Why is there so much sneering at Americans with European ancestry?

[BrBa]

I don’t understand! I identify with all my ancestors whether they came as religious refugees or early colonisers, were already indigenous to the region or brought in as slaves.

Yours
Swiss, German, Native American North, Central and South, Sephardic, Irish, South East African, Scottish, Acadian/French, and English

Answering the OP’s question: Because the journey of becoming American generally comes at a loss. So we cling. I’m first generation American. My mother came to America, to Brooklyn NY, as you do, from an impoverished Ireland. My father was a Polish/German Holocaust survivor who came into Ellis Island as a refugee along with his mother and sister. I have no living relatives on my father’s side.

I’m a Californian more than I am an American. When my brother died two years ago, I spoke at his funeral l, referring to my brother as an American son because we are as American as you can get. There was a poignancy in my language.
We are the American product of European survivors of persecution. I am the living testament to my family’s loss.

America is so flawed, so divided, crazy in many ways and yet it’s where our family respawned. America is where the universe leaned in and said, ‘Here’s your second chance.’ My aunt, my father’s sister, for me as a woman, is my example. She had survived rape, death camp, loss of her father and extended family members. She became an economist for the science and engineering department of the World Bank in the States. I always tell my children, as sure as you breathe, no opportunity is a missed one. You take various forks in the road. You take one opportunity and not the other. That’s ok. You can always be that Phoenix flight in life. We are constantly being reborn throughout our lives. And being an American taught me that. It is not the land of milk and honey. No place is. But in my father’s youth, it was still a place of possibility after experiencing such trauma. I am as much tied to my old roots, roots ripped from my grandparents’ history and placed sloppily into my own lap, as I am to my American being. I’m very much an American in the UK, even after 27 years here.

Ha ha, yes. Absolutely no-one in the UK objected to the Iraq war. Not a single person. All those millions marching against it? (Including me.) Didn't happen And so we kept voting different governments in, based on their campaign promises to invade/bomb other countries.

Please do stop with your whataboutery. You have no answer to the fact that NORAID donators chose to fund the IRA.

It is literally about being arrogant, and we will continue to sneer.

Americans banging on about being Irish and eating cabbage and drinking guiness and singing Danny Boy...when they know absolutely nothing about the 21st country of Ireland. Not a damn thing. It's so fucking annoying. "I'm Irish" no you're fucking not, sod off, is what Irish people are thinking.

This is a myth trying to dispel what people think is a myth but is not. Corned beef is absolutely Irish, we were making and exporting corned beef before America even existed as a country. It was eaten with cabbage, amongst other things.

When Irish immgrants couldn't find it in america, they bought a similar meat from Jewish butchers. Because they were used to it at home. Cork people ate a lot of corned beef.

It's the opposite way round. Historically, the Irish didn't eat beef and so there isn't a tradition of eating corned beef on either side of the border.

The Smithsonian did a good job of setting the record straight on this one:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-corned-beef-really-irish-2839144/

Some Britissh people can't accept the the President of the US visited Ireland and not Britian, so they're criticising Biden and his identification as an Irish-American.

I don't think he's anti-Brirish as such, but Britian in general doesn't seem particularly bothered by the anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, and in Johnsons links with Trump and their rhetoric on immigration the Tory Party seem to have aligned themselves with the Republicans, so why would Biden be a fan?

The special relationship is really over - Britian isn't a global player anymore.

Some Britissh people can't accept the the President of the US visited Ireland and not Britian, so they're criticising Biden and his identification as an Irish-American.

Ummm... I really don't think it's that. I don't imagine anyone particularly cares where he visits!

I'm not normally a pedant but you've spelt Britain wrong every time you've wrote it in that post.

@jeffgoldblum ”written”😉😂

I really don't think people read or listen to the news enough to even notice let alone be affronted by his visit. I seriously wonder how many of the British population would know who the U.S president is.

Americans should feel confident enough to describe themselves as Americans instead of harking back the old country that their ancestors fled from to seek a better life in America.

I listened to his speech, live. Because I was actually interested. And, btw @Smallyellowbird , he did visit Britain.

I was amazed that he sounded vaguely lucid. Because just like Trump, but in a different way, you can't rely on that with Biden.

That's a bit silly. What's wrong with accepting and embracing your history? There are plenty of Irish clubs in England.

.

