I was mulling over Wednesday's post about whether we should call ourselves Americans—which is allegedly offensive to other residents of the Americas—and came up with this:
If not American, what do we put in the blank line at the bottom? "A US resident"? That's pretty awkward, no?
We are not the only country with this problem. What do the people of New Zealand call themselves? According to Wikipedia, the official demonym is New Zealanders. Does that mean they'd say "I am New Zealandish"?
Maybe, but even that avenue is cut off to us. "I am US-ish?" I don't think so. "I am a citizen of the US"? That sounds like you're a Roman centurion or something. "I'm from the US"? That might be doable.
But overall, I dunno. Assuming you buy this linguistic criticism in the first place, are there really any good solutions here?
The CIA, in their various reports about Americans spying (and being spied on) 'round the world, uses "U.S. person" when they want to talk about one without giving too much away.
Personally, I've long tried to avoid calling myself "an American," I guess because of the connotation of arrogance associated with it. It leads to some pretty convoluted writing (and talking!), and I'll revert to just plain "American" if the construction gets too weird. After all, everybody knows that U.S. persons are Americans.
I imagine most residents of other countries see us the way they see a loudmouth, self-involved relative whom they have to invite to family gatherings. You know they are going to say or do embarrassing things, or even threatening things. Since you need to keep the peace, you just roll your eyes and smile.
So they let us call ourselves Americans, because we will anyway.
If you cannot call yourself "American" without "arrogance" or being "embarrassing" or "threatening," then you have lost the thread of what it is to be an American.
To say "I am an American" is for many people a point of extraordinary pride, the culmination of generations of struggle and sacrifice.
As I said earlier (the last comment on the previous page), it is not a word easily deconstructed.
Gotta love the circular reasoning of this: if you're too arrogant to recognize that people in North and South America (many of whom don't live in the United States of America) also consider themselves to be Americans, by virtue of living on a continent called America, and you lack the ability to be embarrassed about insisting on ignoring these people, then you've lost the thread of the arrogance by which we assert that title, which is precisely what it means to be "American."
@Joseph Harbin:
Note that I used the word "connotation." Look it up. And I don't call myself an American with "arrogance." I deem myself lucky to have been born in the U.S., but that's all it is: luck. If this were the finest nation in the history of the world I'd have no particular reason to be proud of this birthright, which I had nothing to do with.
The United States was born in greed, selfishness, superstition and bigotry. The Boston Tea Party was not about "freedom." It was about not wanting to pay tax. The first U.S. citizens killed the natives and took their stuff, while importing human slaves to live in abominable conditions while doing all the hard work - for free. For centuries our government and our people have used the power granted by our natural resources and isolation to commit a litany of atrocities here and around the globe. So when we use the name of the whole hemisphere in referring to ourselves, I think it's conceivable that others in the Americas and around the world might resent that, and find it arrogant. It's that sensitivity that makes me shy away from the appellation.
And before I hear any more chauvinism from you, let me say that I am happy and somewhat proud of the good our nation and its people have done, and there has been a lot of it. But those who are "proud to be an American" ought to consider exactly what they are proud about.
Problems is that the name of the county, The United States of America, is awkward. Much easier for countries with just one name, like Canada.
Still, having spent many years abroad, I normally just say "I'm from the United States." Outside of native English speaking circles, I don't always even assume that people know what U.S. stands for, since other initials are used in other countries (EU, EEUU, VS, etc.). It's a bit clunky, but hey, I can deal with it.
I don't buy that. Why is United States OK? After all, Mexico's official name is "Estados Unidos Mexicanos", so "Mexican United States". Canada is "Dominion of Canada" so why not use "Dominion" for them, that's like U.S. for America.
At the end of the day, the country's name is America. Yes, there's also a continent named that, but so what? More than one thing can have the same name; usually it's clear from context but if not clarification can be requested.
At the end of the day the country's name is *not* "America" it's the United States of America. But good on you with the argument by assertion.
I'm in full agreement with the above comments that this is all silly.
Even in grade school I was struck by the generic nature of the name of my country, and the Central African Republicans have my sympathy. But it is what it is. I have no memory of encountering a situation where confusion arose over what "American" meant.
Of course the rest of the world labels us differently. We label them differently. But not Google Maps. There every country (and province and city and town, etc.) is labeled as, I assume, the natives would label it. Not that this is wrong, but I would find it helpful if an Anglicised version was available.
Clearly the "solution" is to change the name of the country. If we elect Trump again, I would support Morania, and we can go by the label Moran. Of course, then we will be confused with "an unmarried Maasai or Samburu warrior."
https://www.wordnik.com/words/moran
There is no winning.
The fact that you have no context for recognizing confusion merely means that you don't interact much with other Americans (by which I mean people live in North and South American but not in the USA).
That is true.
In the 90s the push was for African-American. Now that's being walked back in favor of capital-B Black.
Language is a democratic, emergent order. What all these efforts have in common is they do not work.
I'm a North Carolinian.
I have been traveling in the Caribbean, Latin America and South America for the past 6 months and have been chided several times by locals that I do not come from America. Invariably they all say that they are Americans too, just of the Latin or Southern variety! Now we just reply “California” when asked where we are from, which I prefer anyway since I would hate anyone to think we were Texans or Floridians. Besides, we have always identified with being Californians more than as Americans, especially since 1/2 the electorate lost their minds…..
I think the New Zealanders call themselves NZedders. Others across 'the pond' (aka the Tasman Sea) call themselves Aussies.
So what's wrong with Mercans ?
Never heard any of my countrymen use that, usually we call ourselves Kiwis (national bird), or Kay One Double U One, for the ornate
So ... maybe US citizens should be Eagles ?
Of course the idea of them acknowledging their arrogation of American, is ridiculous
"Kiwis" -- as distinguished from "kiwi birds" and "kiwi fruit", I presume.
No better way to inflame the so-called "culture wars" in the US of A than trying to change the language and commonly used terms!
... maybe US citizens should be Eagles ?,/I.
The beaked, the bald, the proud.
and that's why American citizens should have the right to edit their own comments.
There are always colloquial names to fall back to:
Gringo
Yankee
Ami
SCNR.
If you say your “America”, everyone in the world knows you’re from the United States. Why is this even a discussion? If someone somewhere is offended by it for some reason, frankly, who gives a shit?
This argument or discussion is both interesting and a complete waste of time, as so many things on the internet are. I feel comfortable calling myself an American although I find when I'm overseas I quite unselfconsciously shift to saying I'm from the United States. It's just not a big deal.
Here's my question: For any of you reading who are from another country in the Americas - Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and all the rest - do you ever, *ever* refer to yourself as "American"? If you do then perhaps there's a point to this whole thing. If you don't then we're just left with the usual suspects doing their moral posturing bit about a word choice.