Americans - At what point in your life did you realize that you were American and not a European?

[Apexnexius]

Planet Earth - And Realizing Where You are on the Globe

Hi Scandinavian/Western European here.

Growing up you see a lot of cultural heritage in Disney movies, hear a lot of classical music, see a lot of Castles and Old Buildings maybe on tv, Architecture etc. and whatnot..

How did you find out / realize you weren't European?

Were you told by your parents or maybe you figured it out yourself?


Interested in hearing your replies and perspectives.


EDIT:
Sorry if this question come off a bit Eurocentric.

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

americans are a mix of asian african too.
sam9an
guam
japanese
chinese
vietnamese
phillipino
were not all new york european descendendants

[De Hollandse Ezel]

I am and will always remain dutch.

I was raised on specifficly dutch series mostly heared very little english at all.. and celebrated very typical dutch holidays..

while yes in my teens I did watch scifi series that were made in holiwood.. I would say still they not added to more than 30% of what I watched... and music wise.. again most were local dutch artists and songs...

I have noticed this american influence on my nation has gotten much worse the last decades...
crap like halloween black friday, sweet 16 babyshowers and whatnot that NOT belong in my nation are now way to commonplace while traditonal dutch festitfies are on the decline or disapeared.. MUCH to my chargrin.

in high education most eductations are now in english... again I protest this..
also when they are not in english so many jargon terms in education, science and buisnuis are now "in english" while I stubbornly keep correcting people to use the dutch word/term we have for that.

than there is the whole culure wars.. did the hippy movement take a decade longer to arrive in the netherlands... and by than had obtained significant dutchified cultural traits.. by now whenever usa has a movement like black life matters or woke.. or climate rebellion.. you basicly instantly see idiots go on the streets here too even when it makes no sense for we aint facing the same issues as usa..
-> again I very much protest this.. I am Dutch and want my nation to remain Dutch.

finally there is the most recent idiotcy.. usa colouring of our news. we used to have independent press agencies who made news suited for us. today all news is bought from other agences most in the usa.. where before we only got the for us relevant information.. sure usa being our nato ally we would hear this is the new president of the usa.. and here is our 15 minute analise what his rule will mean for us here... or usa has just started this new war..
today we get the whole peterm circlus day by day.. and internal polics as if we are wathcing fox news in the usa.. all information utterly not relatvant to a dutch person.. while there is plenty of more local news that I would want to hear off but that is not reported on..

imagine it was reversed and of your 30 minute a day news broadcast you would get all the infighting and preterms of some rando nation somehwere the other end of the globe.. you would too be like wtf is this doing in my news?

I however do fear that as things go.. we must fight or dutch culture and language might die out... both by our population by bad politics being replaced... for immigrants.. and by this cultural trend thats going much further than "influence'

we always were influenced by france by germany by england.. but never to THIS degree..
there is a diffence betwen getting a new device and adopting that other nations name for it as the name for it in your country.. hence why we call it a television, not a afstandkijker
or kijkbuis as they tried to call it in dutch.. or a lift.. instead of a mensenhijser
and why we call a common used mushroom "champignon" instead of "witte paddestoel"
but they never influenced us more than introducing a few new words to our language..

[Electric Cupcake]

Let's just say Around the World in 80 Days (1956) was a huge influence on me.

My parents made darn sure to expose me to many diverse cultures.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

edit.. sorry OP I red it wrong..

I thought you were making a slur at europeans these days basicly being americans as european unique languages and cultuere are being murdered by usa dominance..

[Neurotic Panda]

Ursprungligen skrivet av De Hollandse Ezel:

I am and will always remain dutch.

what does this have to do with OP's question that is literally specifically asked of americans.

we get it you hate america. you post it every single topic.

we dont care either. no one cares.

also.

Americans realized they weren't European in 1776. No one born in america thinks they are European ever. Why do you assume this?

Oh wait its Apex. Posting bait and 'flame' topics in the guise of legit questions or convo. transparent.

Why are Europeans like yourself constantly posting to and for Americans? don't you have other things to do or are all of the euros here just obsessed with america 24/7.

also its rhetorical. I really don't care about your answer, because I already know the reason.

lol.

[Xautos]

Americans may have wilfully ignored their origins from the Europeans and especially the British crown, but the Crown doesn't forget its subjects no matter how many boxes of tea are dumped in the bay, and no matter how many generations have passed by, at their core they are still subjects of the crown, they just don't know it yet.

