US Americans, do you identify first as a US citizen, someone from your state, or from your town/city?
US Americans, do you identify first as a US citizen, someone from your state, or from your town/city?
To other Americans, I identify as a New Englander or a Masshole. :)
To the outside world, I'll probably say I'm from Boston first (I'm not, but it's the closest big city the outside world might recognize) before saying I'm American.
Wicked cool
Depends on who's asking generally. If it's someone from my state I say the town, if they're from the US I say the state and if they're from outside the US I just say American. But it really just depends on how specific the conversation is at the time
Generally the closest that's relevant to who's asking. e.g. if the one asking is from the same state, I will say the town. If it's someone from another state, I'll say the state, and from another country, I'll just say the US.
As for identify, I know this sounds pretentious, but generally "human" or "citizen of Earth". I have no control over where I was born, and I'm more concerned with where I'm going in life than where I arbitrarily started. I've also never felt that I need to be proud of a place just because that's where I'm from.
Interesting. Have you ever traveled to a place where people don’t speak English? Not being able to understand what’s happening around you definitely makes you realize you belong somewhere
Have never left the US (mostly due to being poor lol).
That said, I work with a surprisingly diverse group at work (especially given the state I live in), speak somewhere between "vacation" and barely fluent Spanish, and have spent time immersed in other cultures (though still in the US).
As far as language goes, I can generally pick up on that pretty quickly as long as it's Latin-based. It may be very (sometimes very, very) broken when I speak it back, but I can typically at least get my point across and/or follow along and understand the gist of it. I also like the challenge.
I guess my sense of belonging is a pretty flexible is what I'm trying to get at.
If I'm talking to a fellow American, I say I'm from New Jersey. If I'm talking to a non-American, I say I'm Canadian. (Kidding, mostly.)
Of the three, state.
I don’t identify as a US American.
I identify as an American.
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I realize that foreigners, in languages other than English, use terms that directly translate to US American. However our preferred nomenclature is American.
When interacting with someone from another country, I identify as an American.
When interacting with a fellow American, I identify as a resident of my state, where I have lived nearly my entire life, excepting times spent out of state & out of country while I was in the military.
When interacting with a fellow resident of my state, I identify as a resident of the major city in whose suburbs I reside.
When interacting with a fellow resident of the metro area, I identify with either the general region of the metro area or the specific municipality in which I actually reside.
I realize that foreigners, in languages other than English, use terms that directly translate to US American. However our preferred nomenclature is American.
I usually use US American as Canadians and Mexicans are also Americans, and that can go all the way to Central and South America depending on how you divide continents
I just say I'm American.
I identify with my city a lot and you can't get away from country. Im proud of my state currently and city but not so much my country.
I'm from a small town, so depends who I'm talking to?
I live in Chicago, which is a major city. So I’d say Chicago, believe it or not, I guarantee more people are familiar with the city than Illinois.
But if I lived somewhere else in Illinois, I’d say the state.
When I hear "Illinois", I think generic midwest--agriculture, some manufacturing. When I hear "Chicago", I think major metropolitan area. So you're pretty spot-on.
I've moved between states a lot, so I say American.
Used to say I was American because it's the truth, but since last month it's been Californian, and I'll be using that abroad in place of American
Portlander -> Oregonian -> American
By the way, could we consider promoting this community to !portland_oregon@lemmy.world ?
Thanks for your comment!
I feel no connection to anywhere, not country, not state, not city, not my ancestors, not the human race, nothing. I don't hate that stuff, it's just like those are places and people like any other, not special or "mine" any more than some other group or place.
Maybe it's because I've lived all over the country. Maybe it's because I'm not particularly fond of my birth place. I'm thoroughly American as far as enculturation, language, temperament, etc as I've never lived anywhere else, so it's not like I'm a "stranger in a strange land" or something intriguing. It's just blank. Null. That organ other people seem to have making them feel "at home" just never developed when I was in the womb., nor do I feel any need to have it.
