<p>American is a nationality…
The others are nationalities.
They’re two different things.</p>
<p>^ Few people in America are of “American” descent. Most of what is American is what a teacher of mine (who is American) describes as “American Mutt.” In England some people (always posh people) can trace back their line to the 18th century or further, at that point they are of English ancestry. As America populated by immigrants comparitively recently, few can trace their roots back that far without changing country.</p>
<p>Haha I meant “The others are ethnicities.” Or at least more so.</p>
<p>I know what you mean. There’s this chick at my school. She’s half asian and she’s like “I’m irish, italian,…” she NEVER mentions that she’s asian EVER</p>
<p>My family has been in America for over 13 generations. If someone asks me my nationality, I say American, but my ethnicity is a mix of Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hungarian.</p>
<p>really??! I rarely hear white people discussing their heritage. Unless of course it just slips its way into a conversation.</p>
<p>Last time I remember, during my freshman year gov’t class our entire class had to do an assignment discussing our complete heritage (in the fractions & percents of what you are LOL)…and then we had to share it with everyone else.It was then when I had realized that white ppl (the ones over here) are basically mixed up with a bunch of different european countries.</p>
<p>But if someone were to ever randomly ask a white person “where are they’re from” the answer is gonna most likely be American.</p>
<p>But, if it’s a non-white person…it depends b/c they could answer your question by saying that they’re:</p>
<p>a. American</p>
<p>b. from so and so state</p>
<p>c. describe their heritage/ethnicity–probably most common if the person happens to be mixed.</p>
<p>However, when I used to live in the Middle East…the city i lived in was pretty diverse…so people asking you where you’re from was quite common. So if they’d ask that they most likely would be wondering what your heritage/background is…then they’d probably also ask you “what’s your nationality”.</p>
<p>So if someone were to ask me, “where are you from” I would give them a detailed answer…lol. B/c I was born in a different state lived in two other states for a while…and lived in a foreign country for most of my life :/</p>
<p>But for some odd reason I never say that I’m American first…I might tell them I’m a Somali-American or Somali-Arab or just Somali 
(depends on where I am)…</p>
<p>^^^I don’t give a damn where there ancestors are from, American is American. Just because your great grandparents were born somewhere else does NOT make you from that region.</p>
<p>The thing with my family is that Sephardic Jews keep extensive records of their genealogy, so if it weren’t for the fact that I actually know who some of my 15-greats-grandfather are, it wouldn’t matter at all, but it’s kinda cool that I do know.</p>
<p>^ same here!..I can trace back my heritage to a couple thousand years b/c it’s part of our culture to keep records of them. haha.</p>
<p>The other thing with my family is that we can trace back directly to a Portuguese king, and from there there’s a lot of European royalty that we’re tenuously related to.</p>
<p>I hate when people declare their World Cup team based on their ancestry.</p>
<p>“I am 50% Italian so Go Italy!”
“Yeah but you were born+raised in the United States so root for the US! Not to mention the past 5 generations of your family were born and raised in the United States. You’re AMERICAN.”</p>
<p>^What if they say, “But America suck, so Go Italy”?</p>
<p>^^ haha, I understand where you’re coming from…</p>
<p>^^^ @ BuddyMcAwesome: That’s sooo cool! All I know is that we can trace our heritage back to when we used to trade w/ the Pharaohs(from ancient egypt) since we’re also afro-asiatic )…since the area we were from…in Somalia was apparently the Ancient Egyptian’s ancesteral homeland (see Land of Punt <a href=“Land of Punt - Wikipedia)%5B/url%5D”>Land of Punt - Wikipedia)</a> and…all I know is that ppl like Queen Hatsheput (sp?) used to make trips over there…lol. </p>
<p>For the Yemeni/Arab part of my heritage…i know nothing…never bothered to ask The only cool general thing I know is that Yemen had the Kingdom of Axum & The Queen of Sheba was from there…and they had one of the oldest civilizations in the middle east back then (w/ very advanced agriculture…)</p>
<p>
They should still have enough pride in their national team to support it. The South African football team is ranked 83rd in the world but South Africans support the team wholeheartedly. America is ranked 14th and even though it’s a fairly disappointing team, there should still be more American support for the team.</p>
<p>My Great-Grandma came over on the boat from Italy. My grandparents were born and raised in Italian-Polish homes, speaking the language and enveloped in the culture. My father was as well.
I hold the same culture and traditions dear to me. I don’t call myself Italian-American, but I am part Italian, that is my heritage.</p>
<p>So you don’t know the term “culture”, then? Or “ancestry”, or “family history”, or “heritage”, or…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Haha yeah, I’ve met some people whose grandparents were sent to internment camps during WWII and they think they’re Asian. Such silly people.</p>
<p>I thought this only bothered me. Yay for it bothering other people too!</p>
<p>^^Last I checked, great grandparents =/= grandparents. </p>
<p>I dunno, I may be wrong.</p>
<p>Alright, say a person’s heritage is 100% _<strong><em>ian. If that person’s heritage is _</em></strong>ian, then their genetics reflect it. Now when we consider culture, these are all 100% completely artificial. The flag? made up. The accent? As sudden as the words spoken. Language? Only based on the fact we accept it as such. When it comes down to it the only thing natural about that person is their genetic heritage, which is therefore similar to the people of _<strong><em>ia, which although still an artificial name is a signifier of a region. They have more in common with the people of _</em></strong>ia on a natural level than the people of ----ia, even if they reside in ----ia. It’s the only thing physically real.</p>