How many of you think of yourselves as American?

[angel nympho]

Honestly, why do labels matter to everybody so much? Is it because everybody has this inherent desire to "belong" somewhere...? Or... what?

Nonetheless, I have created my own label for myself. I call it... "ADD Child."

[ChinaLama]

Originally posted by angel nympho@Apr 5 2003, 02:08 AM
Honestly, why do labels matter to everybody so much?  Is it because everybody has this inherent desire to "belong" somewhere...?  Or... what?

Nonetheless, I have created my own label for myself.  I call it... "ADD Child."

i thought it was resident pornstar. that's what you have above your YW Mafia button. wow, angel, you're a woman of many identities!

[kuanyin]

i was answering this question earlier today.

i have a passport. that's why i am american

i am bicultural...only because i grew up here for the most part.

born here, shipped to taiwan to live with my grandparents, sent back to the us when i was six - cause grandma said i needed to start school.

but the lack of a father figure (he was the white dude) provided me with no american identity. my mother's side is all immigrant - there was no room for america this or that (too busy trying to make a living). my family is buddhist, so we didn't celebrate christmas(although i did get presents), and all the american holidays we celebrated consisted of days off from work in order to do housework...and taking all the grandkids to dinseyland at once - whew!!! anybody have that experience?? we never spoke english in the house.

so i can only say i am american because i was born here. i do feel more closely like i am chinese, so i would call myself asian american before american, although i don't like calling myself that in any circumstance.

[SunWuKong]

it's ok. just do your thing. personally i think i consider myself µØ¹´ (hua qiao, or overseas chinese) before anything else.

[kuanyin]

that meaning "american"

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by kuanyin@Apr 5 2003, 01:04 AM
that meaning "american"

no

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/shao...ases_popdis.htm

[BeTheReds]

Originally posted by Hello_Hapa@Apr 4 2003, 11:48 PM

Oh. Well I agree that the perception is faulty. I just wanted to understand how you can look at the terms America and white mainstream in the face of that perception and say they weren't synonymous. Are we agreeing then? It sounds like we're agreeing?

So now I'm fishing for advice, what do you tell Koreans or Japanese you meet who make this assumption? I think I tried it for a year or two (updating their idea of 'American') and gave up. It seems so ingrained.

Yea, I guess we agree. I've also given up too, because it's impossible to explain it to everyone you meet, not to mention that it must really sound annoying.

In my foreign affairs class I did a segment on "What is American?" and explained the whole melting pot/salad bowl theory and they got the general idea. It's too difficult when nationality and ethnicity are the same thing, people think they mean the same thing.

But this is beside the point, you don't need to start correcting the presumptions of FOBs or Asians in Asia. It is more important in my opinion to make Asian Americans believe that they are American, and make Americans accept Asian-Americans as Americans. If many of us don't consider ourselves Americans, how the hell are we going to persuade anyone else to believe that we are?

[SunWuKong]

you know, in HK, i had an 80-year old white woman tell me in fluent cantonese that she's a hong konger. she was asking people for directions in english and i went over in english to try and help. she got all defensive. maybe she thought i was dangerous because my hair was dyed or something.

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Apr 7 2003, 07:39 AM
you know, in HK, i had an 80-year old white woman tell me in fluent cantonese that she's a hong konger. she was asking people for directions in english and i went over in english to try and help. she got all defensive. maybe she thought i was dangerous because my hair was dyed or something.

She feared your sexual prowess. She might have died from a heart attack.

[myself808]

i have to say yes there is the problem of being percevied as permanent immigrants so the hyphen is needed depending on how much you associate being american. i personnaly consider myself as american as president bush. but someone else may see me as FOB.

[AngryABCGirl]

Reading throughout all the debate, I think I'd have to consider myself Chinese-American, both parts are necessary and none can be denied. It's all there even if I am hua qiao, America is still my home even though I don't feel like a part of it most of the time, but who really does?

If we ever want this country to work, I think we have to try to reconcile these feelings and not try to pick one over the other, because that's never going to work. There's not enough belief in that and more reaction against it-believe me, I'm a product of that environment, and it's just not going to work.

I'm never and my kids probably never will either, be considered as American as apple-pie, but I'll never let myself be denied or scorn the rights as an American citizen either. I'm not going to choose anything, I'll keep being as Chinese as I want to be and always be, but I'm still a part of this place as much as much as the next guy.

[etcj]

I like how someone actually answered all three questions that was asked by the original poster. However, I'm just gonna provide some commentary ~ what a non-conformist, right? (Yeah, right...)

How American do you consider yourselves as Asian-American?
~American has become a synonym for white. We might not want to admit it, but in this day and age (Bush Jr. Era), words like American and patriotism has become analogous to being a WASP. I thought we might have been making some progress with the establishment of the White House Asian American & Pacific Islander Initiative, but much of that has been spun back through Bush's various anti-Asian policies.

Do you hold loyality to this country?
Of course, this is a stupid questions asked by the CIA and NSA. Unless you are a radical Anti-American terrorist bent on hurting people, then I think most people can safely say yes. BIG BUT though, does it necessarily mean that you have to love this country?? No, it doesn't. (Check please!!!!)

Culturally?
To a certain degree, many people are bombarded with cultural messages that are only found and are only relevant to the United States. That is a common effect seen among immigrant young people. They adopt elements of US culture (don't say American culture unless you mean to include the entire continent) consciously or subconsciously. If they ever go back to their native country, they might end up feeling different from before they first left. In that sense, they feel acculturated whether they noticed or not. So, identifying culturally may not be something that all are able to see right away.

[angel nympho]

I think there's a difference between common perceptions of what "AN AMERICAN" is vs the word "AMERICAN" being used to describe somebody. I think it's generally a known fact (though some may have to put some thought and effort towards coming up with this definition) that the definition of "AN AMERICAN" is definately not restricted to WHITE American. But that's commonly mistaken when people use the word "American" to describe somebody... I generally think, however, that only people out of America try to use that as a description. But I could totally be wrong, because living in LA, I'm not exposed to the kinds of people who aren't used to seeing *people of color* LOL... except maybe old people and tourists.

I definately hold way more cultural loyalty to US culture than to any other... I've never known any other culture, how could I not? I've never been a citizen anywhere outside of the US, so how could I not hold loyalty to the US? I honestly don't think that it's even possible for me to not consider myself an American.

[CrX3183]

Personally i do...
I made an oath to protect this country against all enemies foreign or domestic.

[BeTheReds]

Originally posted by angel nympho@Apr 11 2003, 05:54 PM
"AN AMERICAN" is definately not restricted to WHITE American. But that's commonly mistaken when people use the word "American" to describe somebody... I generally think, however, that only people out of America try to use that as a description.

Plenty of Asian-Americans use the term. That's the problem.