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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Maybe OP could move to a state that has a lot of people with German and Norwegian ancestors.  Minnesota maybe?
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This is actually not a terrible idea -- there are parts of Minnesota where they've retained a lot of cultural traditions from "the old country" and there is a sense of community around them. You could meet people with similar familial backgrounds and maybe find things in common between your family's history and theirs. All without having to try and get a visa to live abroad and learn a new language. And if you have kids, you could raise them with more connection to your ancestry, but also as Americans since that is what you are.

This is the first concrete suggestion in this thread that I think actually addresses OP's problem in a practical way instead of yelling at her for feeling as she does. OP, think on this! I understand why you feel as you do and think it's valid, and this might be one way to address it.[/quote]

Actually, I don't think this is a good idea.  Trying to connect with people because of some common ancestry way back and because they share skin colour seems like a futile exercise.  I don't see how this would create a sense of belonging.[/quote]

So what do you suggest? This makes more sense to me than trying to move to Germany when you don't speak German, but it's obvious OP is seeking some kind of connection to a place and people. Her family is already scattered through the US, why not try moving to an area where she might find some people who are a similar amount removed from the immigrant generation and whose families might have similar stories. I don't think the issue is about shared skin color -- presumably OP meets white people all the time, but she doesn't feel like she belongs with them. This might offer some belonging. A community with deep German roots will likely also have German cultural events, be more likely to teach German in the local schools or at a community center, have a history of German-inspired arts, etc.

I know it seems really basic, but I've known many immigrants who are just one or two generations removed who have found community in immigrant enclaves with lots of families with shared heritage. I think there might be something to this.[/quote]

I agree it makes absolutely no sense to move to Germany.  OP has no real connection with Germany and that is grasping at straws.  I know many Americans say they are Irish, Swedish or German, etc but these are historic connections that are usually so far back that they are not much more than an 'interesting' fact.

The real problem is OP has developed their own narrative around legitimacy that doesn't include people like them.  They said "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".  This shows they have allowed their perspective to be distorted by being overly immersed in certain media and a particular narrative that they support but have taken to an extreme.  In doing so, they have excluded all other narratives as legitimate.  The fact they think the US 'belongs' to the descendants of slaves more than them demonstrates this.  America belongs to the child of immigrants who arrived ten years ago just as much as somebody whose family arrived on the Mayflower.  Unfortunately, it also belongs just as much to a gun-toting MAGA supporter as someone who spends their entire life fighting for civil liberties.

I think OP needs to address this perspective.  Firstly, they need some balance and a better understanding of history outside their chosen narrative.  History is comprised of oppressors and the oppressed.  Often, at different points in time, they were one and the same.  We admire the Romans but their industrial production was based on slaves.  The Egyptians built amazing pyramids but relied on slaves. Sure the English were recent oppressors but go back in history and you will see the native Britons were invaded and oppressed by the Romans, then invaded and colonised by the Anglo-Saxons from northern Europe, and then by the Vikings.   Did you know it is estimated over a million white Europeans were trafficked in the slave markets of North Africa? The Moors ruled southern Spain and enslaved Christian Spaniards for hundreds of years. Within North America, some tribes massacred others and took their lands.  There are ugly aspects to history everywhere in the world.  Obviously, here and now, the inequities and systemic racism that have kept black Americans from enjoying the same freedoms and opportunities as others need to be addressed.  But OP doesn't need to take on the emotional baggage of what other white people did in the past to do that.

I agree with others that OP could try to learn more about their own ancestry. It might help them to understand how they ended up here and how they fit into the America of today.  There was widespread political unrest, riots, revolutions, poverty and starvation throughout Europe in the mid-1800s. In all likelihood, their ancestors were poor Germany farm workers who were trying to escape poverty, unrest and maybe being conscripted into the Kaiser's army.[/quote]

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