• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Is American an Ethnicity?

Is American an Ethnicity?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 19.1%

  • No

    Votes: 38 80.9%
  • Total voters
    47
If "American" is a race then there are alot of self hating Americans out there.
 
Bardo said:
If "American" is a race then there are alot of self hating Americans out there.
Click to expand...

No, not really. There are just a whole lot of people who should not be calling themselves Americans because they only meet half of the criteria. They were born here, but their allegiance is NOT to this country.
 
Tigger said:
No, not really. There are just a whole lot of people who should not be calling themselves Americans because they only meet half of the criteria. They were born here, but their allegiance is NOT to this country.
Click to expand...

So by ethnicity you mean ideology?
 
Aunt Spiker said:
You know - my kid's school is doing some sort of special curriculum that discusses cultures and ethnicity around the world - and one homework assignment was to interview family members and write about their Ethnicity.

I didn't know what to put, either - so we didn't do that assignment.
Click to expand...

what? you don't know where your family came from? probably the point of the assignment was encourage kids to know their backgrounds, why would "we" not do the assignment? i remember being in grade school and having the same sort of assignment, and it was downright fun to talk with my grandparents about their history.
 
This is without question truly one of most bizarre polls to date I congratulate you drz-400 this one takes the cake.
 
Bardo said:
So by ethnicity you mean ideology?
Click to expand...

To me ideology is part of it, Bardo. Then again I'm a Nationalist through-and-through, so I probably see this very differently than most people do.
 
Tigger said:
To me ideology is part of it, Bardo.
Click to expand...

I'll have to disagree.

My family ancestors made it to America in the 18th century, so I'm something like a 9-10th generation American. However, I'm not an American nationalist and I don't believe you have to be an Americanist to be an American.
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
. An example

Lets say 10 000 ethnically Han Chinese move to Ireland. They adopt all Irish cultural traditions, however they only marry and have childern with genetically Han Chinese, and so do their childern, generation after generation. Would anyone identify them as being ethnically Irish?
​
Click to expand...

I would say yes.
There are Black Jews in Africa, that are considered part of the Jewish Ethnic group.
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
. An example

Lets say 10 000 ethnically Han Chinese move to Ireland. They adopt all Irish cultural traditions, however they only marry and have childern with genetically Han Chinese, and so do their childern, generation after generation. Would anyone identify them as being ethnically Irish?​
Click to expand...

Probably not...but only because they happened to look sufficiently different, and that just happens to coincide with the perception of ethnicity in Anglophonic countries. Ask the same question, but substitute Iranian immigrants for Chinese immigrants. Would anyone identify THEIR descendants as being ethnically Irish? I would say yes.
 
liblady said:
what? you don't know where your family came from? probably the point of the assignment was encourage kids to know their backgrounds, why would "we" not do the assignment? i remember being in grade school and having the same sort of assignment, and it was downright fun to talk with my grandparents about their history.
Click to expand...

It wasn't a family-history project like a family tree sort of thing. It was an ethnicity project. As we've discussed: we do not have an ethnicity.

I have no clue where our grandparents came from when they immigrated and before they all eventually passed away they made no such effort to enlighten anyone. So even when we do family-tree type things it doesn't go back very far. The families immigrated from various countries - which ones we don't know - during WWII and that's all we've got.

But - no - no ethnicity to speak of.
 
Last edited:
Bardo said:
However, I'm not an American nationalist and I don't believe you have to be an Americanist to be an American.
Click to expand...

My family and I will have to disagree with you on that.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
I would say yes.
There are Black Jews in Africa, that are considered part of the Jewish Ethnic group.
Click to expand...
more correctly they would be considered Ethiopian Jews. A minor sub ethnic group a Jews. There are two major sub ethnic group among Jews, and a few minor ones.
 
Kandahar said:
Probably not...but only because they happened to look sufficiently different, and that just happens to coincide with the perception of ethnicity in Anglophonic countries. Ask the same question, but substitute Iranian immigrants for Chinese immigrants. Would anyone identify THEIR descendants as being ethnically Irish? I would say yes.
Click to expand...
If they could pass as being Irish physically then they probably would be seen as ethnically Irish unless dna testing was done
 
Tigger said:
My family and I will have to disagree with you on that.
Click to expand...

