids are - because they don't do Columbus Day in that state. Oops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it so embarrassing that Columbus Day is still celebrated. It should banned entirely.

Every time this comes up, it's a slippery slope to then erasing any and all traces of western European exploration and settlement.

America is named after a European explorer. Whether does it end?

I can’t tell if this is sarcasm.
Any and all traces of European exploration are visible by looking at all of us white people living here.

Right? Also, Columbus was a terrible person, even by the standards of his own time. He was so brutal that some of his contemporaries complained to the Crown. Not really someone we should emulate. We don't need to celebrate him personally to acknowledge the very obvious fact that Europeans colonized the Americas.

If you think Columbus Day is about emulating Columbus, no wonder you want to cancel it...

If Columbus Day is not about celebrating Columbus, what IS it about? And if it's not about celebrating Columbus, maybe we could call it something else, so that it gets out from under his unpleasant legacy?

In the North East it is a holiday focused on Italian American culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is something only a white person would think of...

#LandBack

LANDBACK is a movement that has existed for generations with a long legacy of organizing and sacrifice to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands. Currently, there are LANDBACK battles being fought all across Turtle Island, to the north and the South.
As NDN Collective, we are stepping into this legacy with the launch of a LANDBACK Campaign as a mechanism to connect, coordinate, resource and amplify this movement and the communities that are fighting for LANDBACK. The closure of Mount Rushmore, return of that land and all public lands in the Black Hills, South Dakota is our cornerstone battle, from which we will build out this campaign. Not only does Mount Rushmore sit in the heart of the sacred Black Hills, but it is an international symbol of white supremacy and colonization. To truly dismantle white supremacy and systems of oppression, we have to go back to the roots. Which, for us, is putting Indigneous Lands back in Indigenous hands.
In addition, LANDBACK is more than just a campaign. It is a political framework that allows us to deepen our relationships across the field of organizing movements working towards true collective liberation. It allows us to envision a world where Black, Indigenous & POC liberation co-exists.

If we did this --- someone else would then devise another scheme to take it away again. My people were not even in this country during this period. Yet it is time to let the past go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t people native to the place where they were born?

Not necessarily.

Most in the U.S. are occupiers.

+1

It depends on how you define native, of course. But since there are "Native Americans," it's weird to call yourself "native to America." I think people usually say "first generation immigrant" or "born the USA" or something like that if they want to say they were born in the US.

There are American Indians or more properly, the specific tribe. Of course most Americans are native to the U.S. Where else would we be native to?

Most “Americans” are occupiers, living on stolen land.

Which is a good not bad thing. If you can't defend your land, you lose it. Natives took land from each other all the time. No utopia before Europeans. And indeed their ancestors came from Asia and stole the land first.

So we should spend all our time defending our little plot of land? That would spell progress to you?

Indeed we do this. If we did not we would be dead. It will always be this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t people native to the place where they were born?

Not necessarily.

Most in the U.S. are occupiers.

+1

It depends on how you define native, of course. But since there are "Native Americans," it's weird to call yourself "native to America." I think people usually say "first generation immigrant" or "born the USA" or something like that if they want to say they were born in the US.

There are American Indians or more properly, the specific tribe. Of course most Americans are native to the U.S. Where else would we be native to?

Most “Americans” are occupiers, living on stolen land.

Which is a good not bad thing. If you can't defend your land, you lose it. Natives took land from each other all the time. No utopia before Europeans. And indeed their ancestors came from Asia and stole the land first.

Spoken like a true ultra-MAGA.

Progressive actually. Just one that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

It was created as a national holiday to piss off the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic conservatives. Basically, it was a middle finger to the Protestant KKK and WASPs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t people native to the place where they were born?

Not necessarily.

Most in the U.S. are occupiers.

This is ridiculous. Since Native Americans walked here from Asia, their claims should be respected more than people who sailed here from Europe? No.

[Anonymous]

I mean, one side of my family has been here for 500 years, but if England would have me back, I'd go. Trouble is, none of us can leave. The other side came around 1900 legally and had their own troubles. Don't worry, I'm full of the appropriate amount of self loathing that everyone demands of white people.

[Anonymous]

Are English native to "England"?

History says Anglo- Saxons were invaders.

Are Turks native to Turkiye? They did drive the Greeks out of Anatolia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are English native to "England"?

History says Anglo- Saxons were invaders.

Are Turks native to Turkiye? They did drive the Greeks out of Anatolia?

Turkish, English or British, (including all those of Great Britain) can still state they are native to their lands even as immigrants/migrants. While those in the States cannot to an extent.

[Anonymous]

If the term “Native American” is abolished, would we all just be Americans? With no need to differentiate based on race or origin country if one’s ancestors had been in America hundreds of years? Is it because it’s a nation of so many races that we can’t just be native to America?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was created as a national holiday to piss off the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic conservatives. Basically, it was a middle finger to the Protestant KKK and WASPs.

It's a federal holiday, not a national holiday. Many states don't recognize it, including the one I live in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only natives to this country are the indigenous peoples. Which makes white supremacy in this country all the more laughable.

Nah. The indigenous people all came from somewhere else, mostly from Asia. And those people originally came from somewhere else too.

By your definition, no one is native once you get away from the people living in southern Africa.

+1. Native Americans didn't spontaneously spring from the ground in America.

But when does being Native American include those not indigenous to America or the first to arrive?

Native American is a term that describes an ethnic identity of a subset of people who are native to the American Continents (the latter includes anyone born in North, Central or South America).
Native American is a term that describes an ethnic subset of people who may also be native to the United States of America.

There are controversies surrounding and requirements to claim status as an ethnic Native American (somewhat described here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK233104/), which are not required to establish that one is native to the United States of America or North America.

Spoken ambiguity in the meaning of "American native" or "Native American" is caused by citizens of the United States of America referring to themselves as Americans. In practice, it is not really a problem because most people avoid the ambiguity and are more localized in their claim of native birth -- native New Yorker, native Californian, DC native, Cleveland native, and so on.