help

I need help because I do not understand why in the States everybody says that 'we, the Americans', as nobody else could be an American.
Aren't Americans the people from Central and South America?
Many people says 'I'm American', and I always request 'But, from where? USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile...'
I find a little unpolite to the others, don't you?

Thanks to everybody.

Bruce

Look at the US Senate and business leaders- White people from european backgrounds.

Regardless of all the talk about the glories of diversity- the model American is still viewed with the 1950s ideal- people from a European background. If you do not fit this mold you are a minority or outsider.

help

Yes Bruce, I'm outsider, but i still do not understand this.
I find it a parcial view of the world.
Of course USA is a great nation, and foriegners as I am, must admire USA.
But this fact makes that anti-yankee movements keep on saying 'you live in the imperialism'.
Thanks for your answer Bruce

Busted

Either a troll or a quixotic quest to change common habits: technically right, practically unfeasible.

Philip

Technically speaking, Canadians and residents from Central and South America should be able to claim that they are "Americans". But I find that it is not always the U.S. that perpetuates the idea that U.S. residents are the only "Americans". When I travel outside the U.S. I always introduce myself as being from "The United States" yet it never fails that when I am introduced, I am introduced as an "American".

Every so often there is a push in the U.S. to get the national anthem changed from "The Star Spangled Banner" to "America, the Beautiful". I guess the U.S. just took the name and ran with it.

Tom Morse

I always thought that the other "americans" wanted to distinguish themselves from us rather than be thrown in the same bucket. Do Canadiens really want to call themselves Americans? Or maybe we could call ourselves North Americans.

xyz

This has been covered before. I will try to top the old thread.

Ava

I'll agree that citizens of other countries in the Americas have the right to call themselves "Americans" too, but the United States of America is the only country with the word "America" in its name. People from Brazil call themselves Brazilian, people from Canada call themselves Canadian, people from Mexico call themselves Mexican, people from Venezuela call themselves Venezuelan, etc. What should we call ourselves, United Statesians? It doesn't sound great, so we call ourselves American. We could say North American, but it's still not terribly specific.

Erlsegaard

I don't know what the origins of this custom are in other languages, but in the English-speaking world the permanent Anglo-colonists living on the eastern coast of North America became referred to rather early on as "Americans". I'm not exactly sure why or at what point English-speaking Canada attained a seperate identity but I'm sure somebody here does. The colonists in the Spanish-speaking colonies were simply referred to (in English) as either "the Spanish colonists" or Mexicans, Peruvians, etc. The native people were referred to as Indians or by their various tribal names. Speakers of other languages can of course refer to themselves and Americans however they please. I really find this one of the most tiresome and bizarre complaints of the many one sees directed against American habits, and such a frequent one too.

Paul Rabe

Language being what it is, there is no rhyme or reason why certain words are attached by certain languages or cultures to nationalities or citizens of particular countries. It is simply common usage, and complaining about it may allow you to feel better (or superior), but it's unlikely to change much.

Take the word "England" -- land of the Angles. Doesn't this exclude the Saxons and Jutes? And the Danes and Normans, who've been there for over 1000 years? How did that word become the word for such a multi-ethnic place such as England?

Or "France" -- land of the Franks. Doesn't this exclude the Burgundians, Bretagnes, Normans, and Basques? (Of course, France DOES make it national policy, through required names for children, to remind non-French nationalities that they are indeed less citizens than "true" French).

I'll barely start for words certain languages use for other nationalities; an area even worse. The Russian word for "German" is "nemyetski" -- literally, "those who do not speak;" and the same word used for "stupid."

Language develops words in strange ways, and sometimes the words aren't as precise or correct as we would prefer them. But venting (or showing off your "superiority") won't do much to change it.

steve

People who are citizens of
the United States of AMERICA are Americans.

People who are citizens of the
United States of Mexico are
Mexicans

People who are citizens of the
United States of Brazil are
Brazilians

Anyone who doesn't understand that is called

AN IDIOT

help

Thanks everybody for your answers.

Some of them made me smile.

Only Steve is so idiot as I am. And people like him makes think to the rest of the world that USA is imperialist. Steve, are you WASP and member a of KKK?

Well, of course people from United States are Americans, but Mexicans are so Americans as you are, or as Brazilians.

