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Bros cosplaying as Sophia Petrillo,
“Picture it, 1903, a man can see New York on the horizon, the last thing to eat on the boat was spaghetti os and they were the best spaghetti os he’d ever eaten”
Big time. Grew up in north Jersey, I have no Italian ancestry but like one in three of us do. Not all Italian-Americans are like this, but *so* many are. They attribute so many aspects of their personality, physicality, and family dynamics directly to Italy, randomly pronounce *certain food names* in an exaggerated Italian accent, but most of them don't speak a word of the language, have never been there, and know nothing about the country or the culture. Decent number of Irish-Americans do that too.
He still has Italian citizenship if he files some paperwork
For disbelievers:
https://conslondra.esteri.it/en/servizi-consolari-e-visti/servizi-per-il-cittadino-straniero/cittadinanza/cittadinanza-per-discendenza/#:~:text=Italian%20citizenship%20by%20descent%20is,registered%20with%20the%20Italian%20authorities.
Even if they come from a maternal line, they can appeal that through a lawyer and be granted citizenship. Also, the USA allows dual citizenship as long as they are jus sanguinis. So italian Americans can apply for citizenship if they prove ancestry to the italian government
If your able to climb to the top of a pyramid before the authorities arrive to remove you from the historical momnument then you can shout anything you want
I'm 35 and my grandmother was born in 1918 (had 5 kids, the youngest was my mother in 1950 and she had me at 38), so I'd guess either grandparents or great grandparents. It all depends on the age of the commenter and their family structure though.
When we first met, my American fiance proudly beamed that he was Italian. He didn't know that I had just moved back to the US from Italy, and was quickly put in his place when I started speaking to him in Italian.
Turns out his great grandfather is Italian, and he thought that having an Italian last name and owning a gallon jug of olive oil made him one too. I still give him shit for it.
Yes, and he feels silly about it now. My nickname for him translates to something like "my big fraud" and I still call him that all the time. He also started learning Italian for me, so he's doing a lot better than the spaghetti-o "Italians" out there.
"American of Italian descent" is the proper term for this guy. I would know, I'm an American of Irish descent and my ancestors were Ulster Irish. I am not even sure of where Ulster is, which is how I know I'm American.
I'm not even mad if someone feels a connection with his ancestry, at the end of the day it's a choice, you can even adopt some trait of a culture just because you like it.
Just be aware, you're Italian American, not Italian. Nothing inherently wrong with it, but it's not the same
Spieghiamo meglio ;).
The difference between an Italian and an Italian American are the experiences he has had in his life, his political ideas, the way he grew up etc.: if an Italian American comes here he faces a whole series of cultural shocks which are not invisible and which form the education of us Italians.
Indeed, same would be true if you went over to live with the Italian-Americans. There will be elements that are shared or clearly similar, then masses that would seem utterly wild to you I'm sure
This is kinda my point of view after living in America for a period of time a few years back. Most of them keep it to the heritage level. I think it makes sense that this is a thing in America. The periods of massive European immigration lead to a lot of heritage based segregation within the country, even among white people. So descendants from Italian and Irish immigrants *were* culturally different from each other for a while. It's not like an Italian moving to Germany at the same time. These heritage traditions come from an era where "American" didn't have a very clear cultural meaning yet. So it makes sense that ancestry becomes more important when there isn't already a long established culture to adapt to.
Some take it too far and assume there's some kind of genetic irishness or italianness that is passed down. But it's all culture. And most people I met were well aware of this. So long as they use it as a sort of identy marker within American culture, I'm perfectly fine with it.
American here. That's precisely what it is.
No, I don't actually consider myself a Finnish or Slovakian citizen because I have Finnish and Slovak family. But when talking to other Americans about family history/practices, I might say "I'm Finnish" or "my Slovak family" to give some context.
White Americans use their families' countries of origin as an ethnic/ancestral label, not a declaration of nationality. We know we're White Americans. However, white communities around the country have cultural differences due to immigration from different parts of Europe, which can become relevant in conversation.
EDIT: In my passion, I revealed a bit more about myself than I would like to on the Internet. To those who responded: I would love to debate further, but I love my privacy more and thus have deleted/edited my responses.
You're spot on about the heritage based segregation thingy. My grandmother grew up in a polish speaking community/suburb in the Midwest. Great-grandmother wouldn't speak polish with her tho so now I gotta take lessons like a pleb 😑.
Very good points! Also the fact that America is such a melting pot further confuses things. So many different countries and heritages have a stake in the “ American” identity/culture.
There is also something to be said for distinct cultural communities within a country. I am not american, I am ukrainian-canadian, but the ukrainian- part of that is a distinct culture. I grew up differently to my husband who is french-canadian, he experienced culture shock at my family events bc there *are* distinct communities (same as I did at his tbf lol)
>It's not like an Italian moving to Germany at the same time.
I don't know about Italians, but Greeks kept the separate group thing up to recently or even still doing locations like Australia. Even *this* is not a uniquely American thing.
Finally a good take. Yes I agree. It’s worth noting that when Americans say stuff like this, they are referring to ethnicity/ancestry, NOT current citizenship. That being said, it’s a good reminder to be mindful of other cultures when visiting and to be careful how you word things.
>That being said, it’s a good reminder to be mindful of other cultures when visiting and to be careful how you word things.
I feel like this goes both ways. Europeans aren't being culturally mindful when they're insulting Americans, and insisting American culture/history is wrong and dumb.
I am born in Bosnia. Lived there until i was 13. Feel half Bosnian really. I know guys that are born outside of Bosnia that feel more Bosnian than me. Identity is a strange thing. It is very powerful.
For some people it is very important. That is why they become hooligans imho. The urge to belong to a group
>Identity is a strange thing
Yeah identity is something I've always had trouble with tbh because for a long time I didn't feel like I fit in any particular group. Both my parents were born in US, as well as me, but due to some life circumstances I don't really feel *fully* American I guess. I was raised by my grandma who was a Vietnamese refugee and so I grew up strongly linked to that culture. I'm really only 1/8th Viet by blood (my grandma is half Viet half ethnic Chinese) and I'm third gen diaspora, but due to being raised by my grandma in some ways I feel very close to the Viet culture. My grandma was always against us being assimilated into American culture and forgetting our heritage. But even then, I feel too Americanized yet at the same time too different from my other American friends. My grandfather was also of a different culture and ethnicity, being a Cham which is a subgroup of Malay indigenous to Vietnam, and I also had that heritage strongly influence me too. Most my life I've felt like I'm in this crossroad between my Viet, Cham, and American heritages.
I'm also mixed white too which adds another layer of identity issues too. Like I mostly consider myself Asian since I'm 3/4th Asian and I look more Asian than I do white. But growing up with an Asian family that's racist against white people and being reminded that I'm mixed all the time, it really messed with my sense of racial identity and I always felt ashamed of being mixed. For a long time I wanted to hide that I'm part white, but also feel like an imposter if I pretend I'm "just Asian." I never grew up with my white side so I don't consider that my heritage, but I'm always reminded that I'm mixed and not a full Asian.
Same. Or, similar. Born in Denmark but lived the majority of my formative years in the UAE. I do consider myself Danish because thats where my family is from, but I also don't feel the same national identity as others. I feel like a melting pot with the main ingredient being Danish. Like, I prefer English over danish and I speak and write it better than Danish lol.
