Comment by innocent_bystander [none/use name]@hexbear.net on *Permanently Deleted*

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Im not sure if this is about ppl like me or not since my parents were pretty FOB but what do u expect Americans to do? Be loud and proud about being born and bred from one of the most cooked countries on the planet and in case of diaspora possibly a former or current political enemy and also potentially a war crimes do-er to the country their parents or grandparents are from? And what is your opinion on indigenous ppl saying they don’t belong to the USA or African americans that want to secede from the US?

if you were not born or raised somewhere.

if none of your close relatives were born and raised in that place.

if you have no, or only superficial, cultural connections to the place.

if youve never been to the place.

If you have no Connections to people living in the place.

if you do not know the language, history or politics of the place.

It’s funny, I don’t really disagree with you at all. And yet every one of these applies to me, but…I actually have a valid passport from the other country in question. I could go there tomorrow if I wanted to. So uh, yeah, the list above isn’t entirely comprehensive.

if you have no, or only superficial, cultural connections to the place.

How would you define this?

I understand the point and am sympathetic to it, but I’m just a bit cautious putting that into practise. Identity is a tricky thing and tightly defining it like that isn’t often easy. A lot of immigrants saw assimilation as the peak goal so that their children wouldn’t face the racism they did, so some of the latching onto identity is a form of resisting that racism from some people. Further, some oppressed minorities that fit into your definitions; for example, African Americans who still identify strongly with West African or Caribbean connections that fit your description but, due to their non-whiteness, wouldn’t be considered fully American for most of America’s history.

Again, not to say you aren’t correct, but that identity is really slippery and the material reasons for why Americans are that way can make some sense in historical context.

Yeah, again, not disagreeing with you necessarily, just spitballing about identity formation and how it’s claimed in various ways. I wrote on this in uni, so got to thinking about it again. All good

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