Cultural Backgrounds

[ChaRee]

Living in Australia, a lot of people have distant relatives of every origin... but they so desperately try and live off of it. The sort of people who have great-great-great-great-granddads who were Scottish so they completely denounce their Australian lifestyle and inform everyone that they're Scottish "true and through"... The sort of people who refuse to support the country they were born in because their relatives 200 years ago built some pub in Ireland?

Anyone else know people like this? It's fine if the person was actually born IN the country, or even had a recent generation who grew up there... but people living off their 200 or so year old relatives annoy me.

Anyone else know anyone like this, or am I just the lucky one?

[Smittytheghost]

theres a kid at my school who swears up and down he has Russian ancestry. So all he does is say how shitty everything in america is and how wonderful Russia is. He compares everything. Wrestling, Music, Military, TV, fucking everything.

[Evark]

I guess my answer to that question depends on whether you're taking issue with ALL nation-based pride, or just nation-based pride that you perceive as a slight to state-pride. And, whether you take issue with ancestral pride.

Personally, I don't think that pride in a state is EVER warranted. I think blind allegiance to governance is what cedes the power the governed hold over their state to that state. Pride in a nation I feel is misplaced, though typically harmless (we're all people, after all).

Despite that, I'm proud of my Scotish/Irish ancestry only insofar as it has made me the person that I am, physically. I'm proud of my state in that is allows me to continue my life goals and further my lifestyle aspirations. I'm proud of my nation because it is home to a diverse community of a generally education-oriented population (the Boston metropolitan area is one of the foremost centers of education in the world). But my pride is limited only to these aspects and I should like to believe that it is not blinding.

[MiroDK]

I find it stupid to be proud of something you're not. If your parents were from Italy and moved to somewhere else before you were born, then it's slightly understandable since you'll be raised with Italian cuisine and all that.

You won't have any idea how Italy is though, unless you visit it and actually live there for a while. Because visiting it for a week or something and going to tourist spots just means you don't understand squat about it, so you can't just go like "Dude Italy is so much better in whatever area".

In my situation, I have Italian and German heritage, but only my great grandparents were Italian/German, so I have absolutely no connection to their culture. I'm Brazilian and that's that. I'm perfectly fine with my nationality and I can say that I'm proud of it, not arrogantly, just proud.

[IAmCrystalHeights]

my heritage is Chinese, Irish, and German, and I was born, raised, and still live in California. I know, I guess it's the billionth post about China or anything to do with Chinese or Asian stuff, but it's the correct thread for me to discuss this matter.

I'm definitely proud of my Chinese heritage. After visiting China it made me realize the way they live and it opened my eyes up about the world and how it works. In