Posted on 07/26/2002 12:51:26 PM PDT by stands2reason
Edited on 04/23/2004 12:04:40 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Equally annoying. I dislike all displays of ethnicity. And before you ask, no, I am not some 20th generation WASP. I have an ethnic backround myself. I just don't discuss it. Not that I'm ashamed, I just like being an American, period.
Like you I consider myself a 100% American first last and always. However, when somebody starts attacking Americans based on their ehtnic background, expecially when it coincides with mine, I get aggravated.
If you really think about it, just about everything in America is a product of somehwere else.
Just an example - nothing more American than Coon hunting, right? The Plott Hound is the official state dog of North Carolina, a bear and coonhound. It was brought to this Country from Germany by a German, Jonathan Plott. The Pennsylvania Longrifle is a product of German gunsmiths and German gunsmithing traditions. The banjo derives from an African musical instrument. Southern Appalachian folk music and blue grass has its roots in Scottish and Irish folk Music.
I agree with you that people who go around being professional Irishmen or professionial Italians, with the flags of foreign countries on their vehicles, etc. are offensive. The only flags that fly from my house or on my vehicle are American ones, particularly historic ones.
I don't think people should congregate in ethnic communities either. This is America and being American involves becoming a part of the overall culture, not trying to retain an old world identity and isolation.
But, for the most part, the longer people are here, the less most of them identify with other countries and the more heterogenious their genetic background - the more American they become. The children of Hispanics and Koreans will eat fast foods, wear jeans and talk back to their parents while they play computer games and baseball.
I really thought the initial post was a silly one, which is the reason I read it. But I was offended by your comments which seemed to single out Americans of Italian background. Italian Americans are always pictured as Mafia type idiots who speak with Brooklyn accents and eat spaghetti. The fact is the overwhelming number of Italian immigrants earned a living with pick and shovel or mason's trowel like most other first generation immigrant groups at the bottom of the social ladder, and without bilingual programs or affirmative action assistance. Yet today their descendants are also found in the professions and hold white collar jobs.
I hate the Mafia and everything these punks stand for. They are a national disgrace and a special disgrace from the standpoint of law-abiding Americans of Italian ancestry. I wish they would all drop dead, and so did all of my parents and grandparents who were of Italian extraction. I don't find the Sopranos funny, and don't view the Godfather as a role model. George Washington, Ronert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Daniel Boone are my idols, not Vito Corleone, etc.
People can't change their appearance and to change your father's name is somehow viewed by most people as dishonorable, unless it sounds offensive or is exceptionally difficult ot pronounce. Hence, people of non-English ancestry can frequently be readily identified as Italian or Polish or German, etc. The reason a lot of these ethnic groups, congregated in ethnic communities was due to initial hostility by older American groups, an inability to communicate well in English, and homesickness for the world and scoiety they left behind.
Earlier immigrant groups like the Scots-Irish and even English followed this practise also, even to the point where people from say, Essex in England congregated in the same settlements as their fellow immigrsants from Essex, Welshmen in Welsh settlements, etc., and, as time went on, they integrated and ceased thinking of themselves in terms other than as American.
'Nuff said.
Jeez, where'd ya dig up this old thread from? Just out looking to be offended? Well, to answer you, no, I don't have a mullet. Used to have long hair, but not a mullet. Now I have short hair because I have a desk job. (bleech!) I do drive a really big Ford pick up, but no Calvin sticker. Canned beer? YES! PBR is preferred. In bars I drink longnecks. Tatoos? YES! 5 of 'em. CCR? NO! My screen name is southern rock fer cryin' out loud and CCR don't count. I do like the country music, though. My mamma? No trailer. She actually lives in an apartment in NYC. She's the black sheep of the family for that. My wife? Nothing fake on her.
Anyway, being sterotyped doesn't offend me.
as an American Of Italian decent who lives in Texas I just wanted to show you how degrading it is to stereotype us wops! And BTW We found this country and named it too.
Don't be too offended. It's not just Italians. That big, fat, Greek Wedding movie (the wife made me go see it)almost made me puke. I actually found it quite offensive for reasons that I could start a whole thread over. I just don't find flamboyant displays of ethnicity cute or funny. Sholud I for some reason?
True, the Olive Garden ain't it, but I still go there occasionally, and I coud find so many more things to be upset about than silly commercials.
Who cares?
In Rochester, its 'Mario's Via Abruzzi'. The OG is for anglos and third or fourth generation Italo-Americans whose ancestors changed their last names.
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