Is it true that being a true American is being someone of English descent?

[SouthDutch7991]

One of the members here told me that a good portion of Americans hold this idea but if it is true than it is purely nonsense since America is a land of immigration. In other words if there would be no immigration to America, it would have never existed.

Unfortunately that view is not common at all. It's a little skewed but very far from nonsense and your idea of America is just a reinvented one from 1900 or so. That's only a short quarter of the time the culture has formed here, and that culture while not exclusively English is very little other than English, Scottish, and some German. The other contributions pre-1900 are very overstated, of the white population less than 4% was something other than German speaking or English speaking British Isles before the Civil War. And of the roughly 10-15% nonwhites from 1650 until 1960, maybe 1% were not african right up until the massive hispanic migration of the 20th century. Solely English? No, but the English were the progenitors of it and the dominant ethnic group, you could easily say the CORE ethnic group of American identity, for a very very long part of its history. I would argue that even Scottish americans and German americans before a certain time were just there to assimilate into the English ethnicity in America both culturally and genetically. Had the civil war never happened and America remained isolationist as it was meant to, the bulk of the population today would be an English Scottish and German mix, with English as the major component.

THIS, or one of these separately, is what I regard as a "true" american. That and old stock african-americans. So no, to be a real American does not mean exclusively English, but it IS required. Or at least Scottish. I've never seen the U.S. that I consider to really be "america" as anything but that. The other european americans should have assimilated or left, and allowing the formation of their own identity opposed to old-stock americans is probably what really did us in.

[Mortimer]

Maybe not purely genetically but I consider a white looking person with English names and surnames and who's native language is considered English to be more typically American than other cultures someone like a typical country singer

[Mortimer]

Unfortunately that view is not common at all. It's a little skewed but very far from nonsense and your idea of America is just a reinvented one from 1900 or so. That's only a short quarter of the time the culture has formed here, and that culture while not exclusively English is very little other than English, Scottish, and some German. The other contributions pre-1900 are very overstated, of the white population less than 4% was something other than German speaking or English speaking British Isles before the Civil War. And of the roughly 10-15% nonwhites from 1650 until 1960, maybe 1% were not african right up until the massive hispanic migration of the 20th century. Solely English? No, but the English were the progenitors of it and the dominant ethnic group, you could easily say the CORE ethnic group of American identity, for a very very long part of its history. I would argue that even Scottish americans and German americans before a certain time were just there to assimilate into the English ethnicity in America both culturally and genetically. Had the civil war never happened and America remained isolationist as it was meant to, the bulk of the population today would be an English Scottish and German mix, with English as the major component.

THIS, or one of these separately, is what I regard as a "true" american. That and old stock african-americans. So no, to be a real American does not mean exclusively English, but it IS required. Or at least Scottish. I've never seen the U.S. that I consider to really be "america" as anything but that. The other european americans should have assimilated or left, and allowing the formation of their own identity opposed to old-stock americans is probably what really did us in.

As child back in the 80s I grew up with cowboy and Indian toys and western movies back then my idea of a american was that he is English I didn't know they are mutts but if you say doc holiday or Billie the kid sounds damn English and the face is white often blue eyed like Clint Eastwood

[Mortimer]

[reboun]

Maybe not purely genetically but I consider a white looking person with English names and surnames and who's native language is considered English to be more typically American than other cultures someone like a typical country singer

White looking part makes no sense to me because original Americans were Amerindians. If we go according to race and genetics, Americans of fully East Asian descent should be considered as more American than Americans of European descent simply because East Asians are genetically the closest old world population to Amerindians.

[Mortimer]

White looking part makes no sense to me because original Americans were Amerindians. If we go according to race and genetics, Americans of fully East Asian descent should be considered as more American than Americans of European descent simply because East Asians are genetically the closest old world population to Amerindians.

It is only recently that native Americans are called native Americans before colonials were called native Americans as opposed to the immigrants but natives were not considered Americans but just Indians

[Zeus]

There is no ethnicity that makes you a true American. And no one cares if you're of "English" descent.

Ethnic nationalism doesn't work for the New World because we're all descendants of immigrants(except natives).

[TheMaestro]

False

[Tsuin]

No

[JamesBond007]

One of the members here told me that a good portion of Americans hold this idea but if it is true than it is purely nonsense since America is a land of immigration. In other words if there would be no immigration to America, it would have never existed.

The question seems makes no sense because the whole point of the American revolution was to break away from England. Americans have no identity other than being a business instead of a real true country (TM).