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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
it has more to do with cultural identity, as all of white people in this country descend from recent immigrants. "native" americans, commonly known as indians, have been here for milennia. everyone else is not a "native' but the descendent of a colonist or immigrant of some kind.
it's more complicated you see because the "history" is a bit longer (not written mind you) except that it's not the history of the dominant groups.
the english, by the way, have history of appropriating irish and scottish writers that are deemed "good enough" to be "english"-- whereas lesser writers are praised for their provincial color & kept in the provincial anthologies. parallel to that, i suspect one wouldn't want to be scottish or irish in england because it might be like declaring yourself a country bumpkin. in america the social pressures are applied differently and so people will construct their identities differently.
this is of course a long fucking discussion i'm not willing to pursue here, much less under the spell of a hangover, but it gets tiring to see people in one country making misinformed judgments about another country they do not understand-- just like when americans start talking out of their asses about the french... so please don't think im saying "america rah rah rah"-- it's often much worse here. just pointing that out.
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right. culturally, i am american. genetically, i am mostly irish.