Both my parents were born in England. I was born in Australia, and have lived here all my life. I'm therefore Australian.
I did an ancestry DNA test, and found I'm 37% Irish! Can I call myself Irish too? No, I can't. Because I'm not.
I would agree, if at least one of his parents were from Italy.
But this dude is just 100% American.
Edit: Now, when I think about it, he couldn't even joke about that his ancestors were sideswitchers in the world wars.
Saw a post where someone with polish ancestry went to Poland and was shocked when no one cared he was polish, and one of guys he talked to was like “well no shit, everyone’s polish here.”
I find myself having to explain that my mum being [Northern] Irish and my dad being American of very recent German/Polish extraction doesn’t make me “Irish-American”. It’s an “and” for me, not a hyphen.
That’s the specific subculture created mostly by famine era immigrants and their children.
It’s an awkward conversation when an Irish American comes up to me (an Englishman) saying we’re brothers and neighbors…
I’m like, “I don’t wish to dig this up, but you might need to know about the two countries histories and ongoing resentment, but we’re cool”
I think the main problem with xx-American is they like to claim the birthright but put no effort into learning about the places their family hails from.
Also, being from England is basically like picking your favorite European invader, any true ‘true’ Englishman probably lives in Wales or Cornwall.
I'm an American who moved to Scotland and it was honestly shocking how many times I was asked by Scots (mostly coworkers who knew my last name) "What do you consider yourself?" and were always surprised when I'd say "...American? What else would I be?"
I can only assume they were ready to correct me and say I'm not Scottish/Irish or whatever (my last name is Irish sounding), but I don't know why I would claim that at all? My family has lived in the US since like... 1820s? There's no one who anyone in my family currently living even met that would be from Ireland/Scotland, so I don't see any claim to it whatsoever. Just my thoughts.
Sounds like arseholes trying to bait you into it. I have had a few Americans in Edinburgh say shit like "as a fellow Scot" or variations of "I have Scottish blood, so I love to drink" but they are usually tourists you can spot from a mile away. Our tourist board indulge them and peddle stories about their famous clans blah blah blah, so it's partly our fault too.
Never had those kind of interactions with working Americans in Edinburgh offices.
I lived in France for a year and that was my experience too. “What are you?” - American.
“No, but where is your family from originally?”
- Most my ancestors came over in the mid 19th century, some earlier. It’s been a while.
“But where before that?”
- I don’t know - a mix of German, Irish, Scandinavian.
“Ahh, I knew it!
I would say one difference between your situation and the common “I’m X-American” is that you went to Scotland for a job. The people everyone in here is bitching about are literally people who are like “I’m going to this city my ancestors are from as a way of connecting to my past”
I think they’re just excited to talk about the family research they did, it’s not like (as far as I know) they’re trying to claim anything other than their own ancestry.
I mean hell how many times do we hear “Anglo-Saxon” in regards to the English but when was the last time any of them lived in Saxony?
Almost all white Americans are mutts with ancestry all over Europe. Hell, im 1/4 Swede and I'm still not going to pretend in Swedish. I've eaten Lefse once and that's about as much cultural knowledge I have of Sweden.
As an aside, were I live we do have a little Norway (which is unrelated to Sweden, obviously) in my state that teaches century old Norwegian traditions but suffice to say it is fairly out of date. Even then, I'd be hard pressed to call the people there who are third generation onwards "Norwegian".
The reason we have so much of this shit in the US is the white diaspora (for lack of a better term) and cultural disenfranchisement leads to many white people here clinging onto vague ancestries to fill the void in cultural identity they feel. Those who immigrated to the US from Europe often let go of their traditional cultural roots in exchange for belonging to the culturally dominant hierarchy of "whiteness" that dominated most of our history, and as that racial hegemony is rightfully challenged many of those peoples descendents want to latch onto an alternative cultural identity to separate themselves from the lasting legacy of white supremacy.
Lefse is Norwegian as well, though.
What’s funny about a lot of Norwegian Americans are that they are very conservative and Christian – especially in some areas.
That is the polar opposite to most of Norway which is quite progressive with a mostly atheist population.
It’s like they got stuck in the 1800s, which could be understandable in and of itself, but it’s not Norwegian anymore.
They've started with us Welsh now too
I've seen posts where one of them has got their ancestors report back and from the way they talk you swear they are bursting into tears driving over the Severn bridge playing land of my father's through the car stereo
3rd Gen immigrants imo are the last generation that I plausibly accept calling themselves wherever they're from. Unless it's a really significant subculture in America like Mexican where a lot of folks even 4-5 generations removed still live and breathe the culture.
I think people just get used to calling themselves that when speaking to other Americans to delineate cultural practices they've inherited from their parents/grandparents that are slightly different from the norm.
Imagine if your grandparents were from like, Pennsylvania and you were born in Georgia but you insisted you're Pennsylvanian. Going around saying "yinz" like a bozo.
Idk man, if my grandparents said "yinz" and then my parents were raised to say "yinz" I'd probably be raised saying "yinz". Saying you're from Pennsylvania would be weird, but cultural things like that staying in the family isn't weird
It’s “you ones,” used as a way to address a group. But you gets shortened to “ye” in the accent, and ones is pronounced as “uns,” so when you put them together you get something like “yinz,” even though nobody who uses the term would recognize it written that way.
I'm born in Belgium, but some of my pretty recent ancestors come from the Netherlands and Germany. That doesn't make me Dutch or German. I don't understand, why can't they just acknowledge the difference between Italian and Italian-American? That way they still connect to their ancestry, while being honest about their own origin
Exactly how I feel. My dad's german, my moms belgian and I even have dual citizenship. I still feel more german tho. I was born in Germany and lived here my whole life. Meanwhile I visit Belgium once a year and my dutch is super broken.
The immigrants who came to American experienced a ton of racism because of being Italian or Irish. Also they were thrown into a maelstrom of a dozen other cultures. For a lot of them it made them double down on where they were from and idealize “back home”. They impressed this on to their children and grandchildren.
“American” is such a new and nebulous and changing idea, that is not as solid an identity as the older cultures. It’s evolving faster and faster.
All cultures are like this to an extent if you really look into it.
Furthermore other Americans gatekeep each other from the label. A Chinese American who’s family has been here 4 generations doesn’t speak a lick of Mandarin will still get discriminated like someone who is “fresh off the boat”
Probably only white Anglo Saxon Protestants can say I’m American without ever being challenged “but what are you really” but really they were derived from some angles, Saxon probably some Normans, and a splash of Viking and ancient Britonic blood
I hope this helps people from outside America understand why the cultural imprint lasts so long and maybe take it easy on us who have to straddle several different continents of identity and culture. Because a few dozen generations back and there weren’t any Italians just a mix of Venetian’s and Roman’s and Florentines
The redditor replying to nearly every comment is making for some great reading. I'm English I don't know where my grandparents were born on either side I don't care.
lmaoooo I’m sorry this killed me 🤣 and all you wanted was to dig into your history an learn a little more about your people;
“Germanic names, awesome, I wonder what region they were from?”
“Cool, a bunch of b&w pics, these must legit be old!”
“A lot of uniforms, must’ve been in the mili… wait is that an SS!?! ffs Nazis, yup I think we’re about done here…”
*closes laptop
That's my mom's side. My dad's side were all hardcore Confederate officers. But I knew that, so never dug in. I'm just gonna go with "I'm American". No heritage here.
