Quote:
Originally Posted by isaidso
There's also another issue at play. I believe 'Canadian' is listed as the #1 'ethnicity' on the census or it will be very soon. I got tired of ticking off 4 boxes on the census. It occurred to me that 'Canadian' made the most sense for me to put a check mark next to. I'm a mix of many things and people who are just Italian or just Finnish are a dying breed. I imagine a ton of Canadians tick 'Canadian' these days for the same reason I do.
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yep, same for me down here in the states.
on a genetic level i guess i'm techincially a german/french/irish/scottish/english-american, but what the fuck does that even mean when europe itself is a genetic hodge-podge stretching back for millennia? and if we really want to be genetically technical and accurate, then we're all africans anyways. at a certain point, what's the point?
genes aren't relevant, the only thing that matters is culture, and i sure as shit ain't culturally german or french or irish or scottish (well, except for the whole scotch obsession) or english (other than the larger global anglosphere culture that germinated from england). the only national ethnicity that i possess that has any real cultural meaning what-so-ever is "american". so it's not about sticking it to the census bureau and screaming
"I'm AMERICAN Goddamn It!", it's really just the only honest answer i can give them. i'm a textbook american mutt.
now my wife, she's fully italian-american, all 8 of her great grandparents were born in italy/sciliy. she has no qualms claiming an italian-american identity because her family didn't mutt itself up here in the states that way that my family did, so they still hold on to some of those old world traditions and customs that give some amount of meaning to their italian-american identity. however, because she chose to procreate with me, our children will be even more mutted than i am. they'll never be "italian-american" the way that their mother is. they'll just be "regular-old-boring-americans", like me.