Quote:
Originally posted by Brujah
Does it say that you renounce your ancestry ? When asked, you should not reply with "I'm Italian" or "I'm Jewish", but with I'm American ?
I think Dave got it right by admitting he was just arguing because people wanted to argue with Uno and the actual content of the argument didn't really matter.
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Hm, I just went and read the first few posts in that thread. I think uno is right.
First off, no one is saying renounce your ancestry. Your ancestry is where you come from. It may be who your parents are. It isn't who you are. If you were born in America, you're American. To say Colin Powell is Jamaican is like saying Bush is African. Like it or not, it looks like we all come from Africa. How far back do you go to decide someone's status? If you want to play ancestry games, we're all Pangean and further back than that, we are all from the ocean (I'd say Oceanic, but that's already a name for a continent).
Ancestry is ancestry. It is what came before, not what is now.
It may not be politically correct to say so, but someone born in Georgia and raised in Utah is not African; or Irish; or Icelandic. You're an American who happens to be able to trace your family to Ireland or Iceland. There is nothing wrong with knowing your past or celebrating your traditions, but you're still American.
By the way, the word "American" by its very definition really means "Irish or African or Chinese or Icelandic or Scottish or Portugese or Brazilian or Mexican or Iraqi or Sudanese or Jordanian or Slovenian or Polish..." because that's what America is.
SpaceAce