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

@Anonymous48 so what Irish traditions & customs would Irish Americans uphold?

I don't think they can get one.

Because you’re being ridiculous. You’re American. Accept it.

Sorry, don’t know the answer.

Just fascinated by the list of your ancestors!
Is that really how rich your bloodline is? That’s cool!
Do you know much about the traditions / language / food / customs?
If that is okey to ask.

Yes this is true - I think I have some russian and italian going back a bit but my friends would think I had gone nuts if I started chest thumping and saying I identified as that. I haven't been to either country 🤣

You know, I can't think of any specifically Irish traditions right now! I was using Irish as an example. But Italian Americans have their big Christmas meal on Christmas eve for example.

And I'm not excusing the abhorrent treatment of anybody. It's awful when genocide is in living memory - any genocide (and there have sadly been many in the last hundred years). But America is a child in terms of global history and identity. Much of what it is going through and processing the rest of the world did hundreds of years ago and not in a modern world under such scrutiny and self awareness.

I don't even know what I'm trying to say. I agree with you but also see nuance.

with Biden it is about the Irish vote in places like Boston, New York etc. electioneering already!

I'm an American. Most, but not all, of my ancestry is Irish if you go back to the early or mid 20th Century. I certainly don't consider myself Irish. I'm a New Yorker.

Who is doing the sneering? A bit of context is needed.

I think Biden is putting so much emphasis on his Irish 'roots' that some people roll their eyes a bit because it does sound a bit ludicrous

It’s this.
My grandparents come from Scotland, I don’t claim to be Scottish.
My DH grandparents came from Poland in the 1930s. Not even his Dad would claim to be anything other than English. Cos that was where he was born and lived his whole life.
Americans do sometimes seem to struggle just being American. Some of them seem to need to have some other kind of ancestry.

If this is about Biden, I'm as Irish as Biden, probably more so since the distant connection comes down several "lines", and it would never cross my mind for a second to claim some sort of connection. Just seems really odd to hang your hat on the nationality of some far off dead relly.

My husband's 8 great grandparents all came from Ireland. He definitely considers himself American. If asked he will say he is Irish American. I don't know that he would ever describe himself as "Irish", but in context that wouldn't be wrong, because it's understood to mean of Irish ancestry not literally from Ireland. I think that's what a lot of Brits don't understand.

Biden is not claiming that he literally comes from Ireland. He is saying that some of his ancestors did.

It doesn’t bother me with anyone but Irish Americans.

I'm confused, are you saying that some people (other Americans? British people? Irish people?) are sneering at Americans with European ancestry, while not sneering at Americans with African or Asian ancestry?

Does this include sneering at Latino/a Americans who, before Latin America, have distant Spanish ancestry? Or is it only sneering at Americans with Northern European ancestry?

Or is this generalised sneering at any American who talks about their ancestry outside the United States?

Actually even Trump proclaims himself to be Scottish.

Perhaps this is similar to self identification. In which case I'm marrying the cat up the road.

Biden grew up in a very Irish community, with a strong connection to Irish culture.
I don’t it’s fair to say that it’s just about votes, though, the Irish American vote is much more scattered and later generations are much further removed, people don’t really
live in those type of communities anymore.
it’s easy to sneer at Americans clinging on to a very distant heritage but when people are forced to leave their homes and their country, knowing that they will never see their families again, they tend to place great value on passing on their cultural heritage to future generations.

But that's the same as loads of us in the UK. We understand perfectly. People travel, emigrate, often meet people from a similar background in the same country and have families, but basically after the point where none of the relatives you actually met in life had an Irish accent you're just English, Scottish, Welsh, British, Canadian, Australian, American whatever.

Cats don't have spouses; they have house servants.

Yes this exactly. I am not Irish. I have some Irish ancestors but I can’t claim their history as my own.

I’m not sure I understand the OP saying she “identifies” with all her ancestors and their ethnicities etc. I can’t claim to, personally. I only know the stories of the people within about 3 generations of me. I might have a small mixture of DNA from somewhere far flung but I don’t know who it was who came from there, which side of my family they were on, even how long a go… I don’t know who they were or the context in which they came to have their children with someone from a different country. It would be pretty weird for me to “identify” with that 1% of my DNA when I don’t know anything.

The United States is primarily a country of immigrants. It makes sense for them to talk about where they came from. Something like 10% of Americans are direct descendents of the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower.

I'm half Swedish, half English. I'm on a Swedish ancestry Facebook group, as I like reading posts about history, recipes and traditions.

The amount of posts taken up by Americans declaring nothing else than the fact they are 100% Swedish is irritating though. Plus obligatory photos of grandchildren to show how blonde they are.

I find it odd that Biden sees himself as Irish at all. Many British has European ancestry and I have not seen anyone here saying they are Swedish/German/French like Americans do.

It's cultural difference isn't it?

Well to be fair, Trump's mother was Scottish so unfortunately that's pretty legit - he'd probably get a UK passport.

Brits seem to be raging that the POTUS went to Ireland and swerved the UK. That is where the sneering is coming from I think.

Well when you think about it the British colonised the East Coast of America until they were driven out. They were the invaders. The British colonised many other countries also, so have/had no desire to be anything other than the superior population they seem to think they are.

Immigrants and emigrants on the other hand were not colonisers, and in the case of the Irish particularly, went to US on coffin ships because the British sold what food the Irish could produce during the Great Famine back to Britain (Trevalyan's corn), and left the natives to either starve or leave.

There is a different dynamic involved in emigres than there is to those who didn't HAVE to emigrate i.e. were the overlords.

No wonder there is such a longing for ancestry, I think it is great to seek out your roots and have a rant as to why you are where you are. America has opened its arms to many people who needed it badly. Thank you America.