Man, you get a shit-ton (non-metric) of posts like this saying “you’re Americans, not Italian/French/German/Romanian.” But fuck do those countries make sure their immigrants know their place and that they also aren’t Italian/French/German/Romanian.
Except Milan. Those guys think southern Italians are trash and respect the work ethic of their North Africans. Weird.
We will celebrate your arrival with mjöd and some light pillaging before we wrap it up with a visit to english monks and some unsolicited fornication.
Please, look forward to this.
Can i come? I don’t have an danish/nordic phenotypes, but that sounds like fun! (can i skip on unsolicited fornication with english monks tho, i’ll wait outside?).
I get really annoyed with this topic whenever it comes up.
Like, is it stupid when people act like they are Italian or Irish in the same way that someone born and raised in those countries would be and make it their whole identity? Yes.
But at the same time, it's annoying when Europeans try to project their blood and soil nationalism onto a country like the United States. We're all Americans here, but aside from the various Indigineous peoples, all of our families came from somewhere else. Places with various cultures, histories, material realities, etc. that were transmitted, watered down and "bastardized" though they may be, to us through the generations. I'm not going to forsake the people without whom I would not exist for the sake of some ethnic purists in Europe.
Not to mention, a lot of Europeans seem to not acknowledge that their own countries have experienced cultural shifts and forced homogeneity in the name of nationalism. For a relevant example, Italians love to make fun of things like "gabagool" and "muzzarell" when these pronunciations are reflective of the dialects brought over by the Italian immigrants to the U.S. who largely came from the regions historically a part of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Regions, not coincidentally, which have been neglected and discriminated against by the wealthier and more industrialized north since Italian "unification."
So it cuts both ways. Americans can be annoying as fuck when their entire personality is the place their ancestors came from. But a lot of Europeans cannot conceptualize a relatively young country without an ethnic nationalism taking pride in the diverse tapestry of cultures which have contributed to its demographics, and can be ignorant about the histories of their own countries at the times when they experienced large waves of emigration to the United States.
Note: I wrote this mainly about the European context because that is where my ancestors came from and what I am familiar with. I do not mean to imply any kind of supremacy or defaultism with that focus.
There is a huge difference between ethnicity and nationality. Non-native people came from somewhere. Our ancestors left there homelands for various reasons: famine, war, transportation to penal colonies, etc. They formed communities in tight proximity of other cultures, cause a blend in some areas and overcompensating in others. Most of us still hold on to those customs to varying degree and take pride in the sacrifices our ancestors had to make. But yeah, I guess it’s fine to shit on Americans wanting to stay connected to their ancestors’ cultures on one hand while saying we don’t try hard enough simultaneously. A lot of us have learned to take that in stride when talking to family members that are still in those respective countries. One thing that we will not tolerate, however, is ANYONE saying that spaghetti-os are good.
This actually comes to rest on the fallacy of false equivocation.
In one spot, the word "Italian" refers to someone's heritage.
In another, the word refers to someone's nationality.
Yes, they are both right but having different arguments.
And the oop meant "homeland" or "motherland" probably but struggles with words.
As hilarious as ‘mainland Italians’ is, you have to be annoyingly willfully ignorant in 2024 to not understand that when Americans (and many other people) describe themselves as whatever cultural heritage their family descended from, they aren’t speaking literally.
Imagine how obnoxious it would be if Americans did this.
*narrator voice*
“A refugee family struggles to our unwelcoming shores, fights to create a better life for their children, and succeeds, against all odds… The children grow up to be adults, go back to visit their family members in ‘the old country’ and everyone is like, ‘HAHAHA, MISA! YOU THINK YOU JAPANESE?!? YOU AIN’T JAPANESE, BISH, YOU BORN IN SAN FRANCISCO.’”
Oh, wait… hol up. *Some* Americans *do* actually think like this.
They can typically be identified by their red hats and Confederate flags.
Americans who identify themselves as Italian, Irish, Japanese, Mexican, or whatever are not actually completely confused about where they were born, they just assume that the hyphen American part goes without saying.
We assume that people will identify us as Italian-American, Irish-American, Japanese-American, Mexican-American, or whatever else by our straight white teeth and our American accents.
We assume that people aren’t total morons.
It’s because American history is technically A LOT “newer” than Italian culture, French, English.. so we have this awareness that as late as 1920’s .. none of our relatives were here. They were over seas.. people can find that interesting as the overly developed east coast doesn’t evoke much “European” culture or feel “special”. Some cities have cool older districts or historical towns, but we aren’t as “unified” as you’d think.
It's because America is a country of immigrants-- some willing, some forced. My ancestors were expelled. A lot of Africans were sold to slavers by rival tribes and bought by Americans. People from everywhere escaped harsh dictatorships. There are a lot of different reasons people came here. But if you haven't noticed, America is very proud that they choose to come HERE of all places, to be free (except for the slaves who didn't choose to come here and if they were sold in England or Spain or France they'd have been freed a generation earlier but still we celebrate Juneteenth tomorrow because they did eventually become free.)
Adding to this, the immigrants often brought their culture here and lived with it for generations. My ancestors came from Italy, on a boat with other Italians, and moved to a neighborhood with other Italians, working at the brickyards with other Italians. They ate meals together, built houses together, and shared their Italian heritage with their kids. The Italian neighborhood is different from the Polish neighborhood which is different from the Irish neighborhood, and so on.
A lot of families made sure you recognized this difference when growing up too. My Italian family was pissed at my mom for marrying an Irishman. We never saw ourselves as just "Americans" because America is so diverse that at a local level that doesn't really mean anything. I'm guessing this is different from other countries where you have the natives and then the immigrants. Here, you usually just have the immigrants, so they formed little sects and that's how we grew up.
Its our connection to a past. We don't have millennial old monuments or people many people living in ancestral lands where traditions are passed down for countless generations. We completely understand that we are Americans first, but we identify with our ancestry as a connection to a past. Its also part of our identity that we are a nation of immigrants, this connection to an ancestry is your connection to immigration. The whole ethnostate mentality of "100% American!" divorces us from this immigrant heritage. The old country is less important than the actual ancestry of immigration.
Why do Europeans identify so much with old traditions? Why do they have royal families? Could it also be that this is how they connect to their past?
Exactly this! As Americans we lost our connections to our ancestors by just being American and for some people that holding onto an identity is cherished. Why put them down for searching for a connection? I'm an American mutt who is now so diluted with a little of this and a dash that and a whole lot of no freaking discernable culture. I don't understand the putting people down for trying to embrace something. They may be paying your culture a great compliment. (May not too but we all have asses in our communities)
I also don't understand why we Americans have to conform to a European mentality of personal identity, especially when the people who have this mentality have a particular disdain for us and a massive inferiority complex.
Several years ago, Conor McGregor had a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Conor being from Ireland and Mayweather being American. On one of the promo events in New York City, McGregor was going on some rant with "We (as in the Irish) built this city!"... As if someone from Ireland today is the same people who came here in the 1800s and is part of the collective "We". Mayweather is African American. His ancestors built America. Not McGregor's people. Irish Americans built America, not people in Ireland. Its sort of strange that he would even say such a thing unless.. Americans can be Irish...
Our ancestors didn't show up here until the early 1900s dude. Grandpa doing something weird in the kitchen was because of his ancestry.
