damn didn't realize yall would be so hostile
same feeling as: "wow very judgemental community here" lmao
I still remember when someone came to /r/Wicked_Edge, a subreddit about straight razors, and asked to compare two disposable brands. People were as kind as possible.
lmao I wonder if he's one of those guys who believes it's gay to wipe your ass
I don't know, one guy has a real problem that needs to be addressed. The other guy is mad because people got mad at him for cosplaying an ethnic identity.
"or should I say us 🇮🇹"
"Sopranos was my favorite show"
Oof. Imagine saying "roots was my favorite show so it makes sense my great great great grandparent was black"
I have Italian ancestry and I've always found these guys to be cringe, but I also get why they do it . Many people in the United States yearn for meaning and interpersonal connection in their lives. "Being an Italian" provides a prepackaged, very commercialized possibility of community with little effort required - you're just born to it, so instant acceptance, right?
The reality is often less Soprano's chic and more "nonno and nonnina were illiterate farmhands who moved to the US for a better life. Nonno died from mystery cancer and all of nonnina's bones dissolved after birthing her 15th child at 24. Now chew nonnina's birthday cake for her".
In no particular order, I have French, German, Dutch, Scottish, Irish, and a teensy tiny bit of "my great great great great grandmother was native American and we actually have the proof but nobody could ever tell without a DNA test so it only gets brought up when talking about obscure family genetic lineage"
Maybe it's because my family is super midwest-usa-bible-belt, and I never even found out about most of it until a genetics test when I got married to my now wife (we wanted to know if kids would even be a medical possibility with our various issues), but I don't identify with any of the places my ancestors lived in, so there isn't a particular culture I'd like to be part of. And to be perfectly frank I'm not sure I want to be part of any culture, I just want to tend to my forest with fair ~~Goldberry~~ my wife.
You do make a good point though, if you're looking to be part of something or feel particularly drawn to a culture after being immersed in what you think it's really like, I could absolutely see this happening with 100% sincerity.
On the one hand, as a country of immigrants, there are tons of places where communities settled and brought their culture with them and so have a strong feeling of connection to their ancestry despite their culture today being completely different. The French Quarter of New Orleans comes to mind. On the other hand, we also kinda traded tradition for consumerism. We lack a real sense of history and culture of our own, making it easy to connect more with our hereditary culture than our country's.
You can also add to this the ease modern technology has brought in communicating with people across the globe. Americans are probably more likely than just about any other country to have distant family connections in other countries that they are in contact with. If you're French, you probably come from a generational line of French people who lived not far from you (relatively speaking). By comparison, as a kid, me and my parents went on vacation once to spend a week with some distant relatives of ours in Scotland because we have connections to a specific family castle there.
It's funny because in my great great grandfather's journals he hopes his kids would be Americans and not his former nationality, or at least that's what I have been told it said as I cannot read his primary language.
I'm as basic-white-belgian as they come and even I have a little bit of Italian and Eastern European (IIRC) somewhere in there. "Pure" (ew) lineages are actually quite rare in Europe, only the most remote places were spared the millennia of warfare (and the grim reality that soldiers, uh, move genes around) and the urban flights of the industrial revolutions. The average European's background isn't as diverse as the average American's, but a lot more than one might naively assume.
What is striking about North America though is the anglo-saxon cultural homogeneity, especially considering the diverse backgrounds. Besides Quebec there's virtually no language barrier anywhere, and an almost entirely homogenous culture. You could probably raise a kid in 6 states and 3 provinces without any major issue. All North Americans eat Mac and Cheese and they all watch the Superbowl and all American children stand up for the Pledge. Meanwhile the only cultural references I am likely to have in common with the average Pole is American TV/movies/music and depending on their English skill having a conversation at all may be a major challenge.
Maybe not western european in particular but you sound 100% Bombadilian to me. I'll bet your boots are yellow.
My sister got a DNA test done that shows we've got 96% Italian heritage and I've never seen Sopranos.
Guess I'm a poser
You'd better go to Olive Garden and get in touch with your heritage.
Those breadsticks aren't going to eat themselves...
There weren't enough hand emojis 👋👌, mama Mia's, or references to spaghetti. No wonder he didn't fit in.
Maybe if you're mostly German, you learn to avoid wild hand gestures from a young age. Just to be safe, you know?
Or just register as a republican and say it's fashionable.
fashion with a sc
Well they used to teach it in schools!
Elon: 0% german
Everything you do below your shoulders is fine
You missed the main one🤌🤌ma che cazzo
Americans are all saying they’re proud of their country and then say shit like this unironically.
Makes sense though because in America, everyone is American regardless of background, race, etc etc etc so people, in their search for ways to differentiate themselves from others, latch on to their heritage.
Ironically America has incredible diversity within its borders. The average west coaster, northeasterner, Bible belter, and Midwesterner are completely foreign to each other. Plus a religious obsession with sports is another way we tribalize.
in America, everyone is American regardless of background, race, etc
Except if you moved here recently, of course. We can't have that.
American with 7% Irish ancestry on the Shankill Road lecturing the locals on why they should have a united Ireland energy.
Something something shillelagh.
I did one of those mail in DNA test and found out I'm like over 50% data breach
If he is mostly German good chance that his Italian roots are from the Italian Alps where they speak German.
Basing your preferred genetic heritage on how much you like a TV show. Smh.
American Italians have embraced the pop culture caricature of themselves and become it.
Americans ~~Italians~~ have embraced the pop culture caricature of themselves and become it.
HEY, I'm typin' hea'
Americans when they find out they're 1/823th of a footballfield finnish: "OMG I AM SO DIVERSE! AND NOW A CERTIFIED MINORITY" Americans when they try to do finnish things: "Yeah no this is fake, its not possible for anyone to survive in 230f"
I'm 25% Finnish (Grandmother)
I enjoy saunas
Is 25% enough to enjoy other Finnish things?
Eight hundred twenty threeth.
Americans love to answer the question "where are you from?" with an ingredients list.
My lineage is German, Irish, and Scandanavian, but my stomach is 100% Mexican.
He's like every other person in New Jersey
It's lonely not being Italian American in NJ. I was psyched when Korean and Japanese kids started moving into town in the 1980s because suddenly it wasn't me and 25 kids who all shared a common culture.
There are a lot of Polish Americans there too.
Marrone? Uffa, issat aposta be a Madone?
Thats how they say it in the show i think it was supposed to be some Italian dialect
Yeah, fuck of danes. Didn't like you anyway 😆
/s
fuck of danes. Didn’t like you anyway
You might be part Swedish then.
Thor remember one time many warriors lit ship full of Danes on fire. Then it sink. Was a good day for Thor!
Y'all actually know your ethnicity? I know i'm white and that's about it.
Americans use ethnicity as a synonym for race. That's not formally correct. Wikipedia has it thusly:
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups.
If you don't know your ethnicity, then you don't have one. Except you do have one. White American certainly fits the definition.
General rules:
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
