In online discussions with Europeans, occasionally the topic turns to “you Americans” and some observation or complaint– ranging anywhere from polite and benign to angry and confrontational– about our character (or lack thereof), etc etc.
I always find this amusing coming from Europeans, because, what is an American, really? “You Americans” certainly doesn’t mean actual, genetic Native Americans, who barely remain anywhere north of the Rio Grande; their numbers have been decimated by a genocide perpetrated wholly by– Europeans.
So who are “we” Americans, anyway? I’m of 50% Italian and 50% Sicilian blood. Genetically, I “am” 100% European (maybe a bit of North African and Middle Eastener, too, based on the history of Sicily).
I look at the ruling class of this country, and they’re nearly all of European origin– mostly British, German, Scotch, and Irish. “Bush” is an English surname, “Clinton” and “Rodham” certainly likewise. If Obama makes it through the primary and to the presidency, I suspect he’d be the first significantly non-European ever to serve in that office.
“We” Americans aren’t a people or a nation in any traditional sense of the word. Most of us are Europeans by blood. A growing number of us have a bit more “American” in us, descended from “los Indios” of Mexico and Central/South America. The remainder come from every other nation on the planet. We’ve generally been the people from Europe who were too rebellious or ambitious or greedy to be content with our “station”, or had religious or political beliefs too bizarre or heretical or threatening. I guess “we” still are, if anything, still that, so there are some differences.
But, dear Europeans, at the root of it, “we” are “you”.
October 30, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Genetically American are mainly European, but with significant admixtures of African and Asian genes (the latter category includes Native Americans and Hispanics, those upstarts didn’t get here until 20,000 years ago or so). But culture mutates faster than genes, and when Europeans are picking at “you” Americans I think they are criticizing our culture more than our chromosomes.
It still feels a little wrong to hear “you Americans” characterized. I could be wrong, but my impression is that there is less of a common cultural core holding together Americans as opposed to Swedes or Spaniards. You can point to a Swedish national character, which will be a sterotype with some truth to it. Is there a corresponding American national character? Hell if I know, I’m first generation myself so my cultural roots here are pretty shallow.