To wonder when Americans lose their roots

I found this interesting - I wonder if Americans agree ?

Oh I didn't know that

Also much of Southern cuisine has African origins because of the influence of enslaved Africans.

So one of your parents was Italian and you don’t have any of that heritage? That’s such a shame.

Yes, Americans almost always seem to position themselves as Irish-American, Chinese-American, German-American. Whereas my grandparents were from Italy and it wouldn't cross my mind to call myself Italian-English. I guess America is a relatively new country and it gives them comfort to cling on to some kind of established heritage. But Australia is even younger and they don't seem to call themselves "Greek-Australian" for example.

And that's fine? I'm not saying they're Irish just explaining why they feel Irish-American and not just American. It's based on communal culture they're not just imagining it.

I’m Polish-American on my dad’s side. His grandfather, who died when I was a toddler, came to the US from Warsaw in his early teens, and grew up in a Polish-American neighborhood. Both my paternal grandparents were one or two generations removed from Poland.

I’m German-American on my mom’s side. Her ancestors came to the US in the 1800s and fought for the Union in the Civil War. Several generations of her family were farmers in the Midwest who lived in small towns where most people’s ancestors were from either Germany, Sweden, or Norway, and that mattered when it came to which church your family went to. Some rural areas of the Midwest are ethnically homogeneous enough that people’s accents sound vaguely European. My cousin’s other grandpa never went to Norway in his life, but had a very Scandinavian lilt to his speech.

I think people quit being Something-American when their ancestry starts going into the single-percentages (6% Russian, 8% French) and they no longer have any cultural ties to “the old countries.”

I'm not having that!! Pizza is Italian. Not Italian American!! It originates from Naples.

I guess the thing is that while being Irish American is very different to being Italian American, or Polish American, most people in Ireland would see you as much much closer to American than to Irish, despite the cultural parts to your upbringing. It’s easier for you to see the differences in your culture to other heritages in the US, but it’s still going to be
hard to connect with people in Ireland, who are going to see you as almost entirely American.

Yes, most of that list I got from reading novels set in more rural US areas, - so I suppose that while that kind of food is linked to a region of America specifically, it's not an 'American' food in the sense of being common all over America..

The Ellis Island wave lived in urban enclaves, so tend to have a tighter identity. Although a lot of mixing as well—I have met so many Irish-Italians since they all go to the same churches and schools lol

Polish Americans tend to make pierogies around Xmas. I don’t know if they are really Xmas foid, or just traditional food that takes time to make from scratch snd therefore feels right at Xmas.

I think the xmas cookie culture comes from the German immigrants.

I think it's definitely regional. Another perhaps relevant point is that our country is so big and each region is like its own separate culture, so the food listed spans across the country. I associate grits and fried chicken with the South and would be a found locally to me only at a restaurant specifically serving Southern cuisine, it'd be a novelty. A big part of hanging onto our ancestors' origins I think is related to this; it's a way of having community in such a large country. We extend this to regions, too. I definitely take more pride and associate more strongly with being a New Englander and my home state than I do an American.

Thanks, interesting. I did know that some had immigrant origins- I guess what I was thinking was that the origin was less important now, and they were just general foods, (whereas Polish-Americans as I understand would probably mostly be the ones eating Polish food, and while Italian food has crossed over to some extent, probably Italian-Americans still eat it more often?) Or is that not accurate?

I definitely didn't grow up eating any of that - seems maybe southern American for the most part, but definitely not the food I had at home or at friends houses where I'm from.

Pizza is from Naples I think? There's an American way to do it (more toppings?) but it's Italian.

Fried chicken is Scottish. Hamburger- clue is in the name. Grits, native american. Waffles, Belgian/dutch.

I’d say smores and clam chowder might be truly American.

Isn't American food a thing? This is stereotypical I know...but aren't stuff like molasses, grits, fried chicken, hamburgers, waffles, s'mores, clam chowder American? I know several may be more specific to a particular area than to America as a whole...but is it really true that there's no distinctly American foods, only cuisine from different immigrant cultures?

Also don't some things like pizza originate from Italian-American communities, eg, rather than from the original country? So in that sense they're American...

There absolutely is. I'm American and my late grandmother was still very proud that her family was here prior to the Revolutionary War (though as Hessian soldiers...but I don't consider myself Hessian/German American 😜). She viewed herself and our family as socially superior to, for example, recently immigrated Italians to America.

