Why are there so many Americans who feel the need to add a prefix?

Question

America is well known through out the world as a "Melting Pot" of different ethnic backgrounds. Daily, we here folks refer to themselves as Asian-American, African-American, German-American, etc....

If we ALL go back far enough in our family trees, sooner or later we find an ancestor who came from another country. My fathers roots can be traced to Scotland yet he doesn't refer to himself as Scottish-American. He is still interested in and proud of his heritage, though. My mothers roots can be traced back to Native American ancestry yet she doesn't refer to herself as Native American-American. My brothers and I consider ourselves Americans, through and through, regardless of where some distant relative came from. We are interested in our roots but see no real point in telling the world of our family tree.

The ethnicity in other countries is getting more mixed as well but my friends abroad have said that they never hear people refer to themselves as anything but German, English, Italian, etc.....It seems that they are content to claim the country of their birth without tacking on a prefix.

Why are so many Americans pre-occupied with claiming the heritage of countries besides America?

It's one thing if you have parents from 2 different countries. That makes sense. I think if you were born here, currently hold citizenship here and plan to stay here then you should proudly call yourself an AMERICAN.

If you subscribe to the use of a prefix, why do you refer to yourself as that as opposed to simply "an American?" This is a serious question, not meant to offend people so I would like to hear serious, thought-provoking answers, please.

Answer 1

Well, america is not a melting pot.

Anybody that tells you that is living in an uncommon town.  In my own area, everybody has a certain knowledge that most people that live in that certain are black, another white, another hispanic, another countries etc.  A lot of people are mixed in but more are together in their own towns and cultures.

And americans are preoccupied with claming other heritages because it gives you identity.  It also gives you pride.  And for instance, if two people were Italian, then they probably have a lot in common. (food, things their families do, etc) And I think people dont refer themselves simply as americans because american alone doesn't have a defining characteristic.  Many other countries have defining hair, facial features, food, etc.  

Answer 2

If your in America,your an American.Be proud to live here.I am and I'm from Spain.But I am not ashamed to say where I am from.

Answer 3

Part of the short answer is novelty, it's enjoyable to feel of yourself as having a heritage with a long standing and ancient culture, it's own identity, games, foods, instruments, music, and general identity.  It is enjoyable to remember your heritage and ancestors, it makes one feel good about themselves to have such an identity and 'uniqueness' about them.  The prefix thing is kind of just a U.S. thing.  

Frankly the idea that the U.S.A. citizens call themselves Americans is a bit of an annoyance, because The U.S.A. is not the only country within the Americas, everyone from Brazil for instance is an American, so is everyone from Canada.  

I don't do the whole prefix thing for instance, but I am a North American, and I am a Canadian, and I am of Norwegian heritage, my great grandparents on three sides were from Norway, so I'm technically three generations removed from the boat but I still choose to celebrate my ancestry because I enjoy doing so, and would probably still enjoy sharing in the festivities even if I didn't have a drop of Norwegian blood in me.  

America is also not exactly the only "melting pot"  Canada is still technically a british constitutional monarchy, but our population is statistically primarily people of Chinese decent, those of us that have Scandinavian heritage are in the strict minority even though we are generally considered the "visible majority".  

But like I said in regards to your question, I don't doubt it's about the novelty and enjoyment of the thing.  And my personal opinion is to let them have their fun.

Answer 4

Although "Americans" vehemently want equality for all, they [hypocritically] also want individuality based on race or culture.  The reason I say it's hypocritical, is that it is okay for a certain race to use a vernacular speech, but they shun other races from using it.  

If it isn't ok for Caucasians to used the "N" word, then it shouldn't be okay for the African American decent people to use it.

It's okay for southern white "good ol' boys" to hold confederate rallies [preaching race hatred], but it isn't okay for Muslims to practice Islam in public.

It's a double standard.

It isn't only America where this happens or happened in the past.  For example, in the Middle East, there were Israelites, but they were divided into and known by what tribe they were from.  In Europe, they were divided by what clan they belonged to.  This is where we got the common last names many Americans have today.  "Johnson" comes from "sons of John". "Anderson" means the sons of "Ander", etc, etc..

Answer 5

It's a desire to be a part of an "in-group." I did a few papers on this last year for my English class.

Everyone wants to be a part of one group or another. That's why people trace their ancestry, or join exclusive clubs, or form cliques at work or school. They gain a sense of accomplishment by being a part of a group whose members they can identify with, even if they are born into that group and did nothing to achieve it. The more exclusive and/or prestigious the group in their eyes, the more accomplished the individual feels.

One such type of in-group is the prefix you're talking about. Why just be American when you can be the more exclusive German-American? Yeah, it's petty, and I don't subscribe to it (probably because calling myself a 20th-generation English-American would sound pretty lame), but there it is.

As to why it seems that only Americans do it... Some people aren't horribly proud to be an American, I suppose, so they want to be German or African or Scottish too, and have everyone know it. Or maybe it's just that some of us as Americans seem to enjoy drawing lines in the sand.

Or it could be that it's because America is a young country. People like to have that ancient and mystic sense of a long history associated with their homelands. We're old by individual standards, but we don't have the ancient lore and long-told history that say Scotland or Germany have. And also it can't really be said that we as a nation were native to this land at the first. We kind of came in and took it from the natives and shunted them to little corners of the nation. Not a whole lot of honor in that.

As for the titles, though, I do agree with you. If tack on a British to my American nationality, it means nothing except for maybe where I got the shape of my chin. I'm American. I was born in America, I was raised in America, I'm receiving an education in America, and I intend to stay in America for some time. I'm American. Just straight, plain, American, and everything that comes with the name is on my shoulders as well, whether I like it or not.

Answer 6

I think many people want to preserve another aspect of their racial or cultural identity.

Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with it, and this isn't meant to offend either, but I think it would be easier to understand if one grew up as a minority with a white majority, as opposed to growing up in the white majority amongst peers.

Answer 7

Well my grandparents on both sides of my family came from Italy. First of all the types of traditions we had at home for holidays and what not and a lot of the food we ate were Italian because that's all we knew. That is who I am. That's how my parents grew up and that's how I grew up. Though I am American.

And I am petite, have dark hair and eyes, fair skin. I don't look like a typical white brunette. People always ask me what nationality I am. So I say I was born here....am american, but my ethnic background is Italian.  And its the same thing for many nationalities.

And think about it. You have say an american born asian person or an american born latino person. When they fill out paperwork do they check "american" on that paperwork though they are the same as all the other american born people? No, they don't. They check asian or hispanic. Its just how it is.

I consider myself American with Italian decent.

Does that make sense? That is just my two cents!

Answer 8

You want an honest answer?

I think you should chill out.

Answer 9

my roots are irish, native american and polish but i'm not polish or irish american, i'm american. my ancestry is irish, native american and polish. that's how i say it anyways. and people don't say native american-american because native american says it all, you don't need to add another american.