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?
Anonymous wrote:OP here. I have no clear way to move to Germany or Norway, and my understanding is that it would be hard. I also speak neither language, and my family immigrated to the US too long ago to qualify for one of the programs that allows you to get citizenship based on recent ancestors.
I do actually have one Irish great-grandparent too, I don’t know if that would help.
I just don’t feel like I belong in the US.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:No offense op, but they probably won’t let you in. Other countries have much stricter immigration policies than the US does.
So I belong nowhere.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Imposed their language…you do realize that many Europeans don’t speak English, and didn’t when they moved here, don’t you?
Do you realize that the Spanish spoken throughout the western United States and the rest of the Americas is a European language? As is the French spoken in the Caribbean and in Louisiana.
I know, right. Think of all the countries in the Americans that speak Czech, Slovak, Finnish, Polish, Russian, and so on. Let’s let this genius PP get back to their Mensa meeting.
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.
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 wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Imposed their language…you do realize that many Europeans don’t speak English, and didn’t when they moved here, don’t you?
Do you realize that the Spanish spoken throughout the western United States and the rest of the Americas is a European language? As is the French spoken in the Caribbean and in Louisiana.
We speak English because the English won the key wars. But yes, all Europeans who move to the US are part of a broader colonization of this land by white settlers.
Anonymous wrote: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.
Imposed their language…you do realize that many Europeans don’t speak English, and didn’t when they moved here, don’t you?
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.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
How were the Irish colonizers in this way, where the Chinese were not?
They were white people moving to a white colony where people spoke the language of their homeland. Yes, the Irish did experience discrimination in the US at one point, but the white people who ran the country realized that if they just decided white people were "one of them", then they could ensure Irish immigrants would side with the white government and against, say, black people arguing for civil rights.
There is no Chinese colony in North America. The Chinese never used force to conquer the US, nor did they install a government that gave people of Chinese descent rights and privileges that other people did not have. You can't be a Chinese colonizer in the US. Only white people are colonizers in the US.
(I am a white person.)
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.