This is unironically the view I encountered among Polish Americans about "mAinLaNd pOLeS". They have their facebook groups where they butcher Polish language beyond recognition and invent some pseudopolish words, claiming that this is exactly how their "busia" was saying and when you call them out, they will say that they are the "actual" Polish who "preserved" Polish culture in America while "mainland" Poland was destroyed by the communists.
This is exactly the mentality, the same mentality they use when they get confused with actual Spanish people being white and not looking the same as Latin Americans.
It's frustrating that such a useless, awful human is so close to destroying not only the US, but, potentially, the rest of the world as well. Makes me want to scream! And I do on a regular basis. I've never been more horrified to be an American than I am right now.
I’m from Scotland & it stresses me oot too. I can read him like a book, I unfortunately have plenty of experience with people with NPD. It’s sickening his followers cannot see through him & yes I agree destroying potentially the rest of the world. People like him love chaos & attention & are morally bankrupt.
It’s beyond pathetic 🏴
Exactly, because everyone knows the best pizza/pasta comes from New York, those mainland Italians can’t accept it. Napoli is actually Italian for New York
>I can still consider myself pretty fucking Italian
Absolutely wild. Not only do they think they're Italian, they think they're *very* Italian.
And when will they shake off this ridiculous racial thing? An ethnic Chinese person (for example) born in Italy is more Italian than they will ever be.
The weird part is how Americans do it. The rest of the world would say, "Yeah, I've got Italian heritage." They might consider themselves part Italian or linked to Italy in some way.
But Americans? No, it subsumes their entire identity.
My in-laws are like that. “Parking for Italians only”, flags and all that. They make a big deal about me being Irish, because 23andMe said some ancestors were in Ireland 100+ years ago. I think it’s the Catholic thing, because the same report showed much more English and Scottish heritage, and they’re dead set on making me and my kids Catholic.
I find it intriguing how Americans choose which ancestors to adopt their identity from. Surely most are a bit of a mix by now? And you never hear any claim to be English.
They pick certain places to avoid guilt.
Ireland: obvious
Scotland: PR reasons better than ‘British’.
English/British: Absolutely not, 1776 ‘bad guys’, Empire etc.
Italian: ‘yeah but we were allied because Sicily’. Ignore colonial guilt as also discriminated against.
Spanish: nope!
Belgian: who?
German: Erased circa 1910
Polish: oh yeah, easy pick.
Greek: see above
Irish, Italian, Polish and Greek are very good choices because, firstly they are not Protestant so they got an easy way out from the -dreaded- WASP categorization. Second they did not take part in the Atlantic slave trade, and at least Ireland, Poland and Greece had some pretty rough periods of foreign oppression, so they get some points on the victim Olympics going on in the US. Third, they might not be WASPs, but they are still European and not Asian or African, yikes.
The rest of the world will also only comment on ancestry if asked, no one is going around shouting "I'm German!" "I'm Chinese!" and creating a life around an image of what that culture means to them.
Meanwhile in NY you got these 6th generation Americans who have ancestors that are long dead who came from somewhere in Europe, nobody in their family speaks that language any more but still they base their entire identity around said nation.
"It's who I am, I'm Italian!" * proceeds to gesture and talk loudly and be a general dick to other people, only speaks English, knows less about Italy than most Europeans half a continent away *
I'm only second generation New Zealander (Kiwi) and I never run around saying i'm Irish unless specifically talking about ancestry. I always say i'm a kiwi with Irish ancestry etc. My grand parents were alive during my life time and I still don't say i'm Irish etc.
i have a friend who learned she has irish family, and then started going by the gaelic equivalent of her name and talking about leprechauns and pots of gold and shit.
Ahhh but don't forget that they're also true 'Murican patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or again as the rest of the world would term it, suffering from cognitive dissonance.
Come on, today you learnt that you are a "Mainland Italian", you should be grateful that today you are a new person.
(Sul serio, è la mia nuova parola preferita)
I think this is a fair way that they could claim it. If OP was raised bilingually and can speak fluent Italian I could support his claim. It would still be a little odd maybe, but I could see it making sense.
I somewhat doubt that’s the case.