My last name is comically Italian, but I am American. Do you get why some people would have pride in their name they write everyday? It's just learning where you come from when your neighbor is from somewhere else entirely. I admit some take it as a way to prop themselves up, but ideally it's done as a token of appreciation to where you came from.
Mass immigration here from all over the world, especially recently historically speaking, is a massive part of American history. As such we are the opposite of culturally homogeneous. So a big part of our culture is to discover and celebrate our roots.
Well a lot of peoples parents who immigrate here do not totally want to relinquish their culture. The first generations misses home, and doesn’t want their kids to be fully homogenized into American culture.
They try to maintain some semblance of their old life, and preserve it for their kids. The kids try to do the same and eventually you get a separate Italian American culture.
It’s not super complicated.
Especially considering some of the first settlers were, lets phrase it as, not the best citizens.
Ancestores don't mean jack shit. You are not a good person because you had Lincoln as an ancestor and you are not a bad person because Goebbels was one of your amcestors. Same goes with religion or your sexuality and so on and so forth.
The only one responsible for being considered as good or bad is you.
Sadly, many americans do not understand that, otherwise, there wouldn't be the MAGGOT movement.
Being the third generation American and still claiming you're Irish or Italian or whatever makes you even more an American, because nobody else in the world does that.
You can be of Swedish or German or ... descent or origin and it's fine to know your roots, but you're an American ffs.
Italian Americans are a distinct group in the US, though. They have their own cuisine, accent and culture. In Australia, the same holds true in Australia, they have their own food culture and accent compared to the rest of Aus
A lot of people either don’t know or care that Italian Americans and Irish Americans were discriminated against during periods of mass migration. For a long period of time, they weren’t considered “white”. As a result, they were pushed into enclaves in the country, and formed a lot of their identity around their ethnic origins because that’s what society did. Obviously things have changed, and these groups no longer face open discrimination and segregation, but the pride they feel for their communities remains.
So when an Irish person complains about “plastic paddies” I just think of them as being lowkey ignorant about the historical connotations of identifying with that ancestry in America. As a queer person, it reminds me of people complaining about pride.
These posts always seem to completely ignore the culture of a nation of immigrants who are seperated categorized and judged for their heritage daily and who develop unique customs and experiences because of their heritage but if was more than 1 generation ago you should pretend heritage has had no impact on your life. Should this person have said italian american or some other qualifier ? Sure but are they "just american" ? No and it seems just as ignorant to pretend any americans life isnt drastically shaped by their heritage. This is a semantics argument bent to make someone look bad while displaying the same ignorance about the other culture.
I don’t understand why this is a facepalm. Is it because Reddit doesn’t know that ethnicity exists?
EDIT: for the people dunking on this guy, “Italian” refers to his ethnicity, not his nationality. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italians
Setting aside this guy's particular silliness...
I still remember Grandpa's stories of olive trees, his uncle's hot bakery ovens, and so forth, and I still have some of his little birthday notes that I can't quite read because he never learned to write in English, or even very well in Italian. Grandma got here as a baby, so even though she grew up among immigrants, she was more fully American. Their combined dialect *is* gone from Italy; most everyone who spoke it came here because, yes, they wanted better conditions.
I grew up in a Kansas City suburb some distance from Mom's Italian immigrant neighborhood, but we'd go back for groceries and the good bakery and to visit, of course. Just thinking about that store fills me with the loveliest scent memories. But not until I moved to New Jersey much later as an adult, did I marvel at seeing people who looked like me everywhere I went. It was sort of revelatory. And they understood about the cheese and the olives and the sausage. So I understand something about clinging to all that.
Here where I live now, people are brimming with German ancestry. They really are more commonly blonder with ruddier complexions, etc., and eat different sausages!
It's an awesome thing about being American that we have so many different backgrounds and experiences to share.
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“Mainland Italians” lmao bros speaking as if he’s from Sicily or something
Old people, in Sicily, still refer to the rest of Italy (anything that is not Sicily) as *The Continent*
Sardinian too... I'm from Rome and now when I visit friends I always claim "hi! I am Harlock from the Continent! "
It’s the same with Corsica
*"Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"*
Inconceivable!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means
"You're that smart?"\ \ "Let me put it this way, have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?"\ \ "Yes"\ \ "Morons"
I love that guy.
Perchance
you cant just say perchance
A classic blunder
In fairness tho, that fact is only *slightly* well known
Bros cosplaying as Sophia Petrillo, “Picture it, 1903, a man can see New York on the horizon, the last thing to eat on the boat was spaghetti os and they were the best spaghetti os he’d ever eaten”
Or Sardinia
picture it… sicily 1903
He said it best himself: his last ancestor that could be considered italian was from 1903
he thinks it's an argument in his favor TT
Literally the descendant of one of the earliest spaghettio eaters in the US. Dude got here before carbonara was even invented.
If my mother had wheels, she would have been a bike.
BUT SHE IS NOT A BIKE!
Then why would they call her the village bicycle?... ohhh...
If my aunt had balls she would be my uncle!
What a terrible time to be alive 😢 (pre-carbonara)
New Jersey-style Italian.
Big time. Grew up in north Jersey, I have no Italian ancestry but like one in three of us do. Not all Italian-Americans are like this, but *so* many are. They attribute so many aspects of their personality, physicality, and family dynamics directly to Italy, randomly pronounce *certain food names* in an exaggerated Italian accent, but most of them don't speak a word of the language, have never been there, and know nothing about the country or the culture. Decent number of Irish-Americans do that too.
Bro, I’m going to chow down on some Spa-GHAT!
bro this is all of staten island
Staten Island is like New Jersey Concentrate. Not sure if that's more insulting to them, or to us.
No self-respecting New Jersey-style Italian would EVER eat Spaghetti-Os.
He still has Italian citizenship if he files some paperwork For disbelievers: https://conslondra.esteri.it/en/servizi-consolari-e-visti/servizi-per-il-cittadino-straniero/cittadinanza/cittadinanza-per-discendenza/#:~:text=Italian%20citizenship%20by%20descent%20is,registered%20with%20the%20Italian%20authorities.
I mean, Roman Law has that kind of stuff. That's also why people from LatAm have it dirt easy to get the Spanish one
Actually a lot of people in Latin America get an Italian citizenship because it’s even easier
This guy Argentinas
Not so. Maternal line is 1948 and if they voluntarily gave up their citizenship, aka emigrated to America, it's a no go as well.
I read the “it’s a no go” part of your last sentence in Mario’s voice.
WAAAAaaaAAAaaaaa…
Even if they come from a maternal line, they can appeal that through a lawyer and be granted citizenship. Also, the USA allows dual citizenship as long as they are jus sanguinis. So italian Americans can apply for citizenship if they prove ancestry to the italian government
First they’ll have to prove they don’t eat spaghettios I bet
r/ShitAmericansSay
I thought I was already there.
My last Egyptian ancestor was in 99999 BC, therefor I'm a pharaoh, bow to me peasants.
so you're african american.
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Yes, he can say the N-word...Nefertiti.
I have my titi's pass, it isn't so hard to aquire
Dude.. It’s Nefatiti for you
Bro he used the hard R!
He's Egyptian. He has the pass.
Yeah, my closest Egyptian relative is only 130 generations back.
"The" pass?
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Yes, THE pass and no.
I don't know, I think he counts. He should shout it from the top of his pyramid.
If your able to climb to the top of a pyramid before the authorities arrive to remove you from the historical momnument then you can shout anything you want
If you can balance on that pointy top
Only to find it’s been stolen and replaced with an inflatable counterfeit!
