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Is American an Ethnicity?

Is American an Ethnicity?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 19.1%
  • No

    Votes: 38 80.9%

  • Total voters
    47
American is not an ethnicity, it's a nationality. The US is an eThnically diverse country, to have "American" as one's ethnicity would leave confusions, as "American" might easily be a Korean, Chinese, Indian, Caucasian, Afrian, Hispanic, and so on. One would be confused. If you're of German descent, then you're a German or a Caucasian, but of US nationality

Hypothetically imagine a person coming originating from place significantly far was adopted at birth into a particular ethnic group (tribe) went through all the rites that a member of that ethnic group went through and was a member in good standing would you say he was really a member of the originating ethnic group?
 
Then which is more important?

Is someone who is born in America with anti-American views more or less American than a Mexican immigrant with pro-American views?

I would suggest that BOTH are necessary, though I'd prefer to spend time with the Pro-American Mexican, than the Anti-American US Citizen.
 
the largest ethnic group in the USA.....are Mexicans.
so what is this common heritage?
If Mexican gets to be an ethnicity, then American should get to be an ethnicity.


Ethnicity isn't very solidly defined, iirc.

I vote for making American an ethnicity if it's not already. I kind of suspect that it is already.
 
No, our culture is far too varied, and we don't have sufficient common ancestry.
 
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No, our culture is far too varied, and we don't have sufficient common ancestry.

Which is one of the main problems in this country right now.
 
When the time comes that Spanish will be the primary language throughout many States.
Then I will like to see the responces from those bleeding heart American born liberals on these post.
 
When the time comes that Spanish will be the primary language throughout many States.
Then I will like to see the responces from those bleeding heart American born liberals on these post.

Don't you know, they WANT that to happen. They've gone and studied all these other languages and cultures. They WANT America to become just some other place in the world, and not the Greatest Nation of all time. They despise the "horrors" we visited on the Native populations and can't wait to see it happen to Real Americans like you and me by the Mexicans.
 
When the time comes that Spanish will be the primary language throughout many States.
Then I will like to see the responces from those bleeding heart American born liberals on these post.

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Non-sequitur much?
 
Which is one of the main problems in this country right now.
No, the problem is not the varied culture, it is the refusal of our many cultures to be open-minded. It's when people start thinking "we need one culture" that we REALLY run into problems.
 
When the time comes that Spanish will be the primary language throughout many States.
Then I will like to see the responces from those bleeding heart American born liberals on these post.
Well, the responses will probably all be in Spanish due to training at liberal universities.
 
When the time comes that Spanish will be the primary language throughout many States.
Then I will like to see the responces from those bleeding heart American born liberals on these post.

"responces", "on these post"?

I figure you'd get more out of my Spanish responses than I get out of your <ahem> English ones.
 
No, the problem is not the varied culture, it is the refusal of our many cultures to be open-minded. It's when people start thinking "we need one culture" that we REALLY run into problems.

On that we will disagree. We need an AMERICAN culture. One which embraces the fact that we are from different places, yet brings that all together into one UNIFIED and DISTINCT AMERICAN Culture. That is.... our own language (which we already have.... American English), our own traditions (which we already have), and a shared history (which we already have). It also requires that those who come here from outside abandon their former culture and take up the AMERICAN culture; which is why it is hard for me to believe that many immigrants can ever truly become AMERICANS.... it's very difficult to give up that old culture.
 
No, our culture is far too varied, and we don't have sufficient common ancestry.
What are the limits on the common ancestry thing?

How large of a time period does the ancestry have to cover?
There have been folks from all over the world living here for hundreds of years? How long until the 6th generation descendants of Asian folks, the 6th generation descendants of African folks and the 6th generation descendants of European folks are all seen as having American ancestry?
Does it take 7 generations? 3? 100? Or what?

How large of a geographic area can be considered as a part of "common ancestry"? Do the Irish share a common ancestry w/ the Dutch? Iirc, there was some significant contact between the groups. Do the Spanish share common ancestry with Mauritanians?


It seems to me that at some point these limits are arbitrary.
 
On that we will disagree. We need an AMERICAN culture. One which embraces the fact that we are from different places, yet brings that all together into one UNIFIED and DISTINCT AMERICAN Culture. That is.... our own language (which we already have.... American English), our own traditions (which we already have), and a shared history (which we already have). It also requires that those who come here from outside abandon their former culture and take up the AMERICAN culture; which is why it is hard for me to believe that many immigrants can ever truly become AMERICANS.... it's very difficult to give up that old culture.

