Obama isn't black enough...

[hgc]

Which other ethnic identifiers are these? It is extremely rare that I've ever heard people talk about "Irish Americans" etc etc. Usually they're just lumped in as "white."

I guess it's time to get the phrase "European American" going eh?

You ought to get out more. You're missing a lot.

 

[Luke T.]

Which other ethnic identifiers are these? It is extremely rare that I've ever heard people talk about "Irish Americans"

Stick around for 32 more days, laddie.

 

[BPSCG]

It is extremely rare that I've ever heard people talk about "Irish Americans" etc etc. Usually they're just lumped in as "white."

We call them "Mick Papists" around here.

 

[hammegk]

LOL

I guess I should now refer to myself as a Scottish European White American American.

Not a bit of Irish, too?

 

[bigred]

My wife (who worked with me at the time) and I were walking down the hall behind two younger AA's, who were, quite literally, the mail girl and mail boy. They were taking between themselves and making fun of this guy.

er I give up: what were they making fun of? If it was something like a "kick me" sign on his back, it mighta been justified.

 

[bigred]

You ought to get out more. You're missing a lot.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Seriously where is it commonplace to refer to people of European descent as (whatever) Americans? Micks, whops, chicos - for crying out loud, keep it simple.

 

[Luke T.]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Seriously where is it commonplace to refer to people of European descent as (whatever) Americans? Micks, whops, chicos - for crying out loud, keep it simple.

But most Americans probably do know their heritage. I'm French-Irish-American, for example. My dad is all about the Irish part, never mentions the French part, even though our last name is French in origin.

But you wouldn't know my heritage unless I told you. An African-American, well, he doesn't have to say anything. It's right there on his face, literally.

Because of slavery, though, African-Americans only know what continent from which their ancestors originated. They don't know anything beyond that as far as what tribe/nation/etc., unless they do what Alex Haley did.

And since they are a minority, a long oppressed one, it makes more sense to bind together on a continental level anyway.

The Negro of the United States has lost even the remembrance of his country; the language which his forefathers spoke is never heard around him; he abjured their religion and forgot their customs when he ceased to belong to Africa, without acquiring any claim to European privileges. But he remains half-way between the two communities, isolated between two races; sold by the one, repulsed by the other; finding not a spot in the universe to call by the name of country, except the faint image of a home which the shelter of his master's roof affords.

Alexis de Tocqueville.

 

[hgc]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Seriously where is it commonplace to refer to people of European descent as (whatever) Americans? Micks, whops, chicos - for crying out loud, keep it simple.

Where? In polite company I guess. It's not just the Euros, but others too (much to the dismay of Pat Buchanan). You know, Korean Americans and the like.

Btw, wop is spelled without the h.

 

[Luke T.]

More from Alexis:

It is important to make an accurate distinction between slavery itself and its consequences. The immediate evils produced by slavery were very nearly the same in antiquity as they are among the moderns, but the consequences of these evils were different. The slave among the ancients belonged to the same race as his master, and was often the superior of the two in education and intelligence. Freedom was the only distinction between them; and when freedom was conferred, they were easily confounded together. The ancients, then, had a very simple means of ridding themselves of slavery and its consequences: that of enfranchisement; and they succeeded as soon as they adopted this measure generally. Not but that in ancient states the vestiges of servitude subsisted for some time after servitude itself was abolished. There is a natural prejudice that prompts men to despise whoever has been their inferior long after he has become their equal; and the real inequality that is produced by fortune or by law is always succeeded by an imaginary inequality that is implanted in the manners of the people. But among the ancients this secondary consequence of slavery had a natural limit; for the freedman bore so entire a resemblance to those born free that it soon became impossible to distinguish him from them.