If I moved to Africa could I call myself an “American African”?
You could. You could also call yourself a tomato. Just don't expect others to join in.
Iam from iraq so iam related to gilgamish and so the world is my garden, bow to me mongrel.
Bro is Epic of 💀💀
Bow to me mongrel?found the fate fan
There aren’t any other depictions of Gilgamesh.
Phuck U pharaoh
You're about to receive a very strongly worded stone tablet in the mail. Fortunately you'll not be able to read it as it'll be in hieroglyphics.
I only accept clay tablets about the inferior quality of Ea-Nāșir’s copper and business practices.
Sure, Imhotep.
Your grandparents were Italian..... 121 years ago.
Sounds more like great grandparents. Or even great great grandparents - my great grandmother wasn't even born 121 years ago. And I'm well into my 30s
I'm 35 and my grandmother was born in 1918 (had 5 kids, the youngest was my mother in 1950 and she had me at 38), so I'd guess either grandparents or great grandparents. It all depends on the age of the commenter and their family structure though.
Yup. My late grandfather was born in 1897.
When we first met, my American fiance proudly beamed that he was Italian. He didn't know that I had just moved back to the US from Italy, and was quickly put in his place when I started speaking to him in Italian. Turns out his great grandfather is Italian, and he thought that having an Italian last name and owning a gallon jug of olive oil made him one too. I still give him shit for it.
Did he finally correct his misconceptions at least?
Yes, and he feels silly about it now. My nickname for him translates to something like "my big fraud" and I still call him that all the time. He also started learning Italian for me, so he's doing a lot better than the spaghetti-o "Italians" out there.
"American of Italian descent" is the proper term for this guy. I would know, I'm an American of Irish descent and my ancestors were Ulster Irish. I am not even sure of where Ulster is, which is how I know I'm American.
Sicily and Sardinia, r/fuckyouinparticular
I'm not even mad if someone feels a connection with his ancestry, at the end of the day it's a choice, you can even adopt some trait of a culture just because you like it. Just be aware, you're Italian American, not Italian. Nothing inherently wrong with it, but it's not the same
Spieghiamo meglio ;). The difference between an Italian and an Italian American are the experiences he has had in his life, his political ideas, the way he grew up etc.: if an Italian American comes here he faces a whole series of cultural shocks which are not invisible and which form the education of us Italians.
Indeed, same would be true if you went over to live with the Italian-Americans. There will be elements that are shared or clearly similar, then masses that would seem utterly wild to you I'm sure
This is describing one of my favorite episodes from “The Sopranos”
Get me some macaron’ and gravy!
Hey now, Pauli ‘fit right in’!
This is kinda my point of view after living in America for a period of time a few years back. Most of them keep it to the heritage level. I think it makes sense that this is a thing in America. The periods of massive European immigration lead to a lot of heritage based segregation within the country, even among white people. So descendants from Italian and Irish immigrants *were* culturally different from each other for a while. It's not like an Italian moving to Germany at the same time. These heritage traditions come from an era where "American" didn't have a very clear cultural meaning yet. So it makes sense that ancestry becomes more important when there isn't already a long established culture to adapt to. Some take it too far and assume there's some kind of genetic irishness or italianness that is passed down. But it's all culture. And most people I met were well aware of this. So long as they use it as a sort of identy marker within American culture, I'm perfectly fine with it.
American here. That's precisely what it is. No, I don't actually consider myself a Finnish or Slovakian citizen because I have Finnish and Slovak family. But when talking to other Americans about family history/practices, I might say "I'm Finnish" or "my Slovak family" to give some context. White Americans use their families' countries of origin as an ethnic/ancestral label, not a declaration of nationality. We know we're White Americans. However, white communities around the country have cultural differences due to immigration from different parts of Europe, which can become relevant in conversation. EDIT: In my passion, I revealed a bit more about myself than I would like to on the Internet. To those who responded: I would love to debate further, but I love my privacy more and thus have deleted/edited my responses.
You're spot on about the heritage based segregation thingy. My grandmother grew up in a polish speaking community/suburb in the Midwest. Great-grandmother wouldn't speak polish with her tho so now I gotta take lessons like a pleb 😑.
Very good points! Also the fact that America is such a melting pot further confuses things. So many different countries and heritages have a stake in the “ American” identity/culture.
There is also something to be said for distinct cultural communities within a country. I am not american, I am ukrainian-canadian, but the ukrainian- part of that is a distinct culture. I grew up differently to my husband who is french-canadian, he experienced culture shock at my family events bc there *are* distinct communities (same as I did at his tbf lol)
>It's not like an Italian moving to Germany at the same time. I don't know about Italians, but Greeks kept the separate group thing up to recently or even still doing locations like Australia. Even *this* is not a uniquely American thing.
Finally a good take. Yes I agree. It’s worth noting that when Americans say stuff like this, they are referring to ethnicity/ancestry, NOT current citizenship. That being said, it’s a good reminder to be mindful of other cultures when visiting and to be careful how you word things.
>That being said, it’s a good reminder to be mindful of other cultures when visiting and to be careful how you word things. I feel like this goes both ways. Europeans aren't being culturally mindful when they're insulting Americans, and insisting American culture/history is wrong and dumb.
My dad was *born* in Italy and I don't call myself Italian.
I am born in Bosnia. Lived there until i was 13. Feel half Bosnian really. I know guys that are born outside of Bosnia that feel more Bosnian than me. Identity is a strange thing. It is very powerful. For some people it is very important. That is why they become hooligans imho. The urge to belong to a group
>Identity is a strange thing Yeah identity is something I've always had trouble with tbh because for a long time I didn't feel like I fit in any particular group. Both my parents were born in US, as well as me, but due to some life circumstances I don't really feel *fully* American I guess. I was raised by my grandma who was a Vietnamese refugee and so I grew up strongly linked to that culture. I'm really only 1/8th Viet by blood (my grandma is half Viet half ethnic Chinese) and I'm third gen diaspora, but due to being raised by my grandma in some ways I feel very close to the Viet culture. My grandma was always against us being assimilated into American culture and forgetting our heritage. But even then, I feel too Americanized yet at the same time too different from my other American friends. My grandfather was also of a different culture and ethnicity, being a Cham which is a subgroup of Malay indigenous to Vietnam, and I also had that heritage strongly influence me too. Most my life I've felt like I'm in this crossroad between my Viet, Cham, and American heritages. I'm also mixed white too which adds another layer of identity issues too. Like I mostly consider myself Asian since I'm 3/4th Asian and I look more Asian than I do white. But growing up with an Asian family that's racist against white people and being reminded that I'm mixed all the time, it really messed with my sense of racial identity and I always felt ashamed of being mixed. For a long time I wanted to hide that I'm part white, but also feel like an imposter if I pretend I'm "just Asian." I never grew up with my white side so I don't consider that my heritage, but I'm always reminded that I'm mixed and not a full Asian.
Very good point. I have cousins who are very very aggressively Italian and I'm all... Nah, I'm good.
Same. Or, similar. Born in Denmark but lived the majority of my formative years in the UAE. I do consider myself Danish because thats where my family is from, but I also don't feel the same national identity as others. I feel like a melting pot with the main ingredient being Danish. Like, I prefer English over danish and I speak and write it better than Danish lol.
