1101 wrote:
The notion that saying that my ancestry is "American" is somehow "a tacit indictment that (you) cannot be a real American because (you) cannot trace any ancestry in the United States" strikes me as bizarre. Sounds as if you are trying to take offense.
I am not trying to take offense. But I am over-sensitive about this, and probably a bit paranoid. I have been asked "where are you really from?" and "when are you going back home?" so many times that I have got tired of those questions. It has been especially worse in the last 4-5 years.
I wish most people who believe in their American ancestry are like you. Unfortunately, I am afraid you are in the minority. Many people claim their American ancestry as a political statement. I have also heard over the years many white Americans refer to other white Americans simply as "American" while adding some qualifying terms to non-white Americans. And of course, there is obsession with "US born" on this board as well as other places.
It's good that you don't think about your ancestry at all. I didn't think about it when I was part of the majority in my former country. But now that has changed because other people constantly remind me of that.
I agree that "Native Americans" are Asians in terms of origin. I am often mistaken for a Native American, sometimes even by Native people. But race is a social category. Yes, we are all from somewhere else. That means we should welcome every one who wants to join us. But that's easy for me to say, as one of the newest comers. People who have been living here for generations did not choose to be born in a "nation of ideas." Many of them wish they had been born in a nation of "blood and soil." That was not an option for them. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I could leave a nation of "blood and soil" behind, and join a nation of ideas on my own choice.