American

[Major Bawls]

Dum dee Dum...

OK! Thought about this a bit cos' some of you out there may take a different tact to this. I assure you that whilst I am not in the business of making each and every one of you gleeful, malice is not the opposing intent.

Here we have the holidays arriving. Memorial Day...July 4th. We fly our nations flag proudly on these occasions and often times this is seen as solidarity, a nation proud to be Amercian. I would have to agree with that. The alternative is to fly another flag and I don't see that happening as this would tend to push us toward divisiveness.

So let me ask...why is it there are those who insist on being recognized as Korean-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, Polish-Americans whatever. Is this a fad? Are we not proud? Yes we are a nation of many from neighboring countries and that has made this country unique...but are not we all AMERICANS!!!!

Have a great holiday friends...

 

[sux2b44]

This is on going question, that I dont think anyone can answer.

 

[aps45819]

I'm proud to be a European/United Kingdom American

 

[Gwydion]

I am proud to be an American. I am also proud of my own personal heritage....my ancestors.

Although I would never fly a Scottish flag on Memorial day nor July 4th, I do have one hanging in my house...along with an American flag both inside and outside.

 

[SamSpade]

I am proud to be an American. I am also proud of my own personal heritage....my ancestors.

Although I would never fly a Scottish flag on Memorial day nor July 4th, I do have one hanging in my house...along with an American flag both inside and outside.

Agree. Having lived in ethnic enclaves about the country, I don't think you can find Americans more proud of their heritage than Italians, Irish and Poles - but I've never seen them fly their flag above the American flag. They came here to be Americans first, not say, Italians who happen to live here.

 

[Major Bawls]

Heritage

Agree. Having lived in ethnic enclaves about the country, I don't think you can find Americans more proud of their heritage than Italians, Irish and Poles - but I've never seen them fly their flag above the American flag. They came here to be Americans first, not say, Italians who happen to live here.

I agree. I myself am an immigrant; having made the trek across the pond with my mother and brother quite a few years back. Back then we came just as you said...to be Americans first. Seems like this hyphenation phenomenom started to occur maybe 20? years ago.

I was not born here. I was not bred an American. But I sure as hell grew up to be one and am damn proud of it!

 

[Mateo]

As I have said in other posts, I am an immigrant, having come here as a youth in the early 50s.
I have been raised as an American , and think of myself as nothing more , nothing less. Though I am concious of my heritage, I have never considered myself as anything but a citizen of this country sans the hyphenated whatever. This only comes to my attention when others call attention to the difference, sometimes not so complimentary.
I shall fly the stars and stripes proudly.

 

[Dork]

Dum dee Dum...

OK! Thought about this a bit cos' some of you out there may take a different tact to this. I assure you that whilst I am not in the business of making each and every one of you gleeful, malice is not the opposing intent.

Here we have the holidays arriving. Memorial Day...July 4th. We fly our nations flag proudly on these occasions and often times this is seen as solidarity, a nation proud to be Amercian. I would have to agree with that. The alternative is to fly another flag and I don't see that happening as this would tend to push us toward divisiveness.

So let me ask...why is it there are those who insist on being recognized as Korean-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, Polish-Americans whatever. Is this a fad? Are we not proud? Yes we are a nation of many from neighboring countries and that has made this country unique...but are not we all AMERICANS!!!!

Have a great holiday friends...

I had this discussion with a friend the other day. It's mostly our black folks who want to be called African-Americans. Other groups don't seem to use this as much. I am proud of my Irish heritage but have never wanted to be called Irish-American. I am just American. No offense to our black folks, but I refuse to call you African-American to be politically corrent. Then again, I pride myself on not be politically correct.

 

[CountVlad]

As I have said in other posts, I am an immigrant, having come here as a youth in the early 50s.
I have been raised as an American , and think of myself as nothing more , nothing less. Though I am concious of my heritage, I have never considered myself as anything but a citizen of this country sans the hyphenated whatever. This only comes to my attention when others call attention to the difference, sometimes not so complimentary.
I shall fly the stars and stripes proudly.

same here... came from Romania when i was young... and never considered myself other than an american especially after i got my citizenship...
i mean if it was so great back "home" we wouldnt be here...

 

[Gwydion]

I had this discussion with a friend the other day. It's mostly our black folks who want to be called African-Americans. Other groups don't seem to use this as much. I am proud of my Irish heritage but have never wanted to be called Irish-American. I am just American. No offense to our black folks, but I refuse to call you African-American to be politically corrent. Then again, I pride myself on not be politically correct.

The problem with that lies in that when you are saying African-American, you are setting up a scene....describing an individual. Whether it be for a story's sake, or whatever. And most people don't know what the politically correct term is anymore and, regardless of how fookin stupid it is that we can't call people of a darker skin color "black"...we don't really feel like getting sued for being Non-PC.

For example...if I am talking about Jim, my good friend whom is black...I wouldn't even mention that he is African American unless it was relevant for you to KNOW he was black...else, its just Jim.

Very rarely, pretty much rarely, does the variation in ethnic background for whites come into play. Short of "My Polish-American Grandmother makes the best sausages!", nobody really cares about "Gwydion, the Scottish-American told me at dinner I was pretty." That sentence is read the same whether Scottish is changed to Italian, german, polish, russian, czech, etc.

