Americans make themselves different.. by hyphenating their name... it causes trouble between races ... you have Irish Americans fighting with Italian Americans, and African Americans crying foul, ''we're not treated the same as Jewish Americans because of our colour/race/creed''...and so forth... if they all called themselves simply Americans there might be a lot less problems
I come down on the just call me an American side. It is important, more important, to me anyway than the rest. If you want to tell people about your ethnic or genetic origins that's fine, I always appreciate hearing about it. But that's a different subject.
Right! And we should not be. According to my DNA test I could call myself a Neanderthal-American, 3% anyway.
When and where I grew up that was the most respectful word to describe people like you. Fortunately my parents made sure it was the word I used. Many of my friends used less respectful words. Now however I have trouble sometimes using other things like African or Black. Colored still seems respectful to me, but I know it doesn't to a lot of others. It is still the word long engrained in my brain.
remember we are also called United ..United Kingdom..and we've had millions of immigrants from long before America was even known to the world , we still don't define each other by our ancestors...
Same here.American works for me.
I prefer the Melting Pot theory, save the racial and ethnic identifiers for holidays and heritage events.
An actor named Brian Copeland wrote his autobiography, and where he addressed this topic was interesting- everybody was telling him he had to call himself something different, it was almost like an identity-crisis.
We are the only "Americans". It's a technicality thing. The name is "United States of America". We are the only nation with "America" in our name. But, as you stated, we live in North America, so we and all other N. & S. American nations are "Americans". Some lousy know-it-all pointed that out to me years ago.I have always felt that calling the U.S.A. America is a misnomer. We have North America and South America. All the individuals on these two continents are technically Americans. Anyway back on topic. I think it works the way it stands now. Geographic origin then citizenship. My people were from Ireland and Whales but when it comes to citizenship I consider myself a citizen of the United States of America.
I think you meant WALES, didn't you ? JImB.I have always felt that calling the U.S.A. America is a misnomer. We have North America and South America. All the individuals on these two continents are technically Americans. Anyway back on topic. I think it works the way it stands now. Geographic origin then citizenship. My people were from Ireland and Whales but when it comes to citizenship I consider myself a citizen of the United States of America.
I've always wondered why we do that too.
I will keep this simple, as pain killers block complex thought. For many, Canada and Canadians are a concept, a just society, obviously still in the aspiration stage, due to our treatment of Indigenous people etc. With that in mind, we are not interested in a one flavour fits all citizenry, where people are pressured to set aside their cultural traditions, and embrace some rigid, rather
In 1923, the words, "the Flag of the United States of America" were added. At this time it read:
In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter objected to this alteration. Today it reads:
https://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm?vm=r
It works for us.
The term American Indians has largely given way to Native American but both terms are used by some of us to differentiate those 'longest here peoples' from the Indians Columbus was looking for--on the subcontinent of India. Most of Native Americans i've known over the years often refer to themselves by the name of their tribe (Diné, Navajo, Zuni, Lakota, etc) but are quite aware considering how many of them have served in the military, and that they were finally afforded citizenship and do vote that they are also Americans.
what about The United States of America ?
Technically they would be as entitled to that name as we in North America, if it ever came to pass it would likely chafe the feelings of those who believe in 'American Exceptalism' and ignore the fact our country's name acts as if the South American continent and Central American Isthmus don't exist.what about The United States of America ?
I hope so. I like Canada. and most Canadians.It works for us.
I think this antagonism has lessened, become largely a generational thing. Older Québécois are more liable to voice dissatisfaction than younger people. Separatism is no longer popular. I can’t speak for all Canadians, but I don’t know anyone who is anti Quebec, although we do not necessarily agree with some of their policies around the hijab etc.
Mexico's official name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos" close but at least they have a unique name to attach the US to. Mexico historically only referred to the Valley of Mexico, not the whole country.
Yep, that would work! For any collection of states in the Americas, North, South or both. Canada could use it, but maybe they would be the United Provinces of America...what about The United States of America ?
Rob. Seriously ? Canada does not want to be " American " in any way. Please respect that desire to be ourselves, not " America light ". JimB.
