Do you think Americans are more prone to believing conspiracy theories than other Nationalities?

@bijouxbroussard That's a verry strange way on looking at the word "nationality"

@Kwek00 How ?

@bijouxbroussard A nationality is ussually used as belonging to a certain "nation" and "nation" often comes down to an imaginairy community. This imaginairy community is defined by a nationalist [i](those that want to promote the idea of "a nation")[/i], and this can be on the basis of culture, blood [i](or the idea of race)[/i] or the idea that you living in a political community [i](civilianship)[/i].

The idea of "nationality", is super sketchy, and it heavily depends on the person defining it. But in your innitial statement, it looks like "nationality" is inherrited in a certain way. I don't really know how that exactly works for you. It also seems that you can never trully be an American then, if your roots come from immigration. And if you do believe you can be an American if your roots come from an immigrant background, then why would they still be part of the other nationality?

@Kwek00 The fact is, one of the hypocrisies about those in the U.S. who are resistant against “immigrants” is that if their ancestors aren’t indigenous people, they’re descended from immigrants themselves. Same with Australians.

@bijouxbroussard That's kind of another discussion. I was talking about how you used the word "nationalities".

@Kwek00 The U.S. is a blend of people from all over the world, many nationalities. Even many of our traditions and foods have roots from someplace else.

@bijouxbroussard yeah, but there lies the issue... at what point do you become "American". And if you are an "American", can you still be something else?

If someone that is 5th or 6th generation Italian immigrant living in America today. Do you think they would blend in Italy as if they are part of the Italian "nation"?

@Kwek00 I grew up in a largely Italian neighborhood. Many of the people had retained connections, had older family members who still spoke the language, and some of the traditions. They certainly considered themselves Americans, but they thought things we did and foods my family (also Americans) ate were strange.

@bijouxbroussard If they would go back, do you think Italians would perceive them as Italians?

You find this in pretty much every group with immigrant roots that never really assimilitated or feels that they haven't (because a lot of this are emotions). Because they don't really blend in with the group that they are living in, there is a tendency to grab back to the "nation" (including culture) of where their ancestors belonged too. And they pretend they are still part of this nation... however, if they would go back, I think they would quickly come to the realisation that that nation would perceive them as immigrants too.

@Kwek00 In the USA this is kinda how we all think about race and ethnicity. We don't feel as Natonalist or at least not in the same exact way as most other countries do when it relates to each other hrre on US soil. We get more Natonalist oversees I think.

Look at African Americans for one example( black people).
We are totally American but our selected ethnicity is somehow called African American.
I don't have any issue with it but you would be a fool if you didn't see how somehow in most situations we are not 100% just seen and treated the same as an " average American". Average American is actually a pretty narrow space.
Can I go fit into Africa? No, but in someways I would feel more home there than here (I don't even have a particular African Nation to reference), but make no mistake I am an American with African roots.

@REMsleep You use a lot of "we" in your first segment, but the last 4 years of American politics kinda makes that sound really naieve. Next to that, altough America has a fairly liberal vieuw on how it sees itself as a nation, it does still require people to integrate and to do a test to reach civilianship that is based on it's laws, customs and culture.

The only reason why people would put the word "African" in front of American... is to make a diffrenciation on skin colour. I think this diffrenciation on talking about where peoples roots lie in a conversation where roots make no diffrence, kinda holds people back from assimilating in this idea of being an "American".

I also really wonder if you would feel more home there. Maybe now or the first couple of days... but in the long run? And people from the nation in Africa where you would live, would they perceive you as one of them? I think what's behind that longing is a serious romantic idea that would shatter in 99% of the cases when we actually try it out.

@Kwek00 Ours is a unique experience. Africans in Africa [b]wouldn’t[/b] see us as one of them because part of the experience for us as African Americans is that our original cultures, tribal affiliations and nationalities, languages and even family [b]names[/b] were basically [b]stolen[/b] as part of the slave trade. Even the term “African American” came about at a time when everyone in the U.S. was investigating their “roots” [b]because[/b] to be American (unless you’re indigenous or Native American) is to have a foreign heritage.

But U.S. immigrants who are actually from Africa can tell you that they’re Nigerian-American, Ugandan-American, Congolese-American, Kenyan-American, etc.; they don’t [b]have[/b] to use generic terms. Also because of our unique heritage, none of us are purely one African country or tribe. But in terms of the way we’re perceived [b]in this country[/b], we might as well be.

And I know one thing, I would probably turn fewer heads walking down the street in Haiti or Nigeria than I did in France, and I have forbears from all three countries.

@Kwek00[quote]You use a lot of "we" in your first segment, bu [/quote]
- I am referring to all Americans, is there anyother way to discuss all of us Americans as a whole other than to say " we". Families may fight like cats and dogs but at the end of the day are still related.

