How do Ethnicity, Ancestry and Identity Intersect?

@Justenjoyit Its hard to explain to a European but in the USA everyone who is not white and half of those who are have an ethnic label.
The ethnic label is often first before the American label.
We are very American if overseas but inside of our country you must identify as some ethnic or ancestral identity also.
So in the US an Irish American might take serious pride in having a grandmother that spoke Gaelic (even if they do not speak it), they will take pride in knowing how to make Irish dishes or being Catholic like their great grandparents from Ireland. These habits give you identity here.
You don't understand because you live relatively close, I'm assuming to your ancestral source land.

Everyone has roots from elsewhere if we go back far enough but I'm sure that you have a long history in Europe.
In US we are a young country and noone wants to say that their family history only goes back 100 or so years.
Add to this that people are often sterotyped or discriminated against based on ethnicity and culture so it adds to how we identify.

In the US the Irish were treated poorly for a long time on the East Coast so it added to how Irish people saw themselves.
They built Irish areas and Irish pubs in Boston and NY,they might prepare for weeks every year for the St. Paddys day parades.
Their parents may have wanted them to marry Irish so sure while they might not be the same culture as an Irishman from Ireland, they are definitely Irish American.

@REMsleep well untill all of this identity stops things in the US will never change sadly, looks like people dont want it to change either.

@Justenjoyit Until discrimination changes, identity cannot change.
When I walk into anyplace I am seen as black first and foremost not an American woman.
I am not seen as the same as everyone else. Sure I can work with them, live near them but as soon as we get just a little closer it all comes out...

You speak so well......

I got angry at school one time and yelled and 3 people said to me, finally the real black comes out of you.

My asian coworkers called me "Honorary Vietnamese" because they said that I worked hard like them and not like the other blacks.

@REMsleep If you lived back in the UK, and you were born and speak with a UK accent you would just be counted as a British citizen,where I work everyone gets treated the same and the colour of anyone's skin never comes into conversations.

@Justenjoyit I have always watched alot of British TV so I think I do understand but its not like that here.
But, I also follow some black British Youtubers and they state that it's not all problem free in racial matters but its also not half as bad as the USA in most ways.
You guys have anti Muslim issues right now.

Here in the US we say that we are all the same, peace, love blah, blah but the people don't think that way.
In 1968 many states were still not allowing blacks to vote. Just think about this. Those people are still alive in mass numbers.

@REMsleep I think the anti Muslim culture is maybe to do with all of the terrorist bombs killing innocent people in Europe, so people are scared.

@Justenjoyit Maybe it doesn't come into conversation with who you're speaking with but I know brown people from the UK and they say often they face discrimination especially from the police.
Back in the 1950s a white American man did an experiment where he changed his physical skin and dress to that of a brown person. As a white man he could not possibly know how brown people feel or is treated so he decided to see for himself.
After that experiment he realized not everybody felt or was treated the same as he did as a white man.