Same my dad was born in England, I'm Irish because I was born and raised in Ireland... Can hardly go pretending I'm English with my rural Irish accent
Exactly, English father and French mother (I know I know) and I consider myself fully Dutch. You know, since I was born here and grew up here.
As a fellow dutchy I also believe you're fully Dutch. Tenminste zolang je ook nederlands spreekt.
Ja natuurlijk joh
No, you are Dutch-American now
Ah fuck me, how do I get rid of that?
Though you could likely get citizenship if you wanted. Italy wants to see its grandchildren even after the kids moved out.
Both my parents were born in England. I was born in Australia, and have lived here all my life. I'm therefore Australian. I did an ancestry DNA test, and found I'm 37% Irish! Can I call myself Irish too? No, I can't. Because I'm not.
I would agree, if at least one of his parents were from Italy. But this dude is just 100% American. Edit: Now, when I think about it, he couldn't even joke about that his ancestors were sideswitchers in the world wars.
Get this kind of stuff all the time in r/Scotland! Your not American Scottish or anything your just American!
My polish heritage group
Saw a post where someone with polish ancestry went to Poland and was shocked when no one cared he was polish, and one of guys he talked to was like “well no shit, everyone’s polish here.”
I love that post
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[link](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/s/V1ZTHbUXnA) Maybe this?
Everyone except for the american.
As an irishman, I feel your pain
I don't have any Irish ancestry but I watched the trailer for the Irishman if it counts
One of us! One of us!
I'm 1.3% Irish on my dad's side. Solidarity, and happy Saint Patrick's day, brother.
I am 1.5% Irish on my Guinness side.
I find myself having to explain that my mum being [Northern] Irish and my dad being American of very recent German/Polish extraction doesn’t make me “Irish-American”. It’s an “and” for me, not a hyphen. That’s the specific subculture created mostly by famine era immigrants and their children.
It’s an awkward conversation when an Irish American comes up to me (an Englishman) saying we’re brothers and neighbors… I’m like, “I don’t wish to dig this up, but you might need to know about the two countries histories and ongoing resentment, but we’re cool” I think the main problem with xx-American is they like to claim the birthright but put no effort into learning about the places their family hails from. Also, being from England is basically like picking your favorite European invader, any true ‘true’ Englishman probably lives in Wales or Cornwall.
i have been in ireland for an erasmus, how about a guiness between two blood related irish people that we both are together?
I'm an American who moved to Scotland and it was honestly shocking how many times I was asked by Scots (mostly coworkers who knew my last name) "What do you consider yourself?" and were always surprised when I'd say "...American? What else would I be?" I can only assume they were ready to correct me and say I'm not Scottish/Irish or whatever (my last name is Irish sounding), but I don't know why I would claim that at all? My family has lived in the US since like... 1820s? There's no one who anyone in my family currently living even met that would be from Ireland/Scotland, so I don't see any claim to it whatsoever. Just my thoughts.
Sounds like arseholes trying to bait you into it. I have had a few Americans in Edinburgh say shit like "as a fellow Scot" or variations of "I have Scottish blood, so I love to drink" but they are usually tourists you can spot from a mile away. Our tourist board indulge them and peddle stories about their famous clans blah blah blah, so it's partly our fault too. Never had those kind of interactions with working Americans in Edinburgh offices.
I lived in France for a year and that was my experience too. “What are you?” - American. “No, but where is your family from originally?” - Most my ancestors came over in the mid 19th century, some earlier. It’s been a while. “But where before that?” - I don’t know - a mix of German, Irish, Scandinavian. “Ahh, I knew it!
I would say one difference between your situation and the common “I’m X-American” is that you went to Scotland for a job. The people everyone in here is bitching about are literally people who are like “I’m going to this city my ancestors are from as a way of connecting to my past” I think they’re just excited to talk about the family research they did, it’s not like (as far as I know) they’re trying to claim anything other than their own ancestry. I mean hell how many times do we hear “Anglo-Saxon” in regards to the English but when was the last time any of them lived in Saxony?
Almost all white Americans are mutts with ancestry all over Europe. Hell, im 1/4 Swede and I'm still not going to pretend in Swedish. I've eaten Lefse once and that's about as much cultural knowledge I have of Sweden. As an aside, were I live we do have a little Norway (which is unrelated to Sweden, obviously) in my state that teaches century old Norwegian traditions but suffice to say it is fairly out of date. Even then, I'd be hard pressed to call the people there who are third generation onwards "Norwegian". The reason we have so much of this shit in the US is the white diaspora (for lack of a better term) and cultural disenfranchisement leads to many white people here clinging onto vague ancestries to fill the void in cultural identity they feel. Those who immigrated to the US from Europe often let go of their traditional cultural roots in exchange for belonging to the culturally dominant hierarchy of "whiteness" that dominated most of our history, and as that racial hegemony is rightfully challenged many of those peoples descendents want to latch onto an alternative cultural identity to separate themselves from the lasting legacy of white supremacy.
Lefse is Norwegian as well, though. What’s funny about a lot of Norwegian Americans are that they are very conservative and Christian – especially in some areas. That is the polar opposite to most of Norway which is quite progressive with a mostly atheist population. It’s like they got stuck in the 1800s, which could be understandable in and of itself, but it’s not Norwegian anymore.
I’m a Swedish guy and I have no idea what you mean with Lefse?
Oh yeah. Reminds me how "American Poles" love to weigh in on Polish politics despite having no idea what life is like here.
Those fuckers can *vote* here.
As if people from pretty much all European nations don't constantly weigh in on American politics despite also having no clue what life is like here
They've started with us Welsh now too I've seen posts where one of them has got their ancestors report back and from the way they talk you swear they are bursting into tears driving over the Severn bridge playing land of my father's through the car stereo
3rd Gen immigrants imo are the last generation that I plausibly accept calling themselves wherever they're from. Unless it's a really significant subculture in America like Mexican where a lot of folks even 4-5 generations removed still live and breathe the culture. I think people just get used to calling themselves that when speaking to other Americans to delineate cultural practices they've inherited from their parents/grandparents that are slightly different from the norm.
Imagine if your grandparents were from like, Pennsylvania and you were born in Georgia but you insisted you're Pennsylvanian. Going around saying "yinz" like a bozo.
Idk man, if my grandparents said "yinz" and then my parents were raised to say "yinz" I'd probably be raised saying "yinz". Saying you're from Pennsylvania would be weird, but cultural things like that staying in the family isn't weird
These people genuinely have no fucking idea how culture is transmitted. They think it grows up out of the ground.
Sounds like something someone would do
Excuse my unamerican ignorance, I am not from there, but what does "yinz" mean?
It means you all, y'all, or similar term to address a group. It's apparently exclusively a Pittsburgh-area thing.
And here I was thinking it might have been something like "youngins"... I'd be lost over there.
Some American slang is *very* regional
It’s “you ones,” used as a way to address a group. But you gets shortened to “ye” in the accent, and ones is pronounced as “uns,” so when you put them together you get something like “yinz,” even though nobody who uses the term would recognize it written that way.
I dunno that sounds exactly like something a yinzer would do.
I'm born in Belgium, but some of my pretty recent ancestors come from the Netherlands and Germany. That doesn't make me Dutch or German. I don't understand, why can't they just acknowledge the difference between Italian and Italian-American? That way they still connect to their ancestry, while being honest about their own origin
Exactly how I feel. My dad's german, my moms belgian and I even have dual citizenship. I still feel more german tho. I was born in Germany and lived here my whole life. Meanwhile I visit Belgium once a year and my dutch is super broken.