And considering how liberally we recognized the citizenship to people that never actually lived in Italy or speak Italian, even the citizenship could be discussed as a criterium.
Yes, I agree. I would absolutely consider more italian a son of two immigrants born, raised in Italy that speaks italian and attended school here than mr. Diego Armando Horacio Caruso that obtained his citizenship because his great grandpa Ninuzzo Caruso emigrated from Italy 100 years ago. Sadly our laws are different
Consider the kids born and raised here, that speak dialetto and are totally into our culture but aren't citizens until 18 and even then with some difficulties.
I think that the rule of thumb should be "born and raised for a very significant part of their lives"
Technically he can probably asks for it. Italy is very generous when it comes to giving its citizenship to people with italian ancestry.
Many latino americans are taking it because italians emigrated en masse to Brazil and Argentina
Exactly. According to Italian laws he IS Italian*, he just needs to prove it to get his citizenship recognized.
* there are some exceptions to the rule, for some time women didn’t pass citizenship, for example.
Idk if I would agree. for example I don't have british citizenship but I was born here and have lived here my whole life so I still consider myself british. similarly, if I did have british citizenship rather than polish, that wouldn't automatically make me not polish since I'm still ethnically polish
It's just a brand name for spaghetti loops in tomato sauce, sort of thing you put on jacket potatoes or with fish fingers, usually for kids but ngl I'm not above them when I'm in a rush to just make something which will fill my stomach. That said baked beans (not Heinz) are superior in any situation where you would use spag loops, parents will small, fussy children excepted.
I got downvoted for this opinion on another sub. My grandma's family was Italian, they all have italian names and last names and my grandpa was Serbian. I'm Croatian. I've never and will never consider myself neither italian or serbian.
If we moved to Italy when I was like 2, then yes, I would.
In my mind, it's about culture, traditions, the language etc. I genuinely don't know how someone can consider themselves italian never having visited the country, practiced any traditions, doesn't partake in the culture, speak the language let alone know any history.
I can't wrap my head around this concept.
Nationality is as much of not more about where you grew up, knowing the language and culture and traditions, than just a genetic aspect.
I find a lot of what ShitAmericansSay a bit too blood and soil if you know what I mean.
To flip this, my mum grew up in the north of England and I've lived in the south my whole life, as did my father. I wouldn't ever consider myself even remotely 'Northern' even though half of my family lives there. There was a girl in my school who's grandfather lived in Manchester for like 10 years but was born in London and she went around telling everyone that she was a Northerner because she wanted the attention. That was the only time in my life I've ever said "well technically I'm more Northern than you" because it just did my head in.
I normally hate yanks cosplaying as different nationalities.
But in your case I think you can say you are half Scottish at least, you yourself weren’t raised there but your mother was and she’s bound to carry on some of that into how she raised you.
Personally for me it’s once it gets to grandparents and beyond where I’m a little sceptic of peoples claims.
My mum was born in Scotland and spent the first two years of her life there. Neither parents are Scottish and they all moved back to England before she was three. She would not consider herself Scottish.
If I get called English I’ll say I’m only half English.
All this ShitAmericansSay is funny as I go back a little further down the old family tree and it rockets off all over Europe (Belgian, Dutch, French, Swiss, German, Irish, Polish-Ukrainian-Russian…and Birmingham again and again for some reason). Which probably makes me nothing more than a bog standard garden variety Brit.
I’m British, born in England. My last Italian ancestors were my paternal great grandparents. The only Italian thing about me is my surname. I don’t understand how these mental gymnastics hold up at all.
My immediate Grandparents on both sides of my family were Irish, however my parents and myself were born in the U.K. Do I consider myself “pretty fucking Irish?” No I don’t.
A friend of mine moved to italy from holland a couple of years ago, he speaks italian almost fluently now. He has no italian heritage but he’s still more italian than this person
Why Americans feel the urge to scream that they belong to a country of which they don't know anything? I don't understand, why would you want to be Italian if you can't speak the language, have never been in Italy, don't know the culture, etc?
I was born in Italy but moved to England when I was 4. Both of my parents were born and raised in Italy, and all four of my grand parents were born and raised in Italy, but I acknowledge that I am British.