When the chance to unify comes and the Americans have caused their own civil war, i hope they return to their senses and allow the British crown to rule them again, "States of the United Kingdom" awaits, and to have our lost cousins back, i know we will welcome you back with open arms.

[Morkonan]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Apexnexius:

...How did you find out / realize you weren't European?
..

EDIT:
Sorry if this question come off a bit Eurocentric.

Whether or not I was European was not a default question I would ask myself as an American.

I realized that "I am an American" sometime around four or five years old. How? My parents had gotten a set of Disney Encyclopedia/something-or-others and in them were pictures and articles about people in other parts of the world. I remember seeing some pictures of Dutch people wearing wooden clogs and we had some wooden clogs my mother had bought while on a trip to The Netherlands and nearby countries.

Keep in mind - The idea that we are "American" is reinforced every year with large celebrations on July 4'th, our Independence Day, the day we defeated the aliens and made the world safe for Smith & Wesson....

[Xautos]

Ursprungligen skrivet av boatJJ:

Not all Americans are of European descent.

true, but then we all have a shared origin point anyway and spread from there, so in that sense it makes no difference.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

Ursprungligen skrivet av boatJJ:

Not all Americans are of European descent.

pureblood indians (native americans) are rare
pureblood black americans who ONLY have african ancentry are more common.. but likely still a small percentage
latino's basicly all have spanish inmixing. (else they be indians)
pureblood asians.. are likely the most common in usa without any european blood..

but it depends on what you consider "an american"

for me being dutch is "by the blood" so even if you are given a passport by my state and voting right in my eyes you NEVER will become Dutch..
and to be truelly Dutch you need at least 90% of your genes of Dutch decent.

same for other nationalities..

so to me being american would be "having at least 90% indian (native american) blood.. as those are the people who belong in those lands.
meaning only a very small percentage of "americans" truelly is..

[Grønlænderen]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Apexnexius:

Planet Earth - And Realizing Where You are on the Globe

:mutebutton:
Hi Scandinavian/Western European here. :PlanetZ:

Growing up you see a lot of cultural heritage in Disney movies, hear a lot of classical music, see a lot of Castles and Old Buildings maybe on tv, Architecture etc. and whatnot..

How did you find out / realize you weren't European?

Were you told by your parents or maybe you figured it out yourself?


Interested in hearing your replies and perspectives. :lunar2020thinkingtiger:


EDIT:
Sorry if this question come off a bit Eurocentric.

It could be that Europeans think they are American. Disney is an American corporation. Hollywood is American. Do you think the United States has no castles of its own? We do - from the 1600s while we were still the Colonies. We also had landed Titles since we were under various Monarchies.

We are more similar to Europeans than you think, and there is the reverse question - how much of your culture is actually American culture?

I don't think you are being Eurocentric, and even if you were I'm okay with that. I wish Europe was more Eurocentric. Sometimes it seems to us (Americans) that you are embarrassed about being related to us because we don't do things your way (don't use the Metric system, like our Firearms, and elect whoever we want). It's at those times we are reminded the most why we aren't European. It's those times we are reminded we had to fight two wars to get out from under Europe's influence.

But we don't hate you, in fact the opposite is true. Americans send a lot of aid money to Europe mostly in the form of keeping a military presence there. We also fought two wars to try to keep Europe free. Nobody gave more aid to Ukraine and NATO than the USA, and not that I am bragging about that because I don't like the war over there. Nor do I like my tax money going outside my own country.

Another point... What do you mean that we 'aren't European'? Is a Black person any less African because he was born in the USA? How about Mexicans,are they any less Latino because they were born here? We are genetically European even if we don't have a citizenship in some EU country. I think you are confusing Nationality, Citizenship and Genetics.

Also, I am not saying you are WRONG in any of this. I am simply saying we Americans don't always see things the way you Europeans do. But I guess that's the point why a whole ocean separates us - both geographically and intellectually.

[Pocket Change]

I'm not in a defacto caliphate so I'm doing better than you are. Keep seething

[Grønlænderen]

Ursprungligen skrivet av HypersleepyNaputunia:

americans are a mix of asian african too.
sam9an
guam
japanese
chinese
vietnamese
phillipino
were not all new york european descendendants

Yeah we welcome everybody. We are a mix. :)

[Birds]

first time I saw a eurovision way back when.

[ナルゴ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

July 4th 1776.