@jeffgoldblum when you're in a hole, stop digging.

I wrote, you wrote
I have written, you have written (or you've written)

You've wrote is incorrect just as "I written the letter" is incorrect.

On a Scottish Facebook group I had an American woman tell me I obviously knew nothing about Scotland and should really visit it. I pointed out I was born in Scotland and have lived here my whole life, my parents , Grandparents, great Grandparents etc are Scottish. My family can be traced back to the original clans and some Viking invaders…she was Scottish apparently as her Great, Great, Great Grandmother was Half Scottish. She still maintained she knew more about Scotland than I did despite never setting foot on Scottish soil.

It is bizarre how they describe themselves like some sort of mixed breed dog.

Ok @KnittingNeedles , I got you've mixed up with you , so your correct, however it still isn't as bad a misspelling a country name wrong ( and different) five times in one post!
As I said I'm not a pedant but that was spectacular spelling.

I would imagine most British people don't care

100% agreed! The attitudes of cultural superiority shown on this thread are shocking. I would have expected to see them 20 years ago, but I thought that in 2023 most people in Britain were informed and cosmopolitan enough to be able to appreciate cultural relativism.

The UK way of defining one’s identity is merely a social construct and inherently not the only correct way to do so. Hence, as previous posters have pointed out, how many Americans self-identify today based on complicated historical factors, or how some countries assign citizenship differently from the UK system, are not “weird” or “daft” or “wrong.”

So many of you sound incredibly insecure, reacting defensively and hostilely to a practice that doesn’t align with yours out of—what? Insecurity? A desire to feel superior? 🙄

I’m starting to wish that basic anthropology and sociology concepts were taught better in schools, because there is really no excuse other than ignorance and close-mindedness for calling a country’s benign self-identification patterns “stupid.”

It divides American society to have Irish-Americans, African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans instead of just "Americans".

On a Scottish Facebook group I had an American woman tell me I obviously knew nothing about Scotland

I wouldn't put a lot of store in what some random obnoxious person says on Facebook. That's not representative of most Americans.

It is bizarre how they describe themselves like some sort of mixed breed dog.

You sound like a deep thinker....🤔

He visited both the UK and Ireland.

I’m Irish. Was born there, lived there until I was 18 and return regularly.

I used to be in a few Facebook groups for people with my very Irish surname, groups which included a great deal of Americans - in discussions the majority say they have never visited.

All fine well.

That is until my cousin joins the group and participates.

You see, my cousin is black. She was born in Ireland, was raised there, went to school there and has worked and raised her kids all over the island.

The “Irish Americans” kicked off massively saying we were:

• “diluting our gene pool
• ”modern day Irish people will be held responsible by the true Irish (apparently many “Irish Americans” consider the people who left Ireland during the genocide to be the true Irish) for allowing this to happen”
• True Irish people look like XYZ and posted photos.

Turns out they were actually livid about many things which modern, progressive Ireland has done or is working toward, but they were especially angry about ethic minorities living there.

This is a huge group BTW, with over 250,000 people, with over half of them from the USA.

I’ve met many an American who asks me if I’m Irish and I say yes, they say “oh me too, my greatx10 grandparents came over, I love cabbage and corned beef on patties day” (a tennament NYC Jewish import, nothing to do with the Irish) 😒
They genuinely talk to me like they have the same lived experience.

I’ve mentioned to a number of “Irish Americans” that I grew up in a border town and had some difficult experiences because of it (Terrorism etc). They were disgusted Irish people don’t spend every day thinking about achieving a United Ireland at any cost and we should be ashamed of ourselves.
As if many of us didn’t live through a war, and as much as a United Ireland is a lovely dream, peace in the meantime means much more to 99% of all Irish born (and even second generation people) I know.

They want a fight and we have lived through it. I’m bored of hearing their shit about being just as Irish as me or more Irish than my cousins of colour.

I think most British people don't relate to this depiction of them on the thread and see it is a dated perception of what it is to be British. The make up of British people and one poster claimed that to really mean English for the terms of reference on this thread, is really diverse and that diversity is the make up of the British identity now not the one that is being portrayed on this thread. Many English people with that heritage (Biden's) and closer in generations would not say they were Irish so it is not sneering it is genuine misunderstanding.

I blame the education system, the Daily Mail and the Telegraph. Oh and the war.