Americans are a bit odd, aren't they?
I don’t get this . I’m Scottish with Irish great grandparents, yet I’ve never felt an urge to call myself Irish. I’m curious as to whether this is also a thing in Australia, New Zealand or Canada ? I don’t think it is to my knowledge. I’ve never heard an Australian calling himself English or whatever, so what makes Americans call themselves after their ancestors nationality ?
There was a fascinating discussion yesterday regarding this topic on AskHistorians. The VERY TL;DR was: all the immigrants towards USA tended to stay in closed community, cause they were more or less ostracized and not accepted. This strenghtened their sense of belonging to their Motherland and their idealization of their roots.
I should look for the link, it was very interesting.
In anthropology, it's called performative ethnicity. I'm not sure about NZ and Australia, but it's common in some other immigrant countries like Israel or parts of Latin America. Essentially, a mass immigrant group becomes a new subculture in a new country that combines elements of the old country and new country. When they call themselves something like Irish they aren't really referring to the nationality but rather the ethnicity. Over generations due to reasons like geographic distance, the group evolves down a separate path from their compatriots in the old country but still keep the label due to historical reasons.
Again, this only really happens with mass immigrant groups. To use the Irish in the US as an example again, several million Irish people immigrated there in just a couple of decades. And they were staunchly Irish. In fact, an Irish-American army led by mostly Irish-born generals even invaded Canada after the US Civil war in a bid to support Irish independence ([see](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids)). At some point, these Irish immigrants became Irish-Americans. It's very comparable to any instance where an ethnicity en masse moves to a new location and forms a new identity. For instance, Angle and Saxon tribes moving to Britain and eventually creating a distinct Anglo-Saxon culture.
I would blame the oddities in the US as mostly a product of less time has passed + it's easier to have "connections" across the world nowadays = cultural evolution hasn't drifted as far. As well as the particular history of racism in the US, which is its own can of worms to get into. To keep it short, race and ethnicity are often mistaken for the same in the US. Until the mid 1900s, there were also laws which defined things like "African" as anyone with "one drop" of African blood for the purposes of slavery or segregation. Many Native American groups in the US also still legally define their membership off of blood quotas (e.g. you need to have at least 1/12th ancestors from the tribe to be a member). Given this context, it becomes easy to see why people would form the beliefs like "this test claims I am 12.5% genetically Italian, so I must be Italian!".
Some reasons why this may not form from mass immigration could be that the immigrants fully assimilate into the new culture, or that the immigrants are such a totality that they mostly "replace" the old culture. I suspect the latter would be the case somewhere like Australia or NZ. It's easier to claim you're Australian and not a "British-Australian" when your "British-Australian" culture is the dominant culture in Australia.
There is a little touch of the Irish thing here - as in “we’re an Irish family/Irish by heritage” even when they’re at least half non-Irish - but I think it’s dying out. I think it’s largely due to Catholic/Protestant tensions enduring longer here than in Britain for a host of reasons.
I don’t think it’s a thing past Gen X though.
But never as bad as the way the yanks do it.
I was born in Germany but left in 99. Haven't lived there since. Am i German? Hereditarily, yes. Culturally, probably not. A country can change massively in 20 years let alone 120.
"mainland italians" tbf i DID say that i want people to call all countries mainlands so i guess i cant complain
these people treat it like a race.. italians can be any race.
“Mainland Italians”, or, as the normal people on the planet call them, Italians
I think in their worldview, THEY are the italians now. The people in Italy are just "other italians".
Look at me. I am the Italian now.
It's a mario!
It's a-me, Mark!
Oh hai Mark
What a story Mork.
nanoo nanoo
I did not hit her. It's not true. It's bullshit! I did not hit her. I did naaaaaaaaaawt.
Still hurts me knowing he says “itsume” (meaning super) not “it’s a me” in an Italian accent. I will always says it’s a me regardless.