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?
 
According to Federal and State law, ALL who are citizens of the United States, are Americans. Be they natural-born or naturalized.
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
If they could pass as being Irish physically then they probably would be seen as ethnically Irish unless dna testing was done
Click to expand...

But what would DNA testing prove? Sure, it might tell you what part of the world someone's ancestors came from, but it wouldn't tell you what ethnicity they were because there is no objective definition. For example, in the modern Anglophonic concept of ethnicity, anyone whose ancestors came from anywhere between Iceland and Armenia is considered "white." Yet those with ancestry from China/Korea are typically NOT considered the same ethnicity, despite the fact that they are much closer geographically. Ditto for Turkey/Syria or Israel/Palestine.

As far as I can tell, the only difference is how people self-identify.
 
Last edited:
Thunder said:
According to Federal and State law, ALL who are citizens of the United States, are Americans. Be they natural-born or naturalized.
Click to expand...

The point of this thread was not to marginalize American citizens who are apart of different ethnic groups or debate what an American Citizen even was. The debate of American being an ethnicity does not have to encompass all American citizens. It would be a sub group of people with a long heritage in North America who would identify as such. Just like some citizens of Turkey are part of the Turkish ethnic group, while some Turkish citizens are Kurdish. Do you get what I am saying?
 
Last edited:
Kandahar said:
But what would DNA testing prove? Sure, it might tell you what part of the world someone's ancestors came from, but it wouldn't tell you what ethnicity they were because there is no objective definition. For example, in the modern Anglophonic concept of ethnicity, anyone whose ancestors came from anywhere between Iceland and Armenia is considered "white." Yet those with ancestry from China/Korea are typically NOT considered the same ethnicity, despite the fact that they are much closer geographically. Ditto for Turkey/Syria or Israel/Palestine.

As far as I can tell, the only difference is how people self-identify.
Click to expand...

White to my knowledge is not an ethnic group, it is more of the three major racial divides, along with Oriental (mongoloid), Black African (Negroid), while white would be white european (Caucasoid). As more people from various specific ethnic grouop intermarry, people are losing the ethnic ties, and as such identifying with the broader racial identifier. That as well is breaking down slowly as people intermarry between the various racial divides

Overal if one is to divide Korean ethnically from Han Chinese, as opposed to calling them Oriental, why are Germans (Bavarians) lumped into the same category of White with Poles.
 
drz-400 said:
The point of this thread was not to marginalize American citizens who are apart of different ethnic groups or debate what an American Citizen even was. The debate of American being an ethnicity does not have to encompass all American citizens. It would be a sub group of people with a long heritage in North America who would identify as such. Just like some citizens of Turkey are part of the Turkish ethnic group, while some Turkish citizens are Kurdish. Do you get what I am saying?
Click to expand...

yes. but unlike most states in Europe, the USA is not a nation-state.
 
Thunder said:
yes. but unlike most states in Europe, the USA is not a nation-state.
Click to expand...

I agree. The US gains its legitimacy from its Rational-legal authority, not its ethnic ties. However, for the debate of American as an ethnicity I was mostly talking about a common heritage, language, and culture that is present rather than our political aspirations.
 
drz-400 said:
I agree. The US gains its legitimacy from its Rational-legal authority, not its ethnic ties. However, for the debate of American as an ethnicity I was mostly talking about a common heritage, language, and culture that is present rather than our political aspirations.
Click to expand...

the largest ethnic group in the USA.....are Mexicans.

so what is this common heritage?
 
Thunder said:
the largest ethnic group in the USA.....are Mexicans.

so what is this common heritage?
Click to expand...

I am guessing they all have a common mexican heritage, I don't know, I'm not a mexican. Did you read the first post? There are a lot of people that live here that have 10+ generations in the US/british colonies that have nothing in common with their european ancestory. I was just wondering if we should call them an American ethnic group. Obviously you disagree, a lot of people seemed to on the poll. I wasn't trying to say that every single American citizen would fit this definition though so I don't see why you keep on taking it that way. I feel like I was pretty clear about this.
 
Last edited:
American is not an ethnicity, its more of a variety of ethnicity's under one name. All equally hated across the world.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom