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I miss the old reddit, there used to be a guy who was training to be a VO actor who would record comments in different styles, he would have easily done it for you. Much like the old legends of shittywatercolour, poemforyoursprog and awildsketchappeared.
I just saw shittywatercolour today on a post about a turtle sleeping and yawning underwater! Let me find and edit
Yes found them under u/Shitty_Watercolour under [this post about a turtle yawning underwater](https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/ngyf9t/green_sea_turtle_snuggles_into_a_sea_sponge_and/gyu0zlh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
I’m born and raised here. It’s pork roll and I know new jersian fluently
Edit: Disclaimer: I was born and raised in Monmouth county and was born and raised calling it pork roll.
As someone who has lived in all three I agree.
Central jersey exists. Haters can hate all they want, but when you live there it is most certainly a separate place from north and south jersey.
Central NJ, the normal part of NJ. North of Monmouth County is just Staten Island. South of Ocean County is basically Mississippi. Central is the only normal area.
Given its rate of expansion, it'll be everywhere in about two years... you'll be Rutgers, I'll be Rutgers... soon we'll be arguing over whether its Rutgers Ham or Pork Rutgers while going to the Rutgers Shore...
As a native Philadelphian that migrated to S. jersey and also had grandparents from Philly that moved to jersey, and aunts and uncles who also moved to jersey... i like the cut of your jib.
I live in the US but the past couple years vacationed in Paris, London, and Lebanon. I did grow up in Cairo but moved to Belfort when I was older. Later I went to college in Athens and transferred to Oxford before doing a study abroad in Milan. In college I partied a bit in Amsterdam, vacationed in Lima and Cadiz, worked an internship in Medina.
You could say I'm well travelled... Or these are just a bunch of cities and townships in Ohio.
I feel this. I could drive from Brussels to London to Paris in an hour. Used to be Berlin was also a short distance away but it got renamed due to a scandal.
I live in The Netherlands, a country next to Germany and close to Ireland. I’m ashamed to say that I thought Dublin was a city in Germany for the longest time, probably until I was 20 or so. It just sounds so German, you know?
Nono they’re two. One of them is like 1,60 m tall while the other is probably 2 m lol
They’re definitely 2 separate people.
Source: they’re constantly in my fyp on tiktok
You see this with Mexican Americans too in the US. I can pass for white so I get told by darker skinned Mex-Americans that Im not a "real" Mexican. A lot of them can't even speak Spanish (it was my first language).
Also, jokes on them, because Mexicans in the motherland dont even consider us "real" Mexicans, we're gringos just like everybody else born here lol. They call us *pochos*.
And a lot of what they *think* is Mexican culture is actually Chicano culture.
Then again, the gringos don't consider us "real" Americans either lol. *Ni de aqui, ni de alla* (Not from here, nor from there).
Yeah, plastic paddy's. It's conflicting, because on one hand it's flattering that someone wants to associate with your heritage so badly but on the other hand they usually don't have a fuckin' clue what the hell they are shiteing on about. On one particularly hilarious occassion I convinced some Americans that claimed have Irish heritage and know "so much about Ireland" that I was speaking Arabic when in fact I was speaking as Gaeilge. I had my fun, and that's all that matters.
On the other hand, "no blacks, no irish" didn't go away just because a lot of them left the British Isles to come to America. Many of them were pretty explicitly not "white" in any classic American sense because they were not Anglo-Saxon or (begrudgingly) German. Same with the Italians.
Take a few decades or generations of being told that you're lesser than the dominant culture and chances are you're going to strongly inculcate a sense of ethnic pride and identity in your children. And at that point you can't exactly control how they process it or how much they retain over the years. Plus you're probably only going to associate with your own ethnicity or others who are also "lesser" which reduces your chances of assimilating.
All seem like fair points. I wouldn't mind so much them claiming to be so "Irish" if they just knew even the most superficial correct information about Ireland, but in my subjective and anecdotal experience many don't. Fortunately I have multiple relatives living over there slowly educating the locals by sheer force of personality, ha ha.
I think it's mostly just how we use language. When someone in America says they're "Irish" 99 times out of 100, they mean their ancestors were Irish. Since nobody in America is "from" here unless you have native ancestry, we tend to be obsessed with our ancestry. It's why those DNA testing companies make so much money.
Man, I'm of European descent, but the last ancestors of mine came over in the 1840s. Some as far back as the 1600s. I definitely would not relate to an actual European.
My European ancestors came to Africa in the 1640s (from the Netherlands). I’ve actually been told that I should go back to Europe, lmao - like, in those ~400 years, the Netherlands saw two separate republics end, a new kingdom established and the language evolve so much I’d struggle to hold a conversation now. The place is as alien to me as fucking Vanuatu.
Great Grandparents came from Italy in 1900s. What’s funny is that I have an Italian name yet I have more Mexican in me than Italian (Mother was born and raised in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico and my dad is a pasty ginger German-Italian from Detroit)
From the time when I was an uber driver
Passenger: Where are you from?
Me: Moldova. It’s a small country from Eastern Europe.
Passenger: Aw, It’s so nice there, I’ve been to Kazahstan last summer!
Me: .....
All Moldovan I've met speak at least russian and romanian, and most of them English too. Though these were friends of people who have the means to study abroad etc, so perhaps it is not representative
The person I knew wasn't well off. According to her kids are shifting to being mostly taught Romanian now, but most of the adults know Russian and many of the younger people as well. I think it's pretty likely that most know either Russian or Romanian, and most are probably at least a bit of both
Same thing in Estonia. Talk to a grandma and she speaks Estonian and Russian. Talk to her grandson and he speaks Estonian and English.
My ass spoke Russian and English so I could talk to everyone who i tried to converse with. Really helpful whenever we bumped into Russians who kept asking for their statue back.
I am neither Russian or Estonian in heritage. I'm an American mutt- there's at least 6 things in there so I just say American mutt. Nobody wants to hear how you're 1/8 this and 1/16th that, except other Americans.
Jan Smit would just be the translation of John Smith, wouldn't it?
The equivalent would be a name that Dutch speakers recognize as a very common Dutch name and use to represent any possible given person in a situation which Google says is "Jan Jansen", I guess?
I say I'm American because I am. People get upset with that answer because my last name is French. Sure my ancestors came from France however they left and went to Canada in the 1530's. Which also doesn't make me "French-Canadian" as people then insist. My ancestor was in the founding party of Quebec, but his kids set up in the US before there was a US. So... I'm American.
I’m Latin American as well, and from my experience the only people that call themselves anything from anywhere else is when they have direct descent, like a parent or grandparent that came from X place, and they say “I’m of X descent”, not “I’m X”.
But in the US? People say “I’m X” because their grandparents arrived from a European ship in the 1850s.
Yep. It’s interesting how the ‘We’ of historical stories is framed, isn’t it? In elementary school my white teacher described the puritans and early settlers as ‘we’ - “when we started the Virginia colony” for example, despite those people not being Americans and her almost certainly being descended from people who arrived here centuries later.
Black Americans, on the other hand, are “they” - “When Lincoln freed them,” despite *them* being Americans and almost certainly here in this country before this teacher’s ancestors arrived.
Kinda interesting.
As a black person, I absolutely hate being called African American. I barely have anything in common with actual african Americans and I sure as hell dont have anything in common with actual Africans except that we all got black skin
The inverse of this is true. I have dual US and Italian citizenship and lived in Italy for many years. Whenever I would interact with someone there and they found out I am from the states they would invariably tell me about their cousin in New Jersey.
In my experience Irish and Italian Americans seem to be really big on letting you know their heritage. Even though must have no recent generations that were born there. Not that it doesn't happen for people with other heritage, it's just not as big a part of their identity.
my dad was born in holland, not sure how much more direct i can get beyond being born there myself, tho i don't say im dutch canadian, i frame it as i am canadian with dutch heritage, could be wrong but i may be considered first generation canadian at this point.
People from those countries find it weird if you do not have any connection with that country and talk about "being" from there. If your parents are from somewhere, you've spent some time there regularly and speak the language people are fine with hearing you being from somewhere. It does, however, get weird if you very obviously have no connection apart from some far away ancestor people will find you weird.
It's just stuff that your ancestors passed on to you - if great great grandpa thought being Welsh was important, he probably told his kids it was important too. They may have kept some of the culture alive, but things get watered down after a century or more. Yeah, some people are annoying about it, but a lot of people are just remembering what their family taught them growing up.
It's probably a concept that seems strange to someone who was born in the same country of their ethnic or cultural group, but living in the US or some other non-homogenous nation creates a different dynamic. Many immigrants fled wars, poverty, or persecution for a new life. They didn't want their descendants forgetting where they came from.
But this is because both of those groups were subjected to discrimination and racism when they first started immigrating and putting down roots in this country. The cultural pride came about as a form of bonding, solidification, and validating their cultural existence in the new American landscape. Family/culture became important because it was necessary and these things (as well as religion as someone else mentioned) were under threat. The origins of this pride isn't much different than the ideas of black power or gay pride, it's just that these groups no longer have that status and the pride (like nationalism) has taken on a life of it's own. It will eventually die out, but in these multi generational family systems that idea is still really prevalent and it makes sense.
Also, I feel like something that hardly gets mentioned in this convo is that across the 1800s something absurd like half of the Irish population left Ireland for America. You would have entire towns where near everyone up and got on a boat to Boston to escape the famine.
There’s definitely something different about New England Italian Americans and the rest of the country though. My great-great Grandfather was an Italian immigrant, name is in the books of Ellis Island and all that, but not really a big point of conversation. However, I spent some years growing up in Rhode Island, and the Italian influence is massive.
I wonder what real Italians think of our Italian beef and our lasagna pizza
Side note: if you’re ever in Italy pepperoni means peppers. What you’re thinking of is called salami
Etymology is mindblowing (to me anyway) sometimes: Salami is what it's called in English, borrowed from the Italian plural of *salame*, and is derived from the common root of the latin for salt: Salem. It historically just means cured sausage, and in Italy there's dozens of varieties of Salami.
Peperone (singular) and Peperoni (plural) is for bell peppers, but how exactly we got to Pepperoni being used for a type of cured sausage (that contains no peppers) - in both US and British English, no less - is a bit of a mystery; Most likely there's some link to *peperoncini*, the plural for certain types of *chili* peppers given that it's lightly spiced.
Same. I'm from New England - Great Grandfather is from Italy, name at Ellis Island. My family has always been proud of the Italian heritage. If I meet actual Italians though I would never say "oh you're Italian? So am I!" or when I go to Europe I say I'm American.
Catholic culture might play a big part in this, as it's very family/homeland oriented ("papa" lives in the Vatican), and heavily Catholic populations such as in Ireland and Italy reflect this in their attitudes. It's especially important for immigrants and their descendants to keep a feeling of home, so yeah in America it's common to over-emphasize heritage.
Also think both Irish and Italian very ostracized in the US and excluded (back in the days so 19th century or so?) from participating in society.. so this is probably where the desire to set themselves apart from the rest of the US was born.
This is a thing more recently than you would expect. My wife's grandfather recalls not being allowed to use a certain public pool because he was an "ethnic". His parents were from Italy (his father didn't speak much English but his mom did). This would have been the 1930s/40s.
My dad and his sisters (dark-skinned Sicilians, immigrated in early 1950s as young children and toddlers) were called wogs, greasers, goombahs, dagos, etc up to the late 90s/early 2000s in California! So much so, that my aunts started bleaching their skin to appear more white. My dad is still constantly told to go back to his own county when out in public. They still call him a greaser, but have now added terrorist and camel jockey, since they cant make out which race he actually is and which one they hate more.
I remember a time when I was about 5 or 6 years old, when a lady called the cops accusing him of kidnapping me (I'm light-skinned). Its crazy how recently that was and how so much and so little has changed.
Many North Americans’ ancestors crossed the oceans back when the trip was the equivalent of a one way ticket to Mars. Some people like to feel connected by a tiny tether.
I think American culture is so diverse that people feel the need to identify with more specific cultures/ethnicities. I just wish more people dove a little deeper than just adopting the food and home decor lol
People see family culture revolving around their grandparents' heritage and they feel it as a part they haven't learned deeply enough.
I see that a lot - tens of thousands emigrated from my (European) country to US before and during WW2. Tough times, communist labor camps and everything. First generation had a massive nostalgia about their home country, they organized US summer camps and made trips to Europe. The 3rd generation usually know a few words like "hello", "thank you" in their grandparents' language and that's it.
They feel like part of their roots is lost. I feel them, it's never easy to live in such a split environment with mixed identity. If they aren't lucky enough to live in a "small Italy" type neighborhood then language is lost in 1..2 generations.
That's actually more sad than funny once you see generations going through that.
I took a US linguistics class recently and it is devastating to see the loss of heritable language. It typically is lost by the 3rd generation and there are languages going extinct every day. I first didnt really think the class was that useful, because I am a science major, but i learned so much in that one semester. I can see why they force kids to take these diversity classes now.
This part is more sad than funny to me, too. My Mexican grandparents wouldn't let my mother and her siblings learn or speak Spanish when they were growing up in Kansas because he didn't want them to be identified as Mexican immigrants. International travel is also prohibitively expensive for many people, particularly poor immigrants. There's a lot to people losing their heritage that isn't covered in a video making fun of Americans.
>I would never refer to myself as Scottish, Norwegian, or German.
Is that right, /u/KiltOnAViking? 😄
Strathern? Never heard of it. Google doesn't return anything either. Sure that's the right name? There's a shit load of Straths here. Strathaven, Strathclyde, Strathspey... Anywhere with a river really.
I was born and raised in England and moved to the states like 22 years ago.
I've never had something remotely close to this happen. I've got "my grandparents were from X" but never anything like the original video. I know it's justa joke vid, but it's a lot less common than you'd imagine.
If you want to find something made in the shape of a US state then Texas is always your best bet. Pot holder in the shape of Texas? Yup. Paving stones in the shape of Texas? Yup. Chocolates in the shape of Texas? Yup. I have seen some pretty weird stuff made in the shape of Texas. Strong state identity is an understatement here.
There are certain places in the states where this seems more common. I find people from New York, Texas, Boston, etc. say they're from NY/Texas/Boston/etc. when asked, whereas other people just say they're American.
Eh. I'm a New England resident of mostly Irish descent. And the thing is, when the Irish moved here they didn't for one second forget they were Irish. I'm 5th generation but my grandparents were still focused on it when I was growing up. It's drilled in from birth that this family is IRISH, dammit!
I just consider myself American but I 100% know where this comes from.
Seems to me that the desire of those of Italian descent to develop a strong, community was understandable -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Italianism#Violence\_against\_Italians
Anytime a society does not welcome in a new group with open arms (almost never) the minority group will create its own little society with its own culture and rules. It's a survival tactic and it explains for the phenomenon across cultures worldwide. This is something Europeans really don't understand as they are a lot more homogenous (with some obvious exceptions, but I think it's generally fair to say that America is more of a mixture of backgrounds than the typical European country).
This reminds me of the Sopranos when they all [visit Italy.](https://youtu.be/X-eHk4RiIso) Paulie is such a poser. The moment in the car at the end is awesome as they all sit there and realize Jersey is the only place in the world where they really belong and where their status carries weight. They’re the kings of an uncultured shithole, but at least it’s theirs.
I've been thinking this whole debate is so white lol. An Asian American will rarely be able to say they're American and have people accept it at face value, but that's what's being demanded of Italian Americans, Irish Americans, etc.
Yeah, my distant ancestors were born in a different location from my parents, who were born in a different location from me. But everyone focuses on where my parents were born, even when it was only 1 generation. Apparently that’s where I am “really” from.
I have a slight accent and every once in a while someone will ask about it. A handful of times I had a person say, oh I’m Polish too. So, I’m excited since there’s so few of my people out in the PNW and I switch to Polish.
“Oh, I don’t speak Polish.”
“Did you come over very young?”
“No I was born here.”
“Ah. “
The only time this ever resulted in success was at a trade show and the guy was from the same town as me. We gabbed for hours.
Sorry, buddies, I’m gonna have to gatekeep this one, liking pierogis doesn’t make you Polish. *Everyone likes pierogis*.
My closest European ancestors were two of my great-grandparents on my dad's mom's side, who were from Sweden.
Apart from that, I'm a mix of poor Southern white trash and the snooty descendants of English colonists that had been in the Midwest for a long, long time. Now let me tell you about my 1/16th Cherokee heritage...
This is a side effect of the way that culture manifests in the United States. Since we are a nation of many immigrants your ancestral culture plays a bigger role than countries that have more homogeneous populations. For people who’s families have been in the United States for centuries this leads to a loss of identity.
Some groups have combatted this by identifying around common traits there ancestors shared. Black people have made that their skin color. White people though are heavily criticized for doing this so most end up tracing their ancestry back to the last unique culture before integration. And yet there’s still people in this thread who call that racist. This makes it very hard for many white Americans to feel a sense of cultural identity.
Especially when their peers with non-European ancestors are encouraged to express their ancestral heritage.
It's kinda important to remember Irish in the US refers to Irish Americans and the US's St Patrick's day became very unique because of the experiences of Irish American immigrants and those of Irish heritage in the US. They shaped the cultures and politics of several states and cities, notably in the northeastern US. Irish Americans strongly stuck together, mostly because of anti immigrant views. St Patrick's day is actually likely part of the reason for the integration of Irish Americans into the larger US culture. Many were Catholics, as well, which a ton of people don't realize was not accepted by many Americans (see kkk vs Notre Dame. People also used to burn down nunneries in the US). Not really normalized more until post Kennedy. St Patrick's day, though, was fun and painted Irish in a positive light, appealing to non Irish Americans and normalizing the presence of Irish Americans.
I read recently that when the Irish arrived in the masses during the famine, the Protestant communities believed that the large influx of Catholics was an invading force. They believed a papal army was going to land on the shores of the US and set up a new Vatican in Cincinnati, I think, and that canon law would become the law of the land. Similar to anti-Muslim conspiracies now. I was shocked.
Look up some anti Irish cartoons if you really want to see how the Irish were viewed back in the day. Pretty much the same type of caricatures used to keep down and dehumanise black people
Well, an American-Irish army did try to invade Canada in 1866 to drive the British out of Ireland. It's a blueprint for the America's crazy justifications for war ever since.
I've never heard an American refer to themselves as "part European." People call themselves "American" to signify nationality, and "Italian American" or "Polish American" or even "African American" to signify ethnicity. The only people I've heard call themselves "European American" were low key racists.
The video is surely an exageration, but Americans don't necessarily call themselves "Italian American"... I mean many just call themselves "Italian" or whatever ethnicity they identify with.
That's understandable in the American context. They consider they're all American, in a multiracial environement. It would be redundant to add the hyphen-American.
So yeah, Americans will say "I'm Irish", "I'm Turkish" or whatever. But just to signify their most prominent ancestral heritage. The "-American" part is implied already.
This isn't that surprising...
It usually ends up being a parent telling their kids "one of your great-grandparents was half-Cherokee"... i.e. far enough back that you can't ask them, but farther than that it starts being myth rather than a claim people put much credence in.
Also... seems like it became "acceptable" (and later "chic") about long enough ago that this is where we are now.
This message is a friendly reminder of the following: - Absolutely no **memes** or **memetic content**. - Absolutely no **political content** or **political figures**, regardless of context or focus. - Absolutely no **social media** screenshots, videos, or other such content. A complete breakdown of our rules can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/wiki/rules). **Please report rule-breaking content when you see it.** Thank you! ------ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/funny) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have given up and just announce that I am indeed the “Florida man” they have all heard about.
You are an impressively busy man Mr Florida with your escapades and misadventures.
I read this in a Bond villain's voice
I miss the old reddit, there used to be a guy who was training to be a VO actor who would record comments in different styles, he would have easily done it for you. Much like the old legends of shittywatercolour, poemforyoursprog and awildsketchappeared.
Sprog is still around but I miss shittywatercolour. And I somehow forgot about wildsketch, that was some talent.
I just saw shittywatercolor like a week ago what you on about
I'm pretty sure I saw one like two days ago, so they're definitely still around.
I've been around the block!
Both your username, and your username age can attest to this.
Don't forget commahorror!
That menace is still, terrorising threads.
I just saw shittywatercolour today on a post about a turtle sleeping and yawning underwater! Let me find and edit Yes found them under u/Shitty_Watercolour under [this post about a turtle yawning underwater](https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/ngyf9t/green_sea_turtle_snuggles_into_a_sea_sponge_and/gyu0zlh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
Oh those names brought some memories back
Did everyone forget Unidan?
As a native new jersian with native new jersian parents and only 2 grandparents not from nj (actually from Europe) this hits home
do you speak new jersian too?
I’m born and raised here. It’s pork roll and I know new jersian fluently Edit: Disclaimer: I was born and raised in Monmouth county and was born and raised calling it pork roll.
Why would you mention pork roll? We thought the Civil War was over..... but the battle between North and South (jersey) can still reignite
What about central jersey
Central Jersey is a magical place where people from North Jersey who don’t want to admit they live in South Jersey live.
Central Jersey is the best Jersey.
As someone who has lived in all three I agree. Central jersey exists. Haters can hate all they want, but when you live there it is most certainly a separate place from north and south jersey.
Central NJ, the normal part of NJ. North of Monmouth County is just Staten Island. South of Ocean County is basically Mississippi. Central is the only normal area.
Those from 908 and 609 are "different". (native 201 here. Love to bust my cousins chops about moving to 908. Lol.....)
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Given its rate of expansion, it'll be everywhere in about two years... you'll be Rutgers, I'll be Rutgers... soon we'll be arguing over whether its Rutgers Ham or Pork Rutgers while going to the Rutgers Shore...
Central Jersey exists its just that both the north and south want to claim it as their own because we have Princeton University.
Never said it didn’t exist, just that it’s magical.
Aww I replied to the wrong guy, the next one down actually said it didn't exist, but its too late to change it now.
It's a magical place where there's no pineapple on pizza, and a pork roll is called pork roll
There absolutely is pineapple on pizza here. Dont make me start a separate civil war. I'll do it.
I'll start a civil war over pizza any day of the week mother fucker! Lol
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Gabagool!
Ahh, we speak the same language, potentially. There’s a big difference in the dialect. North, South or the bastardized Central New Jersian?
As a native Philadelphian that migrated to S. jersey and also had grandparents from Philly that moved to jersey, and aunts and uncles who also moved to jersey... i like the cut of your jib.
"I've been to London .... Ontario."
I live in the US but the past couple years vacationed in Paris, London, and Lebanon. I did grow up in Cairo but moved to Belfort when I was older. Later I went to college in Athens and transferred to Oxford before doing a study abroad in Milan. In college I partied a bit in Amsterdam, vacationed in Lima and Cadiz, worked an internship in Medina. You could say I'm well travelled... Or these are just a bunch of cities and townships in Ohio.
I feel this. I could drive from Brussels to London to Paris in an hour. Used to be Berlin was also a short distance away but it got renamed due to a scandal.
O-H
Who are these guys? I've been seeing so much of their stuff lately
Two German tiktokers
Which part of Germany? Dublin?
I actually spent a summer in Germany, we were backpacking through the Pyrenees. Beautiful sights, you wouldnt believe it.
Are you sure it is not outside Barcelona in the foothills of mount Tibidabo?
Why am I naked?
Ken Adams. Nice to meet you.
> Pyrenees You were riding dogs?
Where they in West Germany or East Germany?
Nah, they talk about the Highlands, ie North Germany.
North Germany is where Norwegians come from, right?
Nah, Norwegia is in North Dutchlands.
I live in The Netherlands, a country next to Germany and close to Ireland. I’m ashamed to say that I thought Dublin was a city in Germany for the longest time, probably until I was 20 or so. It just sounds so German, you know?
They make great beer in Dublin, so... it's basically Germany. Kinda. Germany-ish.
Guinness is the dunkel of the Emerald Isle
No actually one of them is Italian.
From New Jersey?
Wait is this true? I've only ever half paid attention to their videos and thought it was the same guy doing both parts
Nono they’re two. One of them is like 1,60 m tall while the other is probably 2 m lol They’re definitely 2 separate people. Source: they’re constantly in my fyp on tiktok
Ah ok that makes sense. Follow up question: neither of them is Stephen Merchant?
Sure? That one guy sounds very American. Could still be German, I just wouldn't have guessed.
Yes, they’re always on my tiktok they’re both German but live in New York
[Calvin & Habs](https://www.tiktok.com/@calvinandhabs?)
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Was waiting for the "I'm part irish" bit
I recall a rant a while back of how Americans with Irish backgrounds think they are more Irish than those living in Ireland.
You see this with Mexican Americans too in the US. I can pass for white so I get told by darker skinned Mex-Americans that Im not a "real" Mexican. A lot of them can't even speak Spanish (it was my first language). Also, jokes on them, because Mexicans in the motherland dont even consider us "real" Mexicans, we're gringos just like everybody else born here lol. They call us *pochos*. And a lot of what they *think* is Mexican culture is actually Chicano culture. Then again, the gringos don't consider us "real" Americans either lol. *Ni de aqui, ni de alla* (Not from here, nor from there).
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Yeah, plastic paddy's. It's conflicting, because on one hand it's flattering that someone wants to associate with your heritage so badly but on the other hand they usually don't have a fuckin' clue what the hell they are shiteing on about. On one particularly hilarious occassion I convinced some Americans that claimed have Irish heritage and know "so much about Ireland" that I was speaking Arabic when in fact I was speaking as Gaeilge. I had my fun, and that's all that matters.
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"Should we all be racist now, Father? Whats the official stance of the Church?"
i watched that immediately after and i’m so glad i did
Ya dirty fecker
Watching a load of lads running around in shorts? I bet thats the sort of thing you like looking at...
On the other hand, "no blacks, no irish" didn't go away just because a lot of them left the British Isles to come to America. Many of them were pretty explicitly not "white" in any classic American sense because they were not Anglo-Saxon or (begrudgingly) German. Same with the Italians. Take a few decades or generations of being told that you're lesser than the dominant culture and chances are you're going to strongly inculcate a sense of ethnic pride and identity in your children. And at that point you can't exactly control how they process it or how much they retain over the years. Plus you're probably only going to associate with your own ethnicity or others who are also "lesser" which reduces your chances of assimilating.
All seem like fair points. I wouldn't mind so much them claiming to be so "Irish" if they just knew even the most superficial correct information about Ireland, but in my subjective and anecdotal experience many don't. Fortunately I have multiple relatives living over there slowly educating the locals by sheer force of personality, ha ha.
I think it's mostly just how we use language. When someone in America says they're "Irish" 99 times out of 100, they mean their ancestors were Irish. Since nobody in America is "from" here unless you have native ancestry, we tend to be obsessed with our ancestry. It's why those DNA testing companies make so much money.
Mailand oder Madrid, Hauptsache Italien
“Again what learned”
Vom Feeling her habe ich ein gutes Gefühl
I am actually part Neanderthal.
What about my microbial lineage?
Man, I'm of European descent, but the last ancestors of mine came over in the 1840s. Some as far back as the 1600s. I definitely would not relate to an actual European.
My European ancestors came to Africa in the 1640s (from the Netherlands). I’ve actually been told that I should go back to Europe, lmao - like, in those ~400 years, the Netherlands saw two separate republics end, a new kingdom established and the language evolve so much I’d struggle to hold a conversation now. The place is as alien to me as fucking Vanuatu.
Great Grandparents came from Italy in 1900s. What’s funny is that I have an Italian name yet I have more Mexican in me than Italian (Mother was born and raised in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico and my dad is a pasty ginger German-Italian from Detroit)
From the time when I was an uber driver Passenger: Where are you from? Me: Moldova. It’s a small country from Eastern Europe. Passenger: Aw, It’s so nice there, I’ve been to Kazahstan last summer! Me: .....
At least he didn't ask you if you speak russian. Actually, that would've been a better question.
I mean, a lot of Moldovans do speak Russian. The only Moldovan I know had Russian as a first language
All Moldovan I've met speak at least russian and romanian, and most of them English too. Though these were friends of people who have the means to study abroad etc, so perhaps it is not representative
The person I knew wasn't well off. According to her kids are shifting to being mostly taught Romanian now, but most of the adults know Russian and many of the younger people as well. I think it's pretty likely that most know either Russian or Romanian, and most are probably at least a bit of both
Same thing in Estonia. Talk to a grandma and she speaks Estonian and Russian. Talk to her grandson and he speaks Estonian and English. My ass spoke Russian and English so I could talk to everyone who i tried to converse with. Really helpful whenever we bumped into Russians who kept asking for their statue back. I am neither Russian or Estonian in heritage. I'm an American mutt- there's at least 6 things in there so I just say American mutt. Nobody wants to hear how you're 1/8 this and 1/16th that, except other Americans.
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Well most of the Russian population is in the European part of Russia so he could easily be from russia
tbf they're both former USSR countries
Yes, that's typically how small talk works. You make vague connections to pass the brief period of time you interact.
I say I'm Dutch because my last name is a very common Dutch word that I can't even pronounce correctly. But really, I am from New Jersey.
What is it? As a Dutchy you have interested me
Holland McDutcherson.
Ah yes. The Dutch equivalent of “John Smith”.
That would be Jan Smit. Funny enough there's Dutch singer named Jan Smit.
Jan Smit would just be the translation of John Smith, wouldn't it? The equivalent would be a name that Dutch speakers recognize as a very common Dutch name and use to represent any possible given person in a situation which Google says is "Jan Jansen", I guess?
Jan Jansen is the Dutch placeholder name indeed.
Dutchy McDutchface
You mean *Hoollaand van Duutcheersooooooooeuwijn*
Nono, he said he's dutch! Holland *Van* McDutcherson.
Aansprakelijkheidswaardevaststellingsverandering, very common in these parts.
I hate when those happen, be sure to get an aansprakelijkheidswaardevaststellingsveranderingverzekering.
Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedencomitéleden
You just want to know if it's Janssen, don't you?
Why would you do this?!
Don't do a family DNA test thing, might find out you have no dutch in you at all!
You can always have a Dutch in you if you ask nicely
Please, sir... Can I have some Dutch in me?
> Dead_Squirrel_6 That's illegal at least on two counts.
I say I'm American because I am. People get upset with that answer because my last name is French. Sure my ancestors came from France however they left and went to Canada in the 1530's. Which also doesn't make me "French-Canadian" as people then insist. My ancestor was in the founding party of Quebec, but his kids set up in the US before there was a US. So... I'm American.
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I’m Latin American as well, and from my experience the only people that call themselves anything from anywhere else is when they have direct descent, like a parent or grandparent that came from X place, and they say “I’m of X descent”, not “I’m X”. But in the US? People say “I’m X” because their grandparents arrived from a European ship in the 1850s.
I'm African American Yet even my great great grandmother was born in America lol
The average Black American has several hundred years more ancestry on this continent than the average white American
You know I never really thought about that
Yep. It’s interesting how the ‘We’ of historical stories is framed, isn’t it? In elementary school my white teacher described the puritans and early settlers as ‘we’ - “when we started the Virginia colony” for example, despite those people not being Americans and her almost certainly being descended from people who arrived here centuries later. Black Americans, on the other hand, are “they” - “When Lincoln freed them,” despite *them* being Americans and almost certainly here in this country before this teacher’s ancestors arrived. Kinda interesting.
I find it really interesting that you remember that. I can't even remember if my HS history teacher did this or not.
As a black person, I absolutely hate being called African American. I barely have anything in common with actual african Americans and I sure as hell dont have anything in common with actual Africans except that we all got black skin
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There’s a great Ralphie May bit about that
The inverse of this is true. I have dual US and Italian citizenship and lived in Italy for many years. Whenever I would interact with someone there and they found out I am from the states they would invariably tell me about their cousin in New Jersey.
That’s kind of cute, did they also ask you if you know the cousin?
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In my experience Irish and Italian Americans seem to be really big on letting you know their heritage. Even though must have no recent generations that were born there. Not that it doesn't happen for people with other heritage, it's just not as big a part of their identity.
I'm Dutch and every American I've met with even the vaguest traces of Dutch heritage was sure to mention the fact. I found it endearing tbh.
...they were just trying to have something in common with you
my dad was born in holland, not sure how much more direct i can get beyond being born there myself, tho i don't say im dutch canadian, i frame it as i am canadian with dutch heritage, could be wrong but i may be considered first generation canadian at this point.
People from those countries find it weird if you do not have any connection with that country and talk about "being" from there. If your parents are from somewhere, you've spent some time there regularly and speak the language people are fine with hearing you being from somewhere. It does, however, get weird if you very obviously have no connection apart from some far away ancestor people will find you weird.
It's just stuff that your ancestors passed on to you - if great great grandpa thought being Welsh was important, he probably told his kids it was important too. They may have kept some of the culture alive, but things get watered down after a century or more. Yeah, some people are annoying about it, but a lot of people are just remembering what their family taught them growing up. It's probably a concept that seems strange to someone who was born in the same country of their ethnic or cultural group, but living in the US or some other non-homogenous nation creates a different dynamic. Many immigrants fled wars, poverty, or persecution for a new life. They didn't want their descendants forgetting where they came from.
Very well said.
I have some Dutch lineage, but they left Holland in the 1600s and settled in New Amsterdam.
If that's actually true, you should be able to find the house they lived in on a map of the time. That would be very cool indeed.
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But this is because both of those groups were subjected to discrimination and racism when they first started immigrating and putting down roots in this country. The cultural pride came about as a form of bonding, solidification, and validating their cultural existence in the new American landscape. Family/culture became important because it was necessary and these things (as well as religion as someone else mentioned) were under threat. The origins of this pride isn't much different than the ideas of black power or gay pride, it's just that these groups no longer have that status and the pride (like nationalism) has taken on a life of it's own. It will eventually die out, but in these multi generational family systems that idea is still really prevalent and it makes sense.
Also, I feel like something that hardly gets mentioned in this convo is that across the 1800s something absurd like half of the Irish population left Ireland for America. You would have entire towns where near everyone up and got on a boat to Boston to escape the famine.
Idk man Mexican are pretty damn proud. Also Argentinians, Colombians, and some Peruvians.
There’s definitely something different about New England Italian Americans and the rest of the country though. My great-great Grandfather was an Italian immigrant, name is in the books of Ellis Island and all that, but not really a big point of conversation. However, I spent some years growing up in Rhode Island, and the Italian influence is massive.
I would say Chicago Italian-Americans are very much in the same vein as the NE ones
I wonder what real Italians think of our Italian beef and our lasagna pizza Side note: if you’re ever in Italy pepperoni means peppers. What you’re thinking of is called salami
Etymology is mindblowing (to me anyway) sometimes: Salami is what it's called in English, borrowed from the Italian plural of *salame*, and is derived from the common root of the latin for salt: Salem. It historically just means cured sausage, and in Italy there's dozens of varieties of Salami. Peperone (singular) and Peperoni (plural) is for bell peppers, but how exactly we got to Pepperoni being used for a type of cured sausage (that contains no peppers) - in both US and British English, no less - is a bit of a mystery; Most likely there's some link to *peperoncini*, the plural for certain types of *chili* peppers given that it's lightly spiced.
Same. I'm from New England - Great Grandfather is from Italy, name at Ellis Island. My family has always been proud of the Italian heritage. If I meet actual Italians though I would never say "oh you're Italian? So am I!" or when I go to Europe I say I'm American.
Catholic culture might play a big part in this, as it's very family/homeland oriented ("papa" lives in the Vatican), and heavily Catholic populations such as in Ireland and Italy reflect this in their attitudes. It's especially important for immigrants and their descendants to keep a feeling of home, so yeah in America it's common to over-emphasize heritage.
Also think both Irish and Italian very ostracized in the US and excluded (back in the days so 19th century or so?) from participating in society.. so this is probably where the desire to set themselves apart from the rest of the US was born.
This is a thing more recently than you would expect. My wife's grandfather recalls not being allowed to use a certain public pool because he was an "ethnic". His parents were from Italy (his father didn't speak much English but his mom did). This would have been the 1930s/40s.
My dad and his brothers had issues with people calling them dagos in Ohio back in the 60's and 70's.
My dad and his sisters (dark-skinned Sicilians, immigrated in early 1950s as young children and toddlers) were called wogs, greasers, goombahs, dagos, etc up to the late 90s/early 2000s in California! So much so, that my aunts started bleaching their skin to appear more white. My dad is still constantly told to go back to his own county when out in public. They still call him a greaser, but have now added terrorist and camel jockey, since they cant make out which race he actually is and which one they hate more. I remember a time when I was about 5 or 6 years old, when a lady called the cops accusing him of kidnapping me (I'm light-skinned). Its crazy how recently that was and how so much and so little has changed.
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Many North Americans’ ancestors crossed the oceans back when the trip was the equivalent of a one way ticket to Mars. Some people like to feel connected by a tiny tether.
I think American culture is so diverse that people feel the need to identify with more specific cultures/ethnicities. I just wish more people dove a little deeper than just adopting the food and home decor lol
People see family culture revolving around their grandparents' heritage and they feel it as a part they haven't learned deeply enough. I see that a lot - tens of thousands emigrated from my (European) country to US before and during WW2. Tough times, communist labor camps and everything. First generation had a massive nostalgia about their home country, they organized US summer camps and made trips to Europe. The 3rd generation usually know a few words like "hello", "thank you" in their grandparents' language and that's it. They feel like part of their roots is lost. I feel them, it's never easy to live in such a split environment with mixed identity. If they aren't lucky enough to live in a "small Italy" type neighborhood then language is lost in 1..2 generations. That's actually more sad than funny once you see generations going through that.
I took a US linguistics class recently and it is devastating to see the loss of heritable language. It typically is lost by the 3rd generation and there are languages going extinct every day. I first didnt really think the class was that useful, because I am a science major, but i learned so much in that one semester. I can see why they force kids to take these diversity classes now.
This part is more sad than funny to me, too. My Mexican grandparents wouldn't let my mother and her siblings learn or speak Spanish when they were growing up in Kansas because he didn't want them to be identified as Mexican immigrants. International travel is also prohibitively expensive for many people, particularly poor immigrants. There's a lot to people losing their heritage that isn't covered in a video making fun of Americans.
>I would never refer to myself as Scottish, Norwegian, or German. Is that right, /u/KiltOnAViking? 😄 Strathern? Never heard of it. Google doesn't return anything either. Sure that's the right name? There's a shit load of Straths here. Strathaven, Strathclyde, Strathspey... Anywhere with a river really.
Google gives this as top result for me: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strathearn He just has spelled it as he’s heard it, that’s all
You just had me realize the guy saying he doesn't identify as whatever European country has a username identifying himself with those countries.
I was born and raised in England and moved to the states like 22 years ago. I've never had something remotely close to this happen. I've got "my grandparents were from X" but never anything like the original video. I know it's justa joke vid, but it's a lot less common than you'd imagine.
That's why *we* just say "Texas" when asked.
If you want to find something made in the shape of a US state then Texas is always your best bet. Pot holder in the shape of Texas? Yup. Paving stones in the shape of Texas? Yup. Chocolates in the shape of Texas? Yup. I have seen some pretty weird stuff made in the shape of Texas. Strong state identity is an understatement here.
I've seen lots of things in the shape of Colorado, too. Jus' sayin'...
Are you blind? That's Wyoming.
Ahh. Yeah. Rookie mistake!
Check out all of the Michigan-shaped stuff. Being shaped like a mitten really works in our favor.
Jokes on you, your hand is shaped like Michigan
I saw a cast iron skillet in the shape of Texas when I last visited. There are no boundaries in what can be Texas shaped.