The modern slave differs from his master not only in his condition but in his origin. You may set the Negro free, but you cannot make him otherwise than an alien to the European. Nor is this all we scarcely acknowledge the common features of humanity in this stranger whom slavery has brought among us. His physiognomy is to our eyes hideous, his understanding weak, his tastes low; and we are almost inclined to look upon him as a being intermediate between man and the brutes. The moderns, then, after they have abolished slavery, have three prejudices to contend against, which are less easy to attack and far less easy to conquer than the mere fact of servitude: the prejudice of the master, the prejudice of the race, and the prejudice of color.

He was spot on.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/1_ch18.htm

 

[Ace_of_Sevens]

The thing that gets me about the term "African American" is all the times I've heard some clueless whitey use it to refer to Seal, or Nelson Mandella or someone else who isn't American at all.

 

[fishbob]

I this would make native Americans American Americans?

Apparently all of us who live in America are African Americans.
http://www.primates.com/homo/outofafrica.html

 

[bigred]

Where? In polite company I guess. It's not just the Euros, but others too (much to the dismay of Pat Buchanan). You know, Korean Americans and the like.

Btw, wop is spelled without the h.

In politically correct company, more like. To each their own, I guess I just hang with a less PC crowd. If ethnicity even comes up - and it rarely does - people just say "I'm Irish" or "I'm half Italian, half French" - that kind of thing. We don't try to mush it into some ridiculously unweildy label like "I'm an Italian French American." IMO the whole "_______ American" label-making is just plain silly.

But regardless, thx for the spelling correction. Geez and I'm part Italian, how embarrassing

 

[bigred]

The thing that gets me about the term "African American" is all the times I've heard some clueless whitey use it to refer to Seal, or Nelson Mandella or someone else who isn't American at all.

I've heard clueless homies do the same thing.

Don't they know Mandella is an African African? sheesh

 

[bigred]

Apparently all of us who live in America are African Americans.
http://www.primates.com/homo/outofafrica.html

lol - exzachary, somebody gets it.

 

[hgc]

But regardless, thx for the spelling correction. Geez and I'm part Italian, how embarrassing

I decided to go find out a little more about wop. I was always under the impression that it's origin was from the acronym for "without papers."

Much more interesting though, from Merriam-Webster:

Etymology: Italian dialect guappo swaggerer, tough, from Spanish guapo, probably from Middle French dialect vape, wape weak, insipid, from Latin vappa wine gone flat

 

[bigred]

I decided to go find out a little more about wop. I was always under the impression that it's origin was from the acronym for "without papers."

Much more interesting though, from Merriam-Webster:

Etymology: Italian dialect guappo swaggerer, tough, from Spanish guapo, probably from Middle French dialect vape, wape weak, insipid, from Latin vappa wine gone flat

racist.

 

[hgc]

racist.

Your response is typical of a partial Flat Wine American.

 

[bigred]

Your response is typical of a partial Flat Wine American.

shut up or I'll smack you w/an old pepperoni stick.

 

[Tony]

shut up or I'll smack you w/an old pepperoni stick.

Please keep your old pepperoni stick in your pants.

 

[Region Rat]

I decided to go find out a little more about wop. I was always under the impression that it's origin was from the acronym for "without papers."

Much more interesting though, from Merriam-Webster:

Etymology: Italian dialect guappo swaggerer, tough, from Spanish guapo, probably from Middle French dialect vape, wape weak, insipid, from Latin vappa wine gone flat

I just watched a documentary about Ellis Island on PBS within the last month, and the definition they gave for WOP was in fact "With out papers", referencing the many italians who were coming over at the time with little more than the clothes on their backs. I never knew where the term came from, and I've passed on this tidbit to a bunch of people since then. Oh well.

As to Guapo:

Jefe: We have many beautiful pinatas for your birthday celebration, each one filled with little surprises!
El Guapo: How many pinatas?
Jefe: Many pinatas, many!
El Guapo: Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A *plethora*.
Jefe: Oh yes, El Guapo. You have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you just told me that I had a plethora, and I would just like to know if you know what it means to have a plethora. I would not like to think that someone would tell someone else he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: El Guapo, I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education, but could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?