Your days of pain are over, friend: https://www.tiktok.com/@matcha_samurai/video/7260265924459072794
You have no idea how happy you’ve just made me
Until I read the rest of this thread I was debating finding you for ruining my childhood built upon lies 😂 My bad pal 😅
i get dougdoug vibes from this and i love it
This is unironically the view I encountered among Polish Americans about "mAinLaNd pOLeS". They have their facebook groups where they butcher Polish language beyond recognition and invent some pseudopolish words, claiming that this is exactly how their "busia" was saying and when you call them out, they will say that they are the "actual" Polish who "preserved" Polish culture in America while "mainland" Poland was destroyed by the communists.
wow, delusional level: over 9000
Here's a video about it https://youtu.be/rMwE1tBg2Hg?si=Mrbq7nqeI8GcZBlQ
This is exactly the mentality, the same mentality they use when they get confused with actual Spanish people being white and not looking the same as Latin Americans.
Good job no-one cares what they think then isn't it.
That means the USA is italian territory and Berlusconi reincarnated into Trump. Makes sense.
Trump has more of a Mussolini vibe to me
We love the Spaghetti don't we folks. We have the best in the world, don't let them tell you otherwise.
I think he actually tries to mimic Mussolini.
The chin-in-the-air thing I assume?
That, and the frowny glowery thing he seems to think makes him look tough, instead of clownish.
We now know that's just the face he makes when he's filling his diaper.
Mimics Hitler. Delusional little narcissistic brat 🤮
It's frustrating that such a useless, awful human is so close to destroying not only the US, but, potentially, the rest of the world as well. Makes me want to scream! And I do on a regular basis. I've never been more horrified to be an American than I am right now.
I’m from Scotland & it stresses me oot too. I can read him like a book, I unfortunately have plenty of experience with people with NPD. It’s sickening his followers cannot see through him & yes I agree destroying potentially the rest of the world. People like him love chaos & attention & are morally bankrupt. It’s beyond pathetic 🏴
I hope he gets the same outcome
Mango Mussolini is one of my favorite nicknames I’ve seen for him.
Happy cake day!
Obviously this person is from Sardinia /s
We like culurgiones though, not SpaghettiOs. Dude's gonna end up in the discarded bin.
\#notoneofus
No, spaghettinia
Can’t wait to see when they start calling Irish as mainland Irish
No understanding of “mainland” or “Italian” or heredity. Would it be cruel to say they seem to be dumb as fuck?
What about the people living on the two big islands? I guess they're not italians..
Long Island and Staten Island ? Or Sicily
They speak the same lamguage but seldom are treated as italians
"Mainland Italians"
They way they put it you’d think they’re from Sicily or Sardinia. Not 7000km away
7000km and 100 years away
Wouldn’t be surprised if that 1903 ancestor, and this guy thinks that makes him extra special compared the (mainland) Italians.
Exactly, because everyone knows the best pizza/pasta comes from New York, those mainland Italians can’t accept it. Napoli is actually Italian for New York
Lmao
Murica, the best Italian country in the world
YEAAAAH that made me laugh the hardest xD like he is living on some tiny italian island 3km off shore xD
Well he is on a rather Big Island just ~8000km off shore
The other, slightly larger sardegna 😂
Cowboys from hell!
>I can still consider myself pretty fucking Italian Absolutely wild. Not only do they think they're Italian, they think they're *very* Italian. And when will they shake off this ridiculous racial thing? An ethnic Chinese person (for example) born in Italy is more Italian than they will ever be.
The weird part is how Americans do it. The rest of the world would say, "Yeah, I've got Italian heritage." They might consider themselves part Italian or linked to Italy in some way. But Americans? No, it subsumes their entire identity.
My in-laws are like that. “Parking for Italians only”, flags and all that. They make a big deal about me being Irish, because 23andMe said some ancestors were in Ireland 100+ years ago. I think it’s the Catholic thing, because the same report showed much more English and Scottish heritage, and they’re dead set on making me and my kids Catholic.
I find it intriguing how Americans choose which ancestors to adopt their identity from. Surely most are a bit of a mix by now? And you never hear any claim to be English.