I had a friend in High School...a skinny little white boy from Egypt. It was hysterical hearing him tell people that he was African American.

 

[Mateo]

same here... came from Romania when i was young... and never considered myself other than an american especially after i got my citizenship...
i mean if it was so great back "home" we wouldnt be here...

You bet....I have seen "home" and believe me the grass is greener over here !

 

[sommpd]

I'm a native American. My grandparents were Irish American

 

[craberta]

The only time I mention my ethnicity is when someone asks why I speak spanish, other than that I am an American and I will always be proud to be from the country that people die trying to get to. When I go to France I will tell anyone who says anything awful about my country to kiss my booty, but the French seem to like us more than the liberal media likes us to know. Ouieeee!

 

[Mateo]

The only time I mention my ethnicity is when someone asks why I speak spanish, other than that I am an American and I will always be proud to be from the country that people die trying to get to. When I go to France I will tell anyone who says anything awful about my country to kiss my booty, but the French seem to like us more than the liberal media likes us to know. Ouieeee!

It seems in a lot of countries, the more you get away from the urban and suburban areas, the more friendlier the people are to Americans, provided they conduct themselves with civility and not arrogance.
Found this out when I was in Wales 4 years ago....most of the Welsh I encountered thought I was Canadian, but when I quietly told them I was an American, hey, that was okay too....lol. (helped a lot when I watched the world cup in a local pub and cheered the home team on).

 

[aps45819]

I had a friend in High School...a skinny little white boy from Egypt. It was hysterical hearing him tell people that he was African American.

A buddy of mine is married to a blue eyed blond from South Africa.
He loves introducing her as his African-American wife

 

[smilin]

Seems to me we are supposed be brought together by "Political Correctness". Instead we are split by the "hyphen" in between "whatever" and American. Blacks want to be designated as African-American yet they also want to be included in whatever the other part of American society has. This also applies to the ongoing debate about Spanish as our second language. You can't have it both ways.
Interestingly enough, I was born in Egypt, I never thought of myself as anything but American (of Scottish, English, Irish descent).
I wonder if I can get a discount for also being African-American?

 

[Gwydion]

A buddy of mine is married to a blue eyed blond from South Africa.
He loves introducing her as his African-American wife

This actually gave me some thought. When they are filling out forms that make you choose your ethnicity...there is one for "White" and one for "African American".

Which do they choose?

 

[remaxrealtor]

The problem with that lies in that when you are saying African-American, you are setting up a scene....describing an individual. Whether it be for a story's sake, or whatever. And most people don't know what the politically correct term is anymore and, regardless of how fookin stupid it is that we can't call people of a darker skin color "black"...we don't really feel like getting sued for being Non-PC.

For example...if I am talking about Jim, my good friend whom is black...I wouldn't even mention that he is African American unless it was relevant for you to KNOW he was black...else, its just Jim.

Very rarely, pretty much rarely, does the variation in ethnic background for whites come into play. Short of "My Polish-American Grandmother makes the best sausages!", nobody really cares about "Gwydion, the Scottish-American told me at dinner I was pretty." That sentence is read the same whether Scottish is changed to Italian, german, polish, russian, czech, etc.

I had a friend in High School...a skinny little white boy from Egypt. It was hysterical hearing him tell people that he was African American.

Here's my question....Isn't Africa a continent? I would feel like that was degrading to the individual countries there. Why is it that all other continents have Country-specific names, ie: Irish-American, Mexican-American, but Africa is not defined?

 

[Gwydion]

Here's my question....Isn't Africa a continent? I would feel like that was degrading to the individual countries there. Why is it that all other continents have Country-specific names, ie: Irish-American, Mexican-American, but Africa is not defined?

Can you tell me the significance between specifying Uguandian-American and Zimbabwean-American?

I sure can't. That was my point. When specifying "African-American" you are more just saying "black". To be completely honest..the only time I think I have ever heard a specific country used to describe somebody was a friend of mine whom had a friend that ran marathons.

IIRC, he said, "My Kenyan-american friend..."

 

[SamSpade]

Here's my question....Isn't Africa a continent? I would feel like that was degrading to the individual countries there. Why is it that all other continents have Country-specific names, ie: Irish-American, Mexican-American, but Africa is not defined?

I suppose it could be a lot of things, but the largest is merely an avoidance of using "black". It's unlikely that anyone descended from slaves has a clear genealogical record tracing back to a nation of origin.

Another is the colonial nature of Africa in the modern era. Aside from the nations of northern Africa, virtually the rest of the continent was or has been sliced and cut up from colonies of Europe and as such do not have the nationalism or culture associated with nations or kingdoms. These kinds of entities DID exist in the past, but not any longer. So if in some far future, your descendants become subjects of foreign powers and the nation known as the United States gets chopped up into several pieces, are you likely to form an allegiance or attachment to your new nation - or the one your parents knew?

Because of this, many nations in Africa cross the boundaries of the nations that exist in the hearts and minds of its citizens. Only the notion of Africa or in some cases, West Africa, have any significance.

This is largely my opinion from my reading. If anyone cares to enlighten me further, I'm all ears.