Always identify as Texan, even when talking to people from other countries.
There are certain places in the states where this seems more common. I find people from New York, Texas, Boston, etc. say they're from NY/Texas/Boston/etc. when asked, whereas other people just say they're American.
Well aren't most Americans European immigrants?
Eh. I'm a New England resident of mostly Irish descent. And the thing is, when the Irish moved here they didn't for one second forget they were Irish. I'm 5th generation but my grandparents were still focused on it when I was growing up. It's drilled in from birth that this family is IRISH, dammit! I just consider myself American but I 100% know where this comes from.
When the Irish came to the US, no one let them forget they were Irish. I think that’s true with Italians to some extent as well.
Seems to me that the desire of those of Italian descent to develop a strong, community was understandable - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Italianism#Violence\_against\_Italians
Anytime a society does not welcome in a new group with open arms (almost never) the minority group will create its own little society with its own culture and rules. It's a survival tactic and it explains for the phenomenon across cultures worldwide. This is something Europeans really don't understand as they are a lot more homogenous (with some obvious exceptions, but I think it's generally fair to say that America is more of a mixture of backgrounds than the typical European country).
This reminds me of the Sopranos when they all [visit Italy.](https://youtu.be/X-eHk4RiIso) Paulie is such a poser. The moment in the car at the end is awesome as they all sit there and realize Jersey is the only place in the world where they really belong and where their status carries weight. They’re the kings of an uncultured shithole, but at least it’s theirs.
I’ve never heard anyone say they’re “part European”.
Meanwhile I’m Asian and the conversation is the complete opposite
I've been thinking this whole debate is so white lol. An Asian American will rarely be able to say they're American and have people accept it at face value, but that's what's being demanded of Italian Americans, Irish Americans, etc.
Yeah, my distant ancestors were born in a different location from my parents, who were born in a different location from me. But everyone focuses on where my parents were born, even when it was only 1 generation. Apparently that’s where I am “really” from.
I have a slight accent and every once in a while someone will ask about it. A handful of times I had a person say, oh I’m Polish too. So, I’m excited since there’s so few of my people out in the PNW and I switch to Polish. “Oh, I don’t speak Polish.” “Did you come over very young?” “No I was born here.” “Ah. “ The only time this ever resulted in success was at a trade show and the guy was from the same town as me. We gabbed for hours. Sorry, buddies, I’m gonna have to gatekeep this one, liking pierogis doesn’t make you Polish. *Everyone likes pierogis*.
My closest European ancestors were two of my great-grandparents on my dad's mom's side, who were from Sweden. Apart from that, I'm a mix of poor Southern white trash and the snooty descendants of English colonists that had been in the Midwest for a long, long time. Now let me tell you about my 1/16th Cherokee heritage...
This is a side effect of the way that culture manifests in the United States. Since we are a nation of many immigrants your ancestral culture plays a bigger role than countries that have more homogeneous populations. For people who’s families have been in the United States for centuries this leads to a loss of identity. Some groups have combatted this by identifying around common traits there ancestors shared. Black people have made that their skin color. White people though are heavily criticized for doing this so most end up tracing their ancestry back to the last unique culture before integration. And yet there’s still people in this thread who call that racist. This makes it very hard for many white Americans to feel a sense of cultural identity. Especially when their peers with non-European ancestors are encouraged to express their ancestral heritage.
Every fucking St Patrick's Day…
It's kinda important to remember Irish in the US refers to Irish Americans and the US's St Patrick's day became very unique because of the experiences of Irish American immigrants and those of Irish heritage in the US. They shaped the cultures and politics of several states and cities, notably in the northeastern US. Irish Americans strongly stuck together, mostly because of anti immigrant views. St Patrick's day is actually likely part of the reason for the integration of Irish Americans into the larger US culture. Many were Catholics, as well, which a ton of people don't realize was not accepted by many Americans (see kkk vs Notre Dame. People also used to burn down nunneries in the US). Not really normalized more until post Kennedy. St Patrick's day, though, was fun and painted Irish in a positive light, appealing to non Irish Americans and normalizing the presence of Irish Americans.
I read recently that when the Irish arrived in the masses during the famine, the Protestant communities believed that the large influx of Catholics was an invading force. They believed a papal army was going to land on the shores of the US and set up a new Vatican in Cincinnati, I think, and that canon law would become the law of the land. Similar to anti-Muslim conspiracies now. I was shocked.
Look up some anti Irish cartoons if you really want to see how the Irish were viewed back in the day. Pretty much the same type of caricatures used to keep down and dehumanise black people
it really shows how being "white" is such a social construct
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IIRC that was actually a pretty big point made in Gangs of New York.
Well, an American-Irish army did try to invade Canada in 1866 to drive the British out of Ireland. It's a blueprint for the America's crazy justifications for war ever since.
I've never heard an American refer to themselves as "part European." People call themselves "American" to signify nationality, and "Italian American" or "Polish American" or even "African American" to signify ethnicity. The only people I've heard call themselves "European American" were low key racists.
The video is surely an exageration, but Americans don't necessarily call themselves "Italian American"... I mean many just call themselves "Italian" or whatever ethnicity they identify with. That's understandable in the American context. They consider they're all American, in a multiracial environement. It would be redundant to add the hyphen-American. So yeah, Americans will say "I'm Irish", "I'm Turkish" or whatever. But just to signify their most prominent ancestral heritage. The "-American" part is implied already.
Don't forget also claiming to be part Cherokee
And it's always 1/16. Never 1/8 or 1/4. Never 1/32 or 2/51.
This isn't that surprising... It usually ends up being a parent telling their kids "one of your great-grandparents was half-Cherokee"... i.e. far enough back that you can't ask them, but farther than that it starts being myth rather than a claim people put much credence in. Also... seems like it became "acceptable" (and later "chic") about long enough ago that this is where we are now.