What is the least "WASP" city in the United States?

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

My german (and germanic) catholic ancestors came from bavaria, baden, rhineland, and just over the rhine in alsace (france).

Mine as well but they spent a couple of generations along the Black Sea before heading to Canada and the US. My 23 and Me has hits all over the Midwest and curiously, Switzerland.

[Docere]

More Canadians can probably trace their ancestry to ethnic German immigrants from outside Germany than to direct immigrants from Germany proper. That's certainly true in the Prairies (the most German region in Canada) where many were German-Russians, including a lot of Mennonites.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Quixote

I don’t view Irish Catholic or French Catholic as “white ethnic” to nearly the same degree that I do, say, Italian or Polish. And I’m almost certain that in the psyche of most white Americans whose lineage is primarily an admixture of British Isles and Germanic or French ancestry, someone with pale skin, red hair, and light irises doesn’t come across as “ethnic” the way that someone like, say, Joe Pesci does. That’s why Boston, even with its large Italian, Portuguese, and Greek populations, feels much more “generic American” than NYC. Never mind that Boston also has an outsized portion of people claiming English and American ancestry, and the two combined make it nearly tied with Italian for second largest ancestral group.

There is a difference. If you want to cast for a movie or TV program with Irish American characters, any generic white American actor will do. You can't do the same for something about Italian Americans.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Docere

You can't do the same for something about Italian Americans.

But you can for Polish Americans.

[Docere]

At least the Irish get something though...I've never seen anything about German Americans because they're just plain vanilla "middle Americans."

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Docere

At least the Irish get something though...I've never seen anything about German Americans because they're just plain vanilla "middle Americans."

And you can thank two world wars for adding several extra tablespoons of vanilla to America's German chocolate cake


If Hitler had been Irish, I doubt you'd see the Chicago river dyed green every march.

And the market for shamrock tattoos would be near zero.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Docere

There is a difference. If you want to cast for a movie or TV program with Irish American characters, any generic white American actor will do. You can't do the same for something about Italian Americans.

Yes, because Irish ancestry is prevalent across the U.S. and most self-identified "Irish" Americans are Protestant due to admixture and many are actually Scotch-Irish, I suspect.

Even Joe Biden, who proudly advertises his Irish (Catholic) blood — 5/8th — and hails from a very Irish metro (Delaware Valley), has a French surname along with English lineage. He's as "American" as it gets.

Anecdotally, my therapist who grew up in McLean, VA has a German surname but stated that she is of mostly Irish descent (her father was from Massachusetts, so safe to assume Catholic); she identified herself as a WASP.

[Docere]

How German is Chicago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpJW7ywUpas

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Even Joe Biden, who proudly advertises his Irish (Catholic) blood — 5/8th — and hails from a very Irish metro (Delaware Valley), has a French surname along with English lineage. He's as "American" as it gets.

Actually, the Biden surname is English (from Sussex).

The Robinette surname even going up to the level of Biden's great-great-great-grand-parents is always only on the male ancestor's side, the woman brings an Anglo surname every single generation, and the Robinette males have Anglo given names as well, so Biden is at most 1/32 French, and that's conservative (the family tree stops there - if it turns out, as is likely, that that Jessie Robinette who married a certain Dorcas Johnson and had a Moses Johnson Robinette as a kid wasn't 100% French then Biden is even less than 1/32 French.)

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Docere

There is a difference. If you want to cast for a movie or TV program with Irish American characters, any generic white American actor will do. You can't do the same for something about Italian Americans.

Well, nobody complained when two Jewish actresses were cast to play two Italian-American characters on "The Golden Girls."

[JManc]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Well, nobody complained when two Jewish actresses were cast to play two Italian-American characters on "The Golden Girls."

Sophia made a convincing Italian, Dorothy did not. Estelle Getty also played Stallone's mom in 'Stop or my mom will shoot'. Terrible movie...

[Docere]

Jerry Stiller played a sorta Italian character, but he described the Costanzas as a Jewish family in the witness protection program.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertain...-program.html/

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Docere

Jerry Stiller played a sorta Italian character, but he described the Costanzas as a Jewish family in the witness protection program.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertain...-program.html/

Yeah. Lol. George and his parents screamed 'NY Jew'. Though it was hilarious they were cast as Italians. George "I can't stand'ya"

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by JManc

Estelle Getty also played Stallone's mom in 'Stop or my mom will shoot'. Terrible movie...

Blasphemy!

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

And you can thank two world wars for adding several extra tablespoons of vanilla to America's German chocolate cake


If Hitler had been Irish, I doubt you'd see the Chicago river dyed green every march.

And the market for shamrock tattoos would be near zero.

Actually, it was WW1 not WW2 that prompted Germans to sanitize their ethnicity and blend is as generic Americans.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by JManc

Yeah. Lol. George and his parents screamed 'NY Jew'. Though it was hilarious they were cast as Italians. George "I can't stand'ya"

I didn't realize they were supposed to be an Italian family until very recently. All three of the actors cast for the Costanza family are so obviously Jewish that it never occurred to me that they were meant to be anything but that. They even lived on the Upper West Side lol. Not a lot of Italians around there...

[Docere]

The Costanzas lived in Queens (in Astoria I think)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHtO-4dBSYA

[JMKeynes]

Originally Posted by Docere

There is a difference. If you want to cast for a movie or TV program with Irish American characters, any generic white American actor will do. You can't do the same for something about Italian Americans.

For some reason, Hebrews in Hollywood love to play Italians, but they get upset if Christians play Hebrews.

My father-in-law is a Jew, and he gets upset whenever Shylock is portrayed in The Merchant of Venice.

https://amp.wbur.org/news/2022/03/11...ity-commentary

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Docere

The Costanzas lived in Queens (in Astoria I think)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHtO-4dBSYA

Ah, okay.

There are a lot of NY Jews that can pull off the NY Italian (Henry Winkler as Fonzi from Happy Days, for instance), but the Costanzas seemed so obviously Jewish.

[JMKeynes]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Ah, okay.

There are a lot of NY Jews that can pull off the NY Italian (Henry Winkler as Fonzi from Happy Days, for instance), but the Costanzas seemed so obviously Jewish.

Isn’t that based on absurd tropes though?

Could you imagine the backlash if Al Pacino played a Boca Jew based on stereotypes?