As some other posters have also mentioned, we're a young country based in immigrants and have historically taken pride in being a melting pot. Multiculturalism is one of the best facets of, just in my opinion, America.

I was born in one country to American parents, grew up in the states and have lived in Scotland for 20 years. My kids (who were born here) will both say they’re half American and half Scottish. Which isn’t really true - they are Scottish children being raised by Americans.

Up until marrying my husband, my entire ethnicity is Ashkenazi Jewish (via the Russian ghettos). Both sides of my family as far back as we can trace. So ethnically or culturally I was raised in that world - my grandmother was raised speaking Yiddish at home.

most people in America aren’t American in the sense that people living in other places are. We were all immigrants, mostly only a few generations ago.

I never noticed it growing up as it was normal to ask people where they are ‘from’ and not at all mean where are they living right now. I went to polish events, Italian events, Greek events… these were children my age being raised with Greek or polish or Italian food. Churches were often linked up to ethnicity in the same way so there was the Italian church etc. Many of these families had been in America for generations but they were holding on tight. There’s not really ‘American’ food like there is in most counties, it’s really specific.

I imagine this is changing as more people marry in different ways and more children are born who are 25% various things.

Which ‘they’ are you referring to? And which ‘locals’?

Sorry- I was doing American history fairly recently (I'm a history student at uni) but had got it in my head Irish immigration was earlier on in the 18th. 🤦‍♀️ But no, I remember now that there was a lot through the 19th and into the 20th.

That's very interesting to hear re staying connected to Irish culture, I can definitely understand the strong sense of heritage esp if people were keeping up with current events in Ireland.

I think this is a bit unfair, though I agree somewhat. If you have Native heritage, then that's from people who've lived in the continent for 15, 000 years. There's outreach by the tribes where people can become familiar with language, customs etc

A bit different from identifying with heritage from a different country & generally focusing on 18th-19th century cultural aspects as Scottish & Irish Americans seem to (though I can see & respect why).

There's also the fact that Native Americans intermarry at a high rate and are only 1%- 3% of the population (3% if you count a those identifying as partly such on censuses). So if they don't count people who are mixed to quite a large degree, they'll get smaller & smaller.. And many tribal languages are dying out, so arguably the more who learn for whatever reason, the better.

I'm interested in Native American history & sometimes look at the subreddits. People there are generally accepting of those who want to learn more, even if they have a smaller percentage. Esp as there is a traumatic history of 'blood quantum' measurements being used by authorities to make the tribe as small as possible. But there is scepticism of people who claim it solely for benefits and/or have a tiny amount like 1/64. Eg. A lot of Cherokee members are apparently somewhat notorious for being mainly of white ancestry (though this is complex as Cherokees have a long history of intermarriage) and claiming benefits for college (Elizabeth Warren style..) when unlike many of mostly Native ancestry, they had comfortable upbringings & look white so would not be discriminated against based on their appearance alone.

There's even been some 'tribes' of people with little ancestry & cultural connection, who brought land reclamation cases or got government funding for casinos- tribes created mainly to get money apparently.

I think after famous Pretendians bring exposed like Satcheen Little feather or Buffy Saint-Marie, tribes are being a bit more circumspect.

I sometimes feel like as an English person (albeit not by American terms, then id be English - Caribbean i guess) id be slightly uncomfortable in some parts of Boston while I've NEVER felt like that in ROI or NI. To be fair though I've never actually been to Boston so maybe id be welcomed and the reputation of not liking the English there because they're all 'Irish' isnt true.

The mass Irish immigration was mid 19th to early 20th century, not that different from Jewish immigration. In both cases highly concentrated communities which helped preserve identity.

Even in the 1980s in an east coast city, where I went to Catholic school, almost all our teachers were Irish or Irish-American. My Irish friends only dated Irish boys. We learned traditional Irish songs and followed the Troubles. I understand a lot of people exaggerate their Irish roots but there are some parts of the country where it really does mean something to people. And culturally, there really is a big difference between being raised Irish or Italian or Polish or Mexican Catholic, in a country thats mostly Protestant. We might all be Americans but we're not the same!

Tbf a few people might like the idea of slaves, judging by the way some billionaires act...

And obviously the Founding Fathers & others are admired despite owning slaves. It might depend what else the ancestors had done..