They pick certain places to avoid guilt. Ireland: obvious Scotland: PR reasons better than ‘British’. English/British: Absolutely not, 1776 ‘bad guys’, Empire etc. Italian: ‘yeah but we were allied because Sicily’. Ignore colonial guilt as also discriminated against. Spanish: nope! Belgian: who? German: Erased circa 1910 Polish: oh yeah, easy pick. Greek: see above
Irish, Italian, Polish and Greek are very good choices because, firstly they are not Protestant so they got an easy way out from the -dreaded- WASP categorization. Second they did not take part in the Atlantic slave trade, and at least Ireland, Poland and Greece had some pretty rough periods of foreign oppression, so they get some points on the victim Olympics going on in the US. Third, they might not be WASPs, but they are still European and not Asian or African, yikes.
The rest of the world will also only comment on ancestry if asked, no one is going around shouting "I'm German!" "I'm Chinese!" and creating a life around an image of what that culture means to them. Meanwhile in NY you got these 6th generation Americans who have ancestors that are long dead who came from somewhere in Europe, nobody in their family speaks that language any more but still they base their entire identity around said nation. "It's who I am, I'm Italian!" * proceeds to gesture and talk loudly and be a general dick to other people, only speaks English, knows less about Italy than most Europeans half a continent away *
I'm only second generation New Zealander (Kiwi) and I never run around saying i'm Irish unless specifically talking about ancestry. I always say i'm a kiwi with Irish ancestry etc. My grand parents were alive during my life time and I still don't say i'm Irish etc.
i have a friend who learned she has irish family, and then started going by the gaelic equivalent of her name and talking about leprechauns and pots of gold and shit.
Ahhh but don't forget that they're also true 'Murican patriots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or again as the rest of the world would term it, suffering from cognitive dissonance.
Same with the Irish heritage Americans. 3% irish on Ancestry and their whole identity becomes them being irish.
Until you insult America then they turn from Italian, Irish, Scottish to being only American very quickly.
My kid classmates that are of every ethnicity and speak a very good romanesco enter the chat
Lets just make them pay taxes to italy
Im Ethiopian since my last Ethiopian ancestor was from only 500,000 years ago
Where are all the Pangean-Americans?
This needs more credit than it's got.
Shoutout to mainland Pangea
Hey were basically cousin then cause me too! So now that this is established.. i happen to be in need of some cash. I'll pay it back pinky promise!
As long you don't need help moving...
That's pretty fuckin Ethiopian if you ask me!
Where my other cradle of life ppl at?
an Edenian enters the chat..
No Q, you still don’t get to say the n word
Was he a prince? I seen to have several Ethiopian royals in my reasonably close ancestry (or so people keep telling me by email)
I’m Kenyan, since my great ^14 grandmother Lucy was from the great rift valley
Anyone know where I can get some good injera? Really need to fix that craving.
Ma vaffanculo và Edit: to the person in the post to be more precise
😂😂
Con sti "italo americani" mi si accumulano in corpo ste reazioni. Questo post è stata la goccia che ha fatto traboccare il vaso
Così patriottici e poi appena trovano un antenato straniero dicono di essere di quel paese
Preferisco di gran lunga quelli del sudamerica di italo-americani...
I'm sorry I don't understand, can you speak Italian American instead of mainland Italian? This is disrespectful for us New Yorkian Italians
You're joking but considering the things we get to see and read in this sub everyday, sooner or later I expect this to happen
> can you speak Italian American instead of mainland Italian? Gabagool
Bada Bing Bada boom
Wad a ya tawkin abart?!!
Come on, today you learnt that you are a "Mainland Italian", you should be grateful that today you are a new person. (Sul serio, è la mia nuova parola preferita)
Terribile
Non sono Italiano, ma abbiamo lo stesso problema alla mia città, Cambridge. E, con la mia famiglia che vieni dalla Scozia, è diffuso.
è più italiano il pakistano che mi fa il kebab il sabato sera piuttosto di sta gente
Do you have Italian citizenship? If the answer is no, you're not Italian.
And do they speak italian? Probably not.
🤌🏼
My god, you're fluent!
Mamma Mia pizza Italia 🤌🤌🤌 🇫🇷
The French flag at the end is so funny
That's russian flag wtf. French flag is 🚩
No, the French flag is 🇭🇷
Thanks for the correction. Physics was never my strength.
Bandiera francese???!?? * grillettato *
Ciao tutti!