Also calling pleople from USA 'Stater' or something like that sounds really owfull.

In other hand, the colonies of Spain, were called in Spanish 'Las Américas'. Maybe because Spain, before 'Borbons' were not Spain, but 'The Spains' (there was an only monarch with several kingdoms, as Aragón and Castilla, with there own laws, as a Federal Institution). Each colony were 'a different America' in the same continent called 'América' (name of an Italian called Americo Vespucio).

Have a good Monday.

multi ethnic

Phillip's got it! That's how many other countries label us too. In general, Latin Americans are somewhat more sensitive to this issue. After all, South America is a vast continent that many untraveled Americans know very little about. But those same Latin Americans when traveling in Europe don't want to be mistaken for American. I.e., see some of Surlok's comments on other threads.
As a *proud* American I have to challenge the imperialist tag. America is a land of great cultural and ethnic diversity where minorities assimilate much more quickly than in many other countries. (Except from that part of the USA where Steve comes from.) We are less racially and status-concious than many other countries. You can become a self-made person much more easily in America than in many other countries, where moving out of the socio-economic class you were born in is almost impossible. (That is, at least in the part of the USA where I come from.) Imperialist economics are multi-national. Isn't that what Genoa was all about? So let's use less emotionalism and try to appreciate what's admirable in our respective cultures...American and otherwise?

PLEASE

Steve is absolutely correct. A person who is a CITIZEN of the UNITED STATES is an American. A person living in the US from Brazil is a BRAZILIAN. A born American living in Italy who is not an Italian citizen is an AMERICAN. A Italian immigrant who becomes a American citizen and returns to Italy is an AMERICAN.

Why is this so tough? Does this really require paragraphs and paragraphs of pontificating?

Does a Greek who moves to Italy call himself an Italian? NO. Why then should a Brazilian living in America call himself an American?

This is 3rd grade stuff people. I can't wait until YOU go back to school.

Sue

As an AMERICAN living abroad:
All Americans living abroad are just that: Americans. Only when we live in the US do we call others by categories (i.e Mexican American, African American, etc.). When we are overseas, we're just Americans! Just some insight... don't know if you'll find it interesting or not- but had to put in my 2 cents worth!

help

I will keep on thanking everybody.

For an American being it is a proud to be American. But you cannot say that the only Americans in the world are those born in USA.

Also, I must agree on those who spoke about the multicultural USA.

Of course, in English there is no word for a person from USA, but in other languages there is (in Spanish, you can say 'Estadounidense=de Estados Unidos').

So if I were a Mexican, I could say 'I am American, in fact a Mexican'; there is nothing wrong. I think, in this way, that you cannot forbid a Mexican being American, in fact Mexico is in North America, so they are North American, no matter if you like or not, but this is the whole truth.

I am sure that this fact of calling Americans only to the people from USA, is a rule of the language, not an imperialist rule. The imperilism lives into those who cannot admit a Mexican as an American.

Beyond Help

Help, are you related to Leone? Or Dr. Mauro Abate?

darksecret

I'll let you in on a little secret about the word "American." Italian-Americans use it in a derogatory way to refer to someone who's not of Italian descent.

For example, let's say Tony married a WASP who tried to cook an Italian meal for Tony's family. Tony's Mom might judge the meal by saying, "It was pretty good, for an American." Or: "It was awful. But what can you expect? She's American."

Paul Rabe

If it makes you feel any better, Help, we citizens of the U.S. have no problem with citizens of ANY country in the Americas referring to themselves as from the Americas. We can't help it if languages like Danish (amerikaner), Dutch (amerikaans), French (americain), Hungarian (amerikai), Finnish (amerikkalinen), Russian (amerikanskii), Swedish (amerikansk), and Italian & Portugeuse (americano) refer to citizens of our nation in the way they do; that's the nature of language. We REALLY can't help if the Spanish word for citizens of the U.S. is "americano" or "norte-americano" (the latter excluding everyone north of Panama). That too is the nature of language.

If changing attitudes about which nations have the authority to dictate political activity in the Americas is important to you (and I would guess it is), venting about the vagaries of language should be about the LAST place to work on.

L

Just a simple question for you, Beyond Help ... your IQ? See ... simple. Ciao