I mean…this is a uniquely American thing, right? Nowhere else is it so common to behave this way, right? Glorifying far flung ancestors for some, really, more adopted identity than anything else.
Until recently immigrant communities would tend to stay insular within the US, so folks that still identify by those communities are probably carrying on from a communal identity from when their family lived in a neighborhood that basically was just a very far removed exclave of the country of origin.
Most Americans who identify that way though are more or less just speaking superficially and would think it’s weird of someone who doesn’t even do the feast of seven fishes to claim they’re as italian as someone from Rome.
Only reason I feel right calling myself Palestinian American beyond mere statement of heritage for example is because I actually am putting work in learning shami and some of the culture, even made sure to get my first Kufiya from a legit family owned shop in Palestine.
I mean…this is a uniquely American thing, right? Nowhere else is it so common to behave this way, right? Glorifying far flung ancestors for some, really, more adopted identity than anything else.
In all fairness, you could swap out “American” for any colonizer nation…
Until recently immigrant communities would tend to stay insular within the US, so folks that still identify by those communities are probably carrying on from a communal identity from when their family lived in a neighborhood that basically was just a very far removed exclave of the country of origin.
Most Americans who identify that way though are more or less just speaking superficially and would think it’s weird of someone who doesn’t even do the feast of seven fishes to claim they’re as italian as someone from Rome.
Only reason I feel right calling myself Palestinian American beyond mere statement of heritage for example is because I actually am putting work in learning shami and some of the culture, even made sure to get my first Kufiya from a legit family owned shop in Palestine.