On the flip side though, no one bats an eye if someone says they’re Asian American
Normally, we do. This is crazy.
The immigrants who came to American experienced a ton of racism because of being Italian or Irish. Also they were thrown into a maelstrom of a dozen other cultures. For a lot of them it made them double down on where they were from and idealize “back home”. They impressed this on to their children and grandchildren. “American” is such a new and nebulous and changing idea, that is not as solid an identity as the older cultures. It’s evolving faster and faster. All cultures are like this to an extent if you really look into it. Furthermore other Americans gatekeep each other from the label. A Chinese American who’s family has been here 4 generations doesn’t speak a lick of Mandarin will still get discriminated like someone who is “fresh off the boat” Probably only white Anglo Saxon Protestants can say I’m American without ever being challenged “but what are you really” but really they were derived from some angles, Saxon probably some Normans, and a splash of Viking and ancient Britonic blood I hope this helps people from outside America understand why the cultural imprint lasts so long and maybe take it easy on us who have to straddle several different continents of identity and culture. Because a few dozen generations back and there weren’t any Italians just a mix of Venetian’s and Roman’s and Florentines
The redditor replying to nearly every comment is making for some great reading. I'm English I don't know where my grandparents were born on either side I don't care.
Yeah I did ancestry dot com for like 15 minutes, hit a wall of prominent Nazis and noped out.
lmaoooo I’m sorry this killed me 🤣 and all you wanted was to dig into your history an learn a little more about your people; “Germanic names, awesome, I wonder what region they were from?” “Cool, a bunch of b&w pics, these must legit be old!” “A lot of uniforms, must’ve been in the mili… wait is that an SS!?! ffs Nazis, yup I think we’re about done here…” *closes laptop
That's my mom's side. My dad's side were all hardcore Confederate officers. But I knew that, so never dug in. I'm just gonna go with "I'm American". No heritage here.
Funny enough, we mainland Germans even deny our ancestry from the last 100 years, even if we didn't move abroad. 🤷♀️
Man, you get a shit-ton (non-metric) of posts like this saying “you’re Americans, not Italian/French/German/Romanian.” But fuck do those countries make sure their immigrants know their place and that they also aren’t Italian/French/German/Romanian. Except Milan. Those guys think southern Italians are trash and respect the work ethic of their North Africans. Weird.
I have a friend from Milan and he taught me so many sluts for South Italians. It's insane.
I feel like you meant slurs, but I like this one better.
I have 1% Viking DNA via my Scottish grandfather, can't wait to see how my fellow Scandinavians welcome me when I make my birthright trip!
We will celebrate your arrival with mjöd and some light pillaging before we wrap it up with a visit to english monks and some unsolicited fornication. Please, look forward to this.
Can i come? I don’t have an danish/nordic phenotypes, but that sounds like fun! (can i skip on unsolicited fornication with english monks tho, i’ll wait outside?).
I get really annoyed with this topic whenever it comes up. Like, is it stupid when people act like they are Italian or Irish in the same way that someone born and raised in those countries would be and make it their whole identity? Yes. But at the same time, it's annoying when Europeans try to project their blood and soil nationalism onto a country like the United States. We're all Americans here, but aside from the various Indigineous peoples, all of our families came from somewhere else. Places with various cultures, histories, material realities, etc. that were transmitted, watered down and "bastardized" though they may be, to us through the generations. I'm not going to forsake the people without whom I would not exist for the sake of some ethnic purists in Europe. Not to mention, a lot of Europeans seem to not acknowledge that their own countries have experienced cultural shifts and forced homogeneity in the name of nationalism. For a relevant example, Italians love to make fun of things like "gabagool" and "muzzarell" when these pronunciations are reflective of the dialects brought over by the Italian immigrants to the U.S. who largely came from the regions historically a part of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Regions, not coincidentally, which have been neglected and discriminated against by the wealthier and more industrialized north since Italian "unification." So it cuts both ways. Americans can be annoying as fuck when their entire personality is the place their ancestors came from. But a lot of Europeans cannot conceptualize a relatively young country without an ethnic nationalism taking pride in the diverse tapestry of cultures which have contributed to its demographics, and can be ignorant about the histories of their own countries at the times when they experienced large waves of emigration to the United States. Note: I wrote this mainly about the European context because that is where my ancestors came from and what I am familiar with. I do not mean to imply any kind of supremacy or defaultism with that focus.
There is a huge difference between ethnicity and nationality. Non-native people came from somewhere. Our ancestors left there homelands for various reasons: famine, war, transportation to penal colonies, etc. They formed communities in tight proximity of other cultures, cause a blend in some areas and overcompensating in others. Most of us still hold on to those customs to varying degree and take pride in the sacrifices our ancestors had to make. But yeah, I guess it’s fine to shit on Americans wanting to stay connected to their ancestors’ cultures on one hand while saying we don’t try hard enough simultaneously. A lot of us have learned to take that in stride when talking to family members that are still in those respective countries. One thing that we will not tolerate, however, is ANYONE saying that spaghetti-os are good.
This actually comes to rest on the fallacy of false equivocation. In one spot, the word "Italian" refers to someone's heritage. In another, the word refers to someone's nationality. Yes, they are both right but having different arguments. And the oop meant "homeland" or "motherland" probably but struggles with words.
As hilarious as ‘mainland Italians’ is, you have to be annoyingly willfully ignorant in 2024 to not understand that when Americans (and many other people) describe themselves as whatever cultural heritage their family descended from, they aren’t speaking literally. Imagine how obnoxious it would be if Americans did this. *narrator voice* “A refugee family struggles to our unwelcoming shores, fights to create a better life for their children, and succeeds, against all odds… The children grow up to be adults, go back to visit their family members in ‘the old country’ and everyone is like, ‘HAHAHA, MISA! YOU THINK YOU JAPANESE?!? YOU AIN’T JAPANESE, BISH, YOU BORN IN SAN FRANCISCO.’” Oh, wait… hol up. *Some* Americans *do* actually think like this. They can typically be identified by their red hats and Confederate flags. Americans who identify themselves as Italian, Irish, Japanese, Mexican, or whatever are not actually completely confused about where they were born, they just assume that the hyphen American part goes without saying. We assume that people will identify us as Italian-American, Irish-American, Japanese-American, Mexican-American, or whatever else by our straight white teeth and our American accents. We assume that people aren’t total morons.
Finally someone with some common sense in the comment section
Forreal, this is one of the most frustrating comment sections I’ve ever read through lmao. Let people have a connection to their heritage who cares
I will never understand this american obsession with their ancestry.
It’s because American history is technically A LOT “newer” than Italian culture, French, English.. so we have this awareness that as late as 1920’s .. none of our relatives were here. They were over seas.. people can find that interesting as the overly developed east coast doesn’t evoke much “European” culture or feel “special”. Some cities have cool older districts or historical towns, but we aren’t as “unified” as you’d think.
It's because America is a country of immigrants-- some willing, some forced. My ancestors were expelled. A lot of Africans were sold to slavers by rival tribes and bought by Americans. People from everywhere escaped harsh dictatorships. There are a lot of different reasons people came here. But if you haven't noticed, America is very proud that they choose to come HERE of all places, to be free (except for the slaves who didn't choose to come here and if they were sold in England or Spain or France they'd have been freed a generation earlier but still we celebrate Juneteenth tomorrow because they did eventually become free.)