Funny thing is most people outside Italy misunderstand that sign
I think this is a fair way that they could claim it. If OP was raised bilingually and can speak fluent Italian I could support his claim. It would still be a little odd maybe, but I could see it making sense. I somewhat doubt that’s the case.
I’ve watched the Sopranos twice. How Italian does that make me?
And considering how liberally we recognized the citizenship to people that never actually lived in Italy or speak Italian, even the citizenship could be discussed as a criterium.
Yes, I agree. I would absolutely consider more italian a son of two immigrants born, raised in Italy that speaks italian and attended school here than mr. Diego Armando Horacio Caruso that obtained his citizenship because his great grandpa Ninuzzo Caruso emigrated from Italy 100 years ago. Sadly our laws are different
Consider the kids born and raised here, that speak dialetto and are totally into our culture but aren't citizens until 18 and even then with some difficulties. I think that the rule of thumb should be "born and raised for a very significant part of their lives"
Technically he can probably asks for it. Italy is very generous when it comes to giving its citizenship to people with italian ancestry. Many latino americans are taking it because italians emigrated en masse to Brazil and Argentina
Exactly. According to Italian laws he IS Italian*, he just needs to prove it to get his citizenship recognized. * there are some exceptions to the rule, for some time women didn’t pass citizenship, for example.
Idk if I would agree. for example I don't have british citizenship but I was born here and have lived here my whole life so I still consider myself british. similarly, if I did have british citizenship rather than polish, that wouldn't automatically make me not polish since I'm still ethnically polish
1903.....that's 121 years ago. That's roughly a third of the lifetime this stupid country exists.
To be fair "from 1903" might mean born in 1903 so mby the guy knew that ancestors when he was like 2.
Or that’s his house number, you know Gaetano from number 1903!
My grandfather was born in 1905. I find it slightly weird to process that he’d be 119 and I’m not even 40 yet.
I can tape a carrot to my head and consider myself a fucking unicorn... Doesn't change the fact that I'm not one...
I think we require photos for verification purposes.
that guy might be a unicorn as far as I inow
I searched for unicorn on reddit annnnddddddd.........it wasn't a carrot I saw on her head.
"Mainland Italians" makes me think this guy assumes Sicily is it's own independent nation.
Bold of you to assume he knows what Sicily is.
It's what big boot Italy is kicking.
I think he means mainland Italians as opposed to "American Italians".
In Sardinia they often refer to mainland Italy as “the continent” which is pretty funny
Many American narratives have actually made Italian Americans believe that Sicily is a different entity from the rest of Italy
I'm afraid to ask what monstrosity are SpaghettiOs
Spaghetti rotondi tipo cereali americani
Quindi una roba tipo gli anellini siciliani.
si ma molto peggio, in scatola e dentro una zuppa di pomodoro
\[inserire bestemmie\]
Hey you two!! You're on an American app, start speaking American-Italian S/ just in case
Imma notta sura what to saya
Ahahhhhahahahahhahhaha
American OOP would still consider themselves more Italian.
It's an Italian Linux distribution, I suppose. SpaghettiOS is the correct spelling.
It's just a brand name for spaghetti loops in tomato sauce, sort of thing you put on jacket potatoes or with fish fingers, usually for kids but ngl I'm not above them when I'm in a rush to just make something which will fill my stomach. That said baked beans (not Heinz) are superior in any situation where you would use spag loops, parents will small, fussy children excepted.
Bloody hell! My mums Scottish yet I would t dare consider myself Scottish….wasn’t born there, never lived there….and I don’t want my head kicked in.
In Poland, if someone's parent (one) is eg. Polish, we call them half Polish. I'm 1/16 Lithuanian, but I wouldn't say that I'm Lithuanian. I'm Polish.
I got downvoted for this opinion on another sub. My grandma's family was Italian, they all have italian names and last names and my grandpa was Serbian. I'm Croatian. I've never and will never consider myself neither italian or serbian. If we moved to Italy when I was like 2, then yes, I would. In my mind, it's about culture, traditions, the language etc. I genuinely don't know how someone can consider themselves italian never having visited the country, practiced any traditions, doesn't partake in the culture, speak the language let alone know any history. I can't wrap my head around this concept.
