Scottish, with a healthy smattering of Anglo-Saxon/Norman. I had a greatuncle who did noting but keep family records and he collected our traceable ancestry back to Charlemagne
I'm kind of conflicted on this issue. My parents are Indian and did their best to raise me in an Indian family. They forced me and my sibling to partake in one annual religous ceremony and always spoke our native tongue around the house. Having been born and raised in the U.S., I picked up on some of the culture. For instance: I can understand our native tongue, but can't speak a lick. I don't consider myself to be a Hindu, though my parents do. I know absolutely NOTHING about the religion or any of the holidays. My fear is that I will pass along nothing about my background and culture to my children, who in turn will do so to their children and so on and so forth. So about 3 generations from now, my family will have absolutely no connection to the nation of India. This saddens me b/c I will be the one to start the rock to roll down the slippery slope.
Not to swerve off topic, but I always wondered why Major didn't post anymore. I liked his "takes" on various current issues in sports. He was very insightful.
But I feel like I will have lost touch with a huge portion of my past and the culture and traditions of a thousand years worth of drapg's. My children's children will never truly "know themselves" if they don't know their true background and culture. And its all my fault.
Half French, half Texan. I seem basically Texan, but there are subtle bits of Frenchness creeping in, like some of the things I eat. My mother tried hard, but belatedly, to teach me the French language. I'm not as good as I'd like to or should be. I'm going to try to do a better job of it with my children so they won't forget the motherland.
But how would knowing about their ancestors help them to know themselves as individuals any better? I really hope this isn't coming off the wrong way. I love history, but I've never really understood how people identify themselves by what their ancestors were/did as opposed to their own experiences. Maybe if I had been raised in a closer family I'd get it.
I see your point, but it is always nice to know your heritage and culture. Culture is something that is unique to a group of people; it's a way of life. When you know the history of your culture, it helps explain why you do the things you do and celebrate the things you celebrate. For me, being Chinese, the most important thing for me growing up was being able to speak Mandarin. If I couldn't speak it, I would never have been able to communicate with my relatives. That thought alone saddens me. As for holidays and traditions, my parents didn't do the best job at passing that on and I'm afraid that will all be lost when I have kids. I even took an Asian Studies course at UT trying to learn a little more about my culture. It helped, but I'm still Asian-American.
Eh, it's inevitable that you'll lose your ancestors' language and traditions over the generations that you live in the US. I'm not sure why people try so hard to preserve them. It's not like you're Indian/Chinese/Zulu/whatever anymore, you're American, so you have those traditions, language and customs now. I guess keeping your religion is more important, though.
Anti, I think you probably don't get it because you are white and don't have a real, set culture. As a white American you are a mix of more things than you probably ever could know. You do not have centuries of tradition and practice to lose. I also think it adds to the "holding on to one's culture" when that person comes from a formerly colonized country. Even if some of that culture has been adjust by the process, it is something that is "theirs" that was ridiculed or exploited during imperialism. So it is a bonding issue as well. I, personally, have nothing from which I can draw. I know there is some Scottish and French in there, but on the whole it is typical American eruo-mutt. It would be absurd to try to break it down into percentages. Any national/ethnic culture we teach our children will be from my wife's side, not mine. I have nothing to pass on.
Sadly, I guess it's a common problem for south asians in general. I took Urdu in college, with the hope that I wont completely screw things up when it comes to passing on my language and culture to my kids. Unfortunately, my parents and my aunts and uncles that live in the U.S. don't care if their kids don't pass on their language and culture.
Not to be contentious, but when you're not white, being an American still holds a qualifier: African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American. I guess it's all well and good to try to say that these people are both American and something else, but when you lose your tradition/culture, you realize that you're not American OR the qualifier...you're just ____-American...if that makes sense.
I agree with tierre_brown. America is a melting pot of cultures, not just faces of different race. Yes, I am Asian-American, but that doesn't make me not Asian and wholy American. I look at it (and everyone is different) as my responsibility to pass on my culture and heritage because if I don't, no one else will. Just because something is inevitable doesn't mean we shouldn't prolong it. I have no religion so that doesn't apply to me.
You should take a trip to India. I felt the way you do but after living for a while in Asia that really helped define who I am. It not only helped put me intouch with being an Asian but also really with being an American. Growing up here we're never going to have the same culture as our parents but we need not lose it. What's great about America is that its not quite a smooth fondue where immigrant cultures get subsumed but more of a chunky stew where all of the cultures get mixed in but still retain a lot of where they came from.
I think for me, it means alot more that I carry on the religion and traditions that have been a part of me since birth. Its more of honoring the people that have come before you, and passing it along because once you're gone, it is what you leave behind. Our family is Buddhists and all are very close and religious people. Even though I was born into this religion and might not understand everything about it, i realize how it is the backbone of our family. This being more and more true ever since my father passed away 3 years ago. Its up to me and my brother to carry on. Our culture and religion is part of our identity, and i consider it one of the most important things to pass on. I dunno how well i explained that, but thats why I think its important that our kids, and our kid's kids have to have a strong sense of where they came from.
Indian, Muslim, and a little touch of middle east Can speak Urdu, hindi, and can choke out arabic words. and damn proud of it
