I have always wondered why every ethnic group that comes to live in America feels the necessity to tell everyone else exactly where they came from. Why can't they just be Americans, they are living in America. For instance, why do people have to be African American, Mexican American, the list goes on and on and on. People come to any country because they want what that nation has to offer them. When someone asks them what they are they should say "American". It just seems to me that this simply divides an already divided nation even further. This goes for all nations, not just America. So is it just me, or has anyone else ever wondered about this or have anything to say about this topic?

__________________
"Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has
no brain."
-Vladimir Putin

"The press is our chief ideological weapon."
-Nikita Khrushchev

__________________
The woman in my avatar is Cristina Scabbia and the woman in my profile picture is Tarja Turunen
Sun flames and moons glow, timeless the tides will flow, what will I face, what will be mine, fortune and fate the other side...

I'm a Tarte! What! You Want Somma This?

Your user name is "Hegel"

I can see that we will have some very interesting discussions in the future.

(And Mak, they are all African-American because we Americans are just so self-centered, and it spreads!)

And to answer the original question, American really isn't an ethnicity because its history isn't long enough to have a true mix and consistency.

__________________

"I am in favor of Free Trade"

--Karl Marx

They have to tell you because most Americans know (*)(*)(*)(*) all about geog (frodders excluded) you should thank them for the education

__________________
None. Mod edit to remove profanity. Fools to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am stuck up the middle of you!
"Some people have recurrent behavior issues" Catz, proof please?

Not all Religion is a load of bollocks,The United Church of the Latter Day Tangental Tarts is moist yet crisp

Im a Tart, What! you want some of this

Until job applications say "American" under ethnicity... I don't want to hear it.

__________________
Your spin doesn't matter... I can slam revolving doors.

Huh. First post. Welcome.

Anyway people tend to give up their identity slowly. Not just the immegrants of the week but everybody. My ancestors came over mostly as Germans and Norwegians. I'm not sure if the oldest ones ever learned english because they settled in areas with other Germans/Norwegians. My wifes sides Greek and the really identified as Greeks. Similar deal.

But the kids learned English and after a generation or two they would marry someone not from the parent country, usually to the dismay of the older generation (when my Father in law married a non Greek I understand that his grandmother locked herself in the bedroom and pretended to be dying).

And then a bit later you just get "Americans". This process still going on today. But it takes time.

On that note it seems to be a special thing America has going that this happens at all. The people in the Balkains were shoved into the same areas for hundreds of years and they still don't merge together. I mean look at the Serbs and Albanians going at it around here and they'd been side by side and often in the same country for a long long time. And it's not a big space over there. The whole of Serbia/Kosovo/Albania takes up less space than some states.

Why do you say that White Fox??




Yes I understand that but it bothers me that people don't recognize themselves as Americans even after living here for generations. Many of people don't even really know any of their ancestors customs and traditions, yet strictly stick to their ethnicity. I just believe that if America is to flourish and survive in this world we need a common identity, not a mix of everything that satisfies no one and confuses everyone.

__________________
"Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has
no brain."
-Vladimir Putin

"The press is our chief ideological weapon."
-Nikita Khrushchev

By "Hegel," I assumed you were referring to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. An interesting person to say the least, whose ideas have influenced many different ranges of thought, many of which I thoroughly despise.

Where would you place yourself on the ideological spectrum, to start with?

__________________

"I am in favor of Free Trade"

--Karl Marx

It's easier the harder it is to tell different groups apart. Also we still have serious race issues involving the African Americans.

Though remember to differentiate between Nationality and ethnicity. It's rather different if someone is a Sudanese American vs just an African American. Ditto for being Chinese vs being Asian.

But just because someone identifies themselves as Hispanic or something doesn't make them less American than a Caucasian.

I think people need to have a sense of history. A feeling of where they came from, "roots." The concept of what is American is constantly changing --everything is always changing whether we are aware of it or not. We celebrate our past history as well as our present and I think we do the same thing with our past backgrounds. I was born an American, but before there was an America my relatives existed, before nationalism existed, my relatives existed.

So if your family came to America from another country and that should be most of us, your family has a history somewhere. Sometimes if you're not sure even of what it is, it can be helpful to invent one to feel a part of history somehow. Is that a harmful thing? To recognize old customs of history? Not really and if you like music or food or art, you can share in many different customs. I'm not sure why anyone would be opposed to that. Unless you really hate diversity and some people do. New or different ideas scare them or something.