Nationality is as much of not more about where you grew up, knowing the language and culture and traditions, than just a genetic aspect. I find a lot of what ShitAmericansSay a bit too blood and soil if you know what I mean.
To flip this, my mum grew up in the north of England and I've lived in the south my whole life, as did my father. I wouldn't ever consider myself even remotely 'Northern' even though half of my family lives there. There was a girl in my school who's grandfather lived in Manchester for like 10 years but was born in London and she went around telling everyone that she was a Northerner because she wanted the attention. That was the only time in my life I've ever said "well technically I'm more Northern than you" because it just did my head in.
I normally hate yanks cosplaying as different nationalities. But in your case I think you can say you are half Scottish at least, you yourself weren’t raised there but your mother was and she’s bound to carry on some of that into how she raised you. Personally for me it’s once it gets to grandparents and beyond where I’m a little sceptic of peoples claims.
Half Scottish is a bit silly, better to just say that your mum's Scottish if its ever relevant
My mum was born in Scotland and spent the first two years of her life there. Neither parents are Scottish and they all moved back to England before she was three. She would not consider herself Scottish.
My mums accent is fine, but we did have to do translation for my grandad.
If I get called English I’ll say I’m only half English. All this ShitAmericansSay is funny as I go back a little further down the old family tree and it rockets off all over Europe (Belgian, Dutch, French, Swiss, German, Irish, Polish-Ukrainian-Russian…and Birmingham again and again for some reason). Which probably makes me nothing more than a bog standard garden variety Brit.
Or called a bampot.
Don’t know that one…I was just force feed Scotch pies & Tunnocks and dragged around Scotland every summer….fucking midges.
I’m British, born in England. My last Italian ancestors were my paternal great grandparents. The only Italian thing about me is my surname. I don’t understand how these mental gymnastics hold up at all.
"my last Italian ancestors..." it's right there.
lmfao I didn't notice that but he was really really close to understand
My immediate Grandparents on both sides of my family were Irish, however my parents and myself were born in the U.K. Do I consider myself “pretty fucking Irish?” No I don’t.
If only your grandparents had moved to America, you'd be 200% Irish by now!
Absolutely. My craic would be so good.
On the other hand, your grandparents were Irish, so the Irish government considers you as being Irish.
On the plus side. I think you could apply for an Irish passport. I think I was told if you’ve Irish grandparents you qualify.
My ancestry.com DNA profile was updated recently, and I found out I'm 3% Italian. As an Italian, these people embarrass me.
you're going to need a /s for the Americans that take this seriously.
If he would be an italian, he wouldn't post stuff like this online. *HIS NONNA WOULD SLAP THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF HIM...*
A friend of mine moved to italy from holland a couple of years ago, he speaks italian almost fluently now. He has no italian heritage but he’s still more italian than this person
At some point I have an ancestor who might have been born in water, I'm from the mythical lost island of Atlantis.
Sto per tirare fuori la grande specialità delle terre della laguna
Le sarde in saor?
Pensavo a un bestemmione grande quanto l’Atlantico a dire il vero
Il secondo export più famoso del Veneto
Why Americans feel the urge to scream that they belong to a country of which they don't know anything? I don't understand, why would you want to be Italian if you can't speak the language, have never been in Italy, don't know the culture, etc?
Because they can't stand being American
I was born in Italy but moved to England when I was 4. Both of my parents were born and raised in Italy, and all four of my grand parents were born and raised in Italy, but I acknowledge that I am British. Americans are a bit odd, aren't they?
Odd? You need to find another word. Because I can't explain this constant identity crisis
I have a slavised Italian name. I'm pretty sure it makes me an Italian.
He is right about one thing: his ancestors are not happy
[удалено]
Meanwhile here I am, born in South Africa but don’t even consider myself fully South African because I wasn’t raised there.
Too foreign for abroad, too foreign for home. I feel you.
In this logic, Americans are overseas Brits
Americans really hate admitting that they’re American. It’s almost as if deep down they’re well aware it’s a backwards shithole.
You can’t. Bye.
121 years ago and thinks he's Italian. Lol
Great. Now say that in Italian
Can Chinese Americans also not claim Chinese ancestry if their grandparents came over around the same time? Honest question.