Distinct American culture you say...

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Distinct American culture you say...

American culture is not about race, religion, or appearance. It's not always pretty (though we should be going about cleaning a lot of that up). However, it is distinctly American.
 
I suspect that American culture is more obvious to furriners.
 
I suspect that American culture is more obvious to furriners.

Speaking as a furriner with more than a passing interest in American culture. There's no single American culture, it's a country of many different cultures, and to claim America needs "a UNIFIED and DISTINCT AMERICAN Culture" is a exercise in futility as you try to decide which one is American, and why all the others aren't.
 
Speaking as a furriner with more than a passing interest in American culture. There's no single American culture, it's a country of many different cultures, and to claim America needs "a UNIFIED and DISTINCT AMERICAN Culture" is a exercise in futility as you try to decide which one is American, and why all the others aren't.

There is American culture, but we are not a seperate ethnicity. The same is with Mexico, as I misspoke.
 
....and to claim America needs "a UNIFIED and DISTINCT AMERICAN Culture" is a exercise in futility as you try to decide which one is American, and why all the others aren't.

No it's not. At least not for those of us who comprehend what this nation was intended to be. Of course, assuming that proper culture was in place we wouldn't be having this conversation, because there wouldn't be any communication between the USA and other countries, nevermind travel.
 
No it's not. At least not for those of us who comprehend what this nation was intended to be. Of course, assuming that proper culture was in place we wouldn't be having this conversation, because there wouldn't be any communication between the USA and other countries, nevermind travel.

You're trying to tell me the cultural differences between the north and south of your country wouldn't have happened if America pursued a total isolationist policy? :lol:
 
Speaking as a furriner with more than a passing interest in American culture. There's no single American culture, it's a country of many different cultures, and to claim America needs "a UNIFIED and DISTINCT AMERICAN Culture" is a exercise in futility as you try to decide which one is American, and why all the others aren't.
I don't think that unified means the same as homogenous.
But I think that there're things which are seen as distinctly American.
 
No it's not. At least not for those of us who comprehend what this nation was intended to be. Of course, assuming that proper culture was in place we wouldn't be having this conversation, because there wouldn't be any communication between the USA and other countries, nevermind travel.

why should there be no communication nor travel between the USA and other nations?

I am starting to believe that ALL of these insane & ridiculous posts by you are just one big joke, and you are simply lampooning your vision of the most extremist right-winger possible.
 
Is an American who does not speak German, never been to Germany and is not Lutheran ethnically German?
Is an American who does not speak Swahili, never been to Kenya and is not a Muslim ethnically Kenyan?
Is an American who does not speak Mandarin, never been to China and is not an atheist ethnically Chinese?
 
What are the limits on the common ancestry thing?

How large of a time period does the ancestry have to cover?
There have been folks from all over the world living here for hundreds of years? How long until the 6th generation descendants of Asian folks, the 6th generation descendants of African folks and the 6th generation descendants of European folks are all seen as having American ancestry?
Does it take 7 generations? 3? 100? Or what?

How large of a geographic area can be considered as a part of "common ancestry"? Do the Irish share a common ancestry w/ the Dutch? Iirc, there was some significant contact between the groups. Do the Spanish share common ancestry with Mauritanians?


It seems to me that at some point these limits are arbitrary.
They are certainly arbitrary, but it is still one of the characteristics of an ethnicity, and I don't think we've reached that point in our miniscule 235 (or whatever) years of being a very pro-immigration country.
 
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They are certainly arbitrary, but it is still one of the characteristics of an ethnicity, and I don't think we've reached that point in our miniscule 235 (or whatever) years of being a very pro-immigration country.
So, where are the limits?
If you know that the US hasn't reached the limits yet, then there must be some awareness of where the limits lie.

How will you be able to tell when American becomes and ethnicity by your definition?

Is an American who does not speak German, never been to Germany and is not Lutheran ethnically German because of his last name?
Is an American who does not speak Swahili, never been to Kenya and is not a Muslim ethnically Kenyan because of his last name?
Is an American who does not speak Mandarin, never been to China and is not an atheist ethnically Chinese because of his last name?
 
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