American Ethnicity - Is it possible to be ethnically American?

[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?

Asia. How did you not learn this in school?!?

[Anonymous]

It is visibly obvious that most of my ancestry is African, but according to 23andme, I have more Irish ancestry than my coworker with an Irish last name. Ethnicity is a slippery thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Are you referring to American Indians?

Native American is a politically incorrect term to use when referring to the First People.

You speak with politically correct tongue, pale face

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ethnicity IS culture, though.

(What else do people think it could be?)

No, you're wrong. Culture is a subset of ethnicity, but ethnicity incorporates not only culture, but shared history and ancestry. I think there is a general American culture, plus regional cultures as someone mentioned (American south, Cajon/Creole, Midwestern, New England, West Coast, etc), but there is not American ancestry. With European and African ancestry ranging back to before this became a nation, plus Asian ancestry added about halfway through our young history, there is no single unifying ancestry and history. This nation was founded on a concept of the great American melting pot where we mixed many ancestries, cultures and social customs into one very diverse and oft-times fluid culture so that we do not have a standard ethnicity that you can label as distinctly American.

Ethnicity is the category, but culture is the practice.

Do you (or your close family and friends and neighbors) watch American football? Do you eat cornbread or fluffy pancakes or buffalo wings or quesadillas? Do you cut your food with the side of your fork? Do you know the pledge of allegiance? Do you now or have you ever believed in American exceptionalism? Do you know how to tip in a restaurant and which drinks automatically get free refills?

These are all uniquely US American pieces of culture. Probably mostly invisible to people who grew up in the culture, but knowing how to be and do in this culture makes you ethnically American. You might *also* have another ethnicity that goes along with that (or even more than one).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Good for you. Not sure you make sense but wow you are cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is visibly obvious that most of my ancestry is African, but according to 23andme, I have more Irish ancestry than my coworker with an Irish last name. Ethnicity is a slippery thing.

Yes, I think this thread has quite a few non-Americans that do not understand that many of us Americans are mixtures of lots of different ethnicities. That mixture often means our main ethnicity is just American.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is visibly obvious that most of my ancestry is African, but according to 23andme, I have more Irish ancestry than my coworker with an Irish last name. Ethnicity is a slippery thing.

Yes, I think this thread has quite a few non-Americans that do not understand that many of us Americans are mixtures of lots of different ethnicities. That mixture often means our main ethnicity is just American.

I agree. I used to not understand that and, to be honest, would get annoyed when white people would shrug and say "I'm just American". However, I realize now that many of them are from families that immigrated to the US during the melting pot era when becoming a citizen meant not acculturating, but assimilating. They got homogenized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Asia. How did you not learn this in school?!?

Everyone came from Africa actually.... but if you have white skin here's an interesting article http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/04/how-europeans-evolved-white-skin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Should have brought zero potatoes.

[Anonymous]

NP. My family has been in New England since the early 1600s (from England). For better or worse, I don't identify as anything other than 'American' both ethnically & culturally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Asia. How did you not learn this in school?!?

Everyone came from Africa actually.... but if you have white skin here's an interesting article http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/04/how-europeans-evolved-white-skin

That doesn't have anything to do with ethnicity, though, because ethnicity means people who have a shared ancestral or social experiences. Humans migrated from Africa over 1.5 million years ago and crossed into the Americas over 10,000 years ago. Nothing from ancient African culture still exists and there are almost no archaeological traces of the original people who came to the Americas. An identifiable ethnicity goes back only a few thousand years for some groups, and much less for others.

[Anonymous]

"American ancestry" = white southerners of British ancestry, basically.