[quote] it does still require people to integrate and to do a test to reach civilianship[quote]

- the citizenship test is bullshit. I know many that have taken it. Integration is required yet actually prevented in many instances by society and the system at large. American birthed and bred its own lack of Integration in most cases.

[quote]The only reason why people would put the word "African" in front of American... is to make a diffrenciation on skin colour [/quote]

-Thats not true. In the USA me and my ancestors have never just been an American. We were niggers, then colored, then negro, then black, now African American. There has always been that separation. African seeks to reclaim the root of the ethnicity just as here Mexican Americans say that they are Mexican when you ask them what they are. Italians say that they are Italian. Thats the nature of the USA. We know that we are American but our ethnicity is most important when people ask " What you are?"

[quote] I also really wonder if you would feel more home there [/quote]
- I already meantioned that I am an American to the core and that I am not an African but I am an African American which is something in and of itself. An in between space. In West Africa particularly I would not automatically be looked on as having less desirable features due to my race. In Nigeria my hair would not be questioned. In a crime setting I would not be looked down on with suspicion.
I would not feel from society that I was automatically different based on looks.
I know several African Americans that have lived in Senegal or Nigeria and there were pros and cons but a certain weight was lifted from them.

@REMsleep Yes, but maybe you should read the rest of the "we" part. That "we" part hasn't really been proven right in the last 4 years of political discourse. Far from it.

If you read the entire part about me saying "African American", this part of your reply would also not be needed. You are just agreeing with what I said.

Yeah, you are an American to the core... except that you agree that a lot of Americans aren't on the same page with you. You did it in your 2nd paragraph. [i](well actually it's your 3th paragraph, because you used the "quotes" wrong, but I don't hold that against you)[/i]

The entire based on looks thing, is kinda important to the illusion of "nationality", which is the word I questioned in the original post. But looks ain't everything, when it comes to nationality the question remains if looks are everything. There are verry strict interpretations that are based on blood lines when it comes to nationality. In the past, they had some really bad results.

@bijouxbroussard Even if things aren't "stolen" there wille be a discrepancy. I see it all around our mining towns where Italians, Turks and Maroccans once came to mine the coalmines. After 2 generations, the detachment of their counrty of origin already created a break up. Why? Because they aren't mingling in the country of origin annymore, but they are mingling in the country where they are now. The 2nd generation, already has a way lesser attachment to the country of birth. They only get their information from their moms and dads that still have a bond, the stories they tell, and sometimes the newsnetworks they still follow. But the connections with the actual people over there grow less and less tight. They swallow a lot more information from the country they are in now, the emotional attachment to things that are happening in the country of origin grow less strong and they more and more get attached to the dataset they are living in now. The dataset of the country where they were born and grew up in.

The entire roots thing, actually becomes a problem for integration. Because the more you attach yourself to it, the more it becomes an obessesion, the less you can assimilate in the nationality that you are supposed to be having because you grew up there. What is even more fascinating, is that people that get obsessed with their roots, often go to look for some kind of purity in that idea. Start wearing clothes and reading literature from the country of origin, and lessening the bond to the nationality that is to be the tribe of the country you are born in. And at the end of the day, it's all a farce and make believe. People from Turkish origins that live here and consider themselves "Turks" even though they never been over there and speak the tongue with a heavy dutch/french [i](depending on where you grew up over here)[/i] accent, would be mocked over there. The only people that use this national identity to their benefits are traditionalist-politicians, like Erdogan, that invoke this sentiment of being a true Turk to lure those with a double nationality on paper to the voting boot. In Turkye, these people would be a mockery of an immigrant in a severe form of identity crisis.

Your last paragraph is a visual thing, which is a sad part of how humans think today. However, if in Senegal or Nigeria you would open your mouth, you would be perceived as exotic as you were in some small county in France.

@Kwek00 [quote] The entire roots thing, actually becomes a problem for integration. Because the more you attach yourself to it, the more it becomes an obessesion, the less you can assimilate in the nationality that you are supposed to be having because you grew up there.[/quote]

And [b]again[/b], that gets back the uniqueness of the African-American experience. Initially, most immigrants came here with the intention of assimilation, met various degrees of resistance from those who’d settled here earlier. In spite of this, it would be naive not to acknowledge that the Founders did envision this as a “white” country.

That’s why they removed the indigenous people and placed them on reservations, forced them to change their names and even prevent their children from learning tribal languages. It’s the reason for the Chinese Exclusion Act and comparable laws, which restricted immigration of Chinese, limited it to specific laborers, no Chinese women and children.

And especially, the Africans who were brought here with no choice did not have the option of assimilating. Even free blacks had restrictions on where they could live, work, go to school, with whom they could associate or marry. Laws that were still in place during [b]my[/b] lifetime. “Separate but equal” (and of course it wasn’t). That was what interfered with integration—a country with laws prohibiting it—not later attempts by people exploring their roots.