It's just a very foreign thing for us eurooeans. If we're born in Italy, but some grandparent was born in Germany, we don't consider ourself to be german in any way. We'd consider ourself italian and nothing else. It just seems so incredibly odd to even consider oneself to be german if you didn't spend time growing up in Germany.

[–] ViperActual@sh.itjust.works 18 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I think the reason it's so prevalent here in the US is because the vast majority of the population ended up here at least in part due to immigration. So identifying as ethnically originating from elsewhere is a part of that self identity.

The disparity however, is knowing that while traveling through Europe, this style of self identification falls flat because simply being ethnically from a place doesn't mean you can claim to be born and raised from there. And that meaning is what's different between the US and Europe.

[–] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

I wonder if some of it doesn't come from the people who came to America through forced immigration (I.e. the slave trade).

I think it makes sense for people brought unwillingly to America to hold on to that ethnic heritage and culture work hard to instill it in their children, even if they were born in America.

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Very unlikely, the people who claim to have some european origin are generally not the descendants of slaves. Descendants of slaves generally have very little knowledge about the origin of their ancestors. Slaves in America came mostly from Africa, most likely even displaced within Africa. Very little records were kept of individual slaves origins, because why would anyone do that, they're slaves. These people identify as "just" African Americans.

[–] LilB0kChoy@midwest.social 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I think you misunderstood. I wasn't talking about the people who claim to have some European origin but the practice in general in the US of acknowledging ancestral ethnic heritage as part of where you're from.

Descendants of slaves generally have very little knowledge about the origin of their ancestors.

This might be true now, but 200 years ago people were brought here from other countries unwillingly and had children here. If we're were forcefully taken to another country and then had children at some point I would talk to them about the people left behind and where I came from.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

If we're were forcefully taken to another country and then had children at some point I would talk to them about the people left behind and where I came from.

That’s not how that works, especially when their cultures were specifically purged by the slavers. Your comment reads like the equivalent of saying “I would have just roundhouse kicked the gun away and saved the day” as if it’s the slaves’ fault for not giving their kids rich lessons on their history. It’s amazing that even some of it survived at all.

[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I guess that makes sense. We have our "heritage" pushed on us from a very young age, or at least we did when I was a child. In the 4th grade we did an entire reenactment of immigrating through Ellis Island, NY in which we had to research our countries of origin, then draw from a hat to see if we died on the journey, got small pox, or any other number of things all before being "accepted into the wonderful cultural melting-pot that is the United States".

Then we grew up and learned that all immigrants are evil and must all be deported. /s?

Regardless, my family immigrated from Ireland after having lived in County Cork for a very long time. This whole post just seems like shitting on people just to shit on people.

Sad thing to be, nonsensical thing to want to be

Well, thanks for calling me sad for a thing I'm mostly indifferent about and have no choice in, OP.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

What if you knew your family came over before Ellis island was open.

[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Didn't matter. Unless you were indigenous, for the lessons sake, you came through ellis island lol