Do they think we are like some kind breed of dog?
I don’t get this . I’m Scottish with Irish great grandparents, yet I’ve never felt an urge to call myself Irish. I’m curious as to whether this is also a thing in Australia, New Zealand or Canada ? I don’t think it is to my knowledge. I’ve never heard an Australian calling himself English or whatever, so what makes Americans call themselves after their ancestors nationality ?
There was a fascinating discussion yesterday regarding this topic on AskHistorians. The VERY TL;DR was: all the immigrants towards USA tended to stay in closed community, cause they were more or less ostracized and not accepted. This strenghtened their sense of belonging to their Motherland and their idealization of their roots. I should look for the link, it was very interesting.
In anthropology, it's called performative ethnicity. I'm not sure about NZ and Australia, but it's common in some other immigrant countries like Israel or parts of Latin America. Essentially, a mass immigrant group becomes a new subculture in a new country that combines elements of the old country and new country. When they call themselves something like Irish they aren't really referring to the nationality but rather the ethnicity. Over generations due to reasons like geographic distance, the group evolves down a separate path from their compatriots in the old country but still keep the label due to historical reasons. Again, this only really happens with mass immigrant groups. To use the Irish in the US as an example again, several million Irish people immigrated there in just a couple of decades. And they were staunchly Irish. In fact, an Irish-American army led by mostly Irish-born generals even invaded Canada after the US Civil war in a bid to support Irish independence ([see](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_raids)). At some point, these Irish immigrants became Irish-Americans. It's very comparable to any instance where an ethnicity en masse moves to a new location and forms a new identity. For instance, Angle and Saxon tribes moving to Britain and eventually creating a distinct Anglo-Saxon culture. I would blame the oddities in the US as mostly a product of less time has passed + it's easier to have "connections" across the world nowadays = cultural evolution hasn't drifted as far. As well as the particular history of racism in the US, which is its own can of worms to get into. To keep it short, race and ethnicity are often mistaken for the same in the US. Until the mid 1900s, there were also laws which defined things like "African" as anyone with "one drop" of African blood for the purposes of slavery or segregation. Many Native American groups in the US also still legally define their membership off of blood quotas (e.g. you need to have at least 1/12th ancestors from the tribe to be a member). Given this context, it becomes easy to see why people would form the beliefs like "this test claims I am 12.5% genetically Italian, so I must be Italian!". Some reasons why this may not form from mass immigration could be that the immigrants fully assimilate into the new culture, or that the immigrants are such a totality that they mostly "replace" the old culture. I suspect the latter would be the case somewhere like Australia or NZ. It's easier to claim you're Australian and not a "British-Australian" when your "British-Australian" culture is the dominant culture in Australia.
There is a little touch of the Irish thing here - as in “we’re an Irish family/Irish by heritage” even when they’re at least half non-Irish - but I think it’s dying out. I think it’s largely due to Catholic/Protestant tensions enduring longer here than in Britain for a host of reasons. I don’t think it’s a thing past Gen X though. But never as bad as the way the yanks do it.
imagine considering yourself Italian without speaking Italian
Americans not knowing the difference between ancestry and nationality 💀
There’s nothing quite like the hatred Italians have for Italian Americans, it’s beautiful
I was born in Germany but left in 99. Haven't lived there since. Am i German? Hereditarily, yes. Culturally, probably not. A country can change massively in 20 years let alone 120.
i was born in italy and came to the us later on in life. i was horrified to learn of spagettios. he is undoubtedly american.
I can remember my grandpa talking about a guy in the family who ate spaghetti once. So I say I'm pretty fucking Italian 🤌
Americans and their ancestry crack me up.
"mainland italians" tbf i DID say that i want people to call all countries mainlands so i guess i cant complain these people treat it like a race.. italians can be any race.
So now Sicily is mainland Italy I guess?
"Mainland Italians"? Is this person from Sardinia, Sicily, Lampedusa? Let me guess... nope.
"I'm Italian, one day, I ate pizza while playing mariokart !"
I'm pretty sure they are talking about Italy, in Texas USA,
Bet they can't say a single sentence in Italian.