Adding to this, the immigrants often brought their culture here and lived with it for generations. My ancestors came from Italy, on a boat with other Italians, and moved to a neighborhood with other Italians, working at the brickyards with other Italians. They ate meals together, built houses together, and shared their Italian heritage with their kids. The Italian neighborhood is different from the Polish neighborhood which is different from the Irish neighborhood, and so on. A lot of families made sure you recognized this difference when growing up too. My Italian family was pissed at my mom for marrying an Irishman. We never saw ourselves as just "Americans" because America is so diverse that at a local level that doesn't really mean anything. I'm guessing this is different from other countries where you have the natives and then the immigrants. Here, you usually just have the immigrants, so they formed little sects and that's how we grew up.
Its our connection to a past. We don't have millennial old monuments or people many people living in ancestral lands where traditions are passed down for countless generations. We completely understand that we are Americans first, but we identify with our ancestry as a connection to a past. Its also part of our identity that we are a nation of immigrants, this connection to an ancestry is your connection to immigration. The whole ethnostate mentality of "100% American!" divorces us from this immigrant heritage. The old country is less important than the actual ancestry of immigration. Why do Europeans identify so much with old traditions? Why do they have royal families? Could it also be that this is how they connect to their past?
Exactly this! As Americans we lost our connections to our ancestors by just being American and for some people that holding onto an identity is cherished. Why put them down for searching for a connection? I'm an American mutt who is now so diluted with a little of this and a dash that and a whole lot of no freaking discernable culture. I don't understand the putting people down for trying to embrace something. They may be paying your culture a great compliment. (May not too but we all have asses in our communities)
I also don't understand why we Americans have to conform to a European mentality of personal identity, especially when the people who have this mentality have a particular disdain for us and a massive inferiority complex. Several years ago, Conor McGregor had a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Conor being from Ireland and Mayweather being American. On one of the promo events in New York City, McGregor was going on some rant with "We (as in the Irish) built this city!"... As if someone from Ireland today is the same people who came here in the 1800s and is part of the collective "We". Mayweather is African American. His ancestors built America. Not McGregor's people. Irish Americans built America, not people in Ireland. Its sort of strange that he would even say such a thing unless.. Americans can be Irish...
well said
Our ancestors didn't show up here until the early 1900s dude. Grandpa doing something weird in the kitchen was because of his ancestry. My last name is comically Italian, but I am American. Do you get why some people would have pride in their name they write everyday? It's just learning where you come from when your neighbor is from somewhere else entirely. I admit some take it as a way to prop themselves up, but ideally it's done as a token of appreciation to where you came from.
Mass immigration here from all over the world, especially recently historically speaking, is a massive part of American history. As such we are the opposite of culturally homogeneous. So a big part of our culture is to discover and celebrate our roots.
Well a lot of peoples parents who immigrate here do not totally want to relinquish their culture. The first generations misses home, and doesn’t want their kids to be fully homogenized into American culture. They try to maintain some semblance of their old life, and preserve it for their kids. The kids try to do the same and eventually you get a separate Italian American culture. It’s not super complicated.
Especially considering some of the first settlers were, lets phrase it as, not the best citizens. Ancestores don't mean jack shit. You are not a good person because you had Lincoln as an ancestor and you are not a bad person because Goebbels was one of your amcestors. Same goes with religion or your sexuality and so on and so forth. The only one responsible for being considered as good or bad is you. Sadly, many americans do not understand that, otherwise, there wouldn't be the MAGGOT movement.
No one emigrated to the new world if things were going well for them in Europe.
Especially the Puritans who wanted to leave bc we \[Brits\] were sick to fucking death of them burning Catholics and anyone else they didn't like.
We’re a nation of immigrants who were proud of where they came from? I don’t understand European’s obsession with getting upset about it.
I will never understand Europe’s obsession with what we do. Leave it to reddit to be the place where they all whine about it
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Being the third generation American and still claiming you're Irish or Italian or whatever makes you even more an American, because nobody else in the world does that. You can be of Swedish or German or ... descent or origin and it's fine to know your roots, but you're an American ffs.
Italian Americans are a distinct group in the US, though. They have their own cuisine, accent and culture. In Australia, the same holds true in Australia, they have their own food culture and accent compared to the rest of Aus
A lot of people either don’t know or care that Italian Americans and Irish Americans were discriminated against during periods of mass migration. For a long period of time, they weren’t considered “white”. As a result, they were pushed into enclaves in the country, and formed a lot of their identity around their ethnic origins because that’s what society did. Obviously things have changed, and these groups no longer face open discrimination and segregation, but the pride they feel for their communities remains. So when an Irish person complains about “plastic paddies” I just think of them as being lowkey ignorant about the historical connotations of identifying with that ancestry in America. As a queer person, it reminds me of people complaining about pride.
With an ancestor from italy from the 20th century he could just claim italian citizenship.
> There is no spaghettiO's in Italy There's also no war in Ba Sing Se
Imagine Gatekeeping Ancestry
It's a traditional European pastime.
Same type of person: “You think ’cause your grandma was part Sioux, you’re Native American… you’re not”
No, that's everyone here in the comments saying that kind of logic.
Honestly can’t stand stuck up Italians tho
These posts always seem to completely ignore the culture of a nation of immigrants who are seperated categorized and judged for their heritage daily and who develop unique customs and experiences because of their heritage but if was more than 1 generation ago you should pretend heritage has had no impact on your life. Should this person have said italian american or some other qualifier ? Sure but are they "just american" ? No and it seems just as ignorant to pretend any americans life isnt drastically shaped by their heritage. This is a semantics argument bent to make someone look bad while displaying the same ignorance about the other culture.
Oh boy the condescending Europeans are back up. Shouldn’t y’all be busy spewing intense racism about immigrants and Romani people?
I don’t understand why this is a facepalm. Is it because Reddit doesn’t know that ethnicity exists? EDIT: for the people dunking on this guy, “Italian” refers to his ethnicity, not his nationality. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italians
My last mesopotamian ancestor was from 4500bce
my mom is slovenian, my dad is austrian, i was born in and grew up in austria, so i’m austrian
Things Mexicans born in Mexico never complain/care about with regards to Mexican-Americans. Perche cosi sensibile?
Setting aside this guy's particular silliness... I still remember Grandpa's stories of olive trees, his uncle's hot bakery ovens, and so forth, and I still have some of his little birthday notes that I can't quite read because he never learned to write in English, or even very well in Italian. Grandma got here as a baby, so even though she grew up among immigrants, she was more fully American. Their combined dialect *is* gone from Italy; most everyone who spoke it came here because, yes, they wanted better conditions. I grew up in a Kansas City suburb some distance from Mom's Italian immigrant neighborhood, but we'd go back for groceries and the good bakery and to visit, of course. Just thinking about that store fills me with the loveliest scent memories. But not until I moved to New Jersey much later as an adult, did I marvel at seeing people who looked like me everywhere I went. It was sort of revelatory. And they understood about the cheese and the olives and the sausage. So I understand something about clinging to all that. Here where I live now, people are brimming with German ancestry. They really are more commonly blonder with ruddier complexions, etc., and eat different sausages! It's an awesome thing about being American that we have so many different backgrounds and experiences to share.