If I had to guess who "my people" were I think I'm more akin to something like a hermit. Lockdown showed me that a lot of people are genuinely different from me in terms of the needs they have. Even now that I've finally managed to acquire somewhat of a "hermitage" for myself I feel like its temporary steward rather than a place I "belong". When I describe this to people they consider it sad, but I am quite happy.
I did, after false starts, manage to find a partner that feels the same way, so I'm not "alone" or lonely. Her family was actively abusive and cutting ties was an excruciating process that left scars. Nothing like that ever happened to me. I still speak to my family, just not frequently. Again, not totally sure why. Perhaps whatever I have is genetic.
Interesting. Have you ever traveled to a place where people don't speak English? Not being able to understand what's happening around you definitely makes you realize you belong somewhere
Yes I have. I actually like being in foreign places, I hate traveling itself though so I have only done it a few times. Actually not speaking the language is kind of peaceful.
I identify as someone from my city first
None of them.
I have mostly identified first with my local region, despite having moved around a lot. For a long time, after first moving away from where I grew up, I continued to identify with that region, but when I eventually got to move to areas which were better suited to me culturally, my sense of identity shifted. Now where I grew up is secondary or tertiary and local region is first.
But still regional more so than like "American"?
"America" is a vast area. Too large to be considered a cultural region.
For me, in particular, I grew up in New Jersey. My primary culture was South Jerseyan, heavily influenced by Philly. Then New Jerseyan, more influenced by NYC. Then Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Then American.
The culture did not suit me, though, and I have spent many years in the Pacific Northwest now. So now, I identify primarily as someone from the Pacific Northwest, having spent time in both Washington and Oregon--Mostly Seattle, but also kind of the boonies for a little while. I am a Pacific Northwesterner first, a New Jerseyan second, and an American third.
Eh, I don't really identify with any of those. Maybe I'm "from Massachusetts"? I don't live there now and didn't grow up there, but that's where I went to college. The state I grew up in, Kentucky, has never felt like home.
I identify as a displaced Western European barbarian, but I identify my location as USAmerican.
Definitely nation last.
Mind you, I don't really have much of a built in local identity at all. As in, the town and county don't mean much to me. But the area, yeah. There's a certain vibe to the tri county area that's distinct from the surrounding counties, and from the general Appalachian culture, as well as the southern Appalachian culture (as was brought up in a previous post here lol).
But I'm definitely a mountain boy, and a southerner. Both have left deep etching into my speech, my way of looking at the world, and how I look at the rest of the country.
But, yeah, being American is part of that. You can't really grow up in a single country and not internalize at least parts of the overall ethos and culture.
When it comes down to it, I tend to think of myself as a southerner more than an American. An American more than an american ( lower case because afaik, you don't capitalize it when you're referring to both continents), and an american more than a westerner. I tend to see more connections to people from Canada and Mexico than from central and south america, but I'd generally have more of a connection to, say, a Brazilian than maybe a Spaniard or an Italian.
There actually is an "american" connection. It's maybe not as intense as what you would find in the EU as a connecting ethos, but the way all the countries this side of the pond formed, the history we share, you'll end up having more in common with someone that doesn't have any recent shared ancestry than you might with people that are from where your most recent European ancestors came from. Like, my Irish side, when things come up in the world, there's usually less of an immediate "aha!", where I just get where they're coming from than with someone from Nicaragua (I happen to know several Nicaraguan families, so it's a good example).
Hell, sometimes, I find myself having more in common with people online that are from South America than with people from Utah or Montana. And that's with the language barrier.
I tend to think of myself as a southerner first though. Even when I hate part of the South's history or culture, I'm steeped in it. The humidity and the dirt are soaked into me.
It's like this: if someone asks, I tend to say I'm from America, but I am a southerner.
A fraction of our elected representatives actually represent us – city, state, or nation, all. It's a two color system run by one party, not unlike the teams in your previous post here, in fact. The colors are just so the plebs know who to vote/root for, etc.
As a gringo living in Latin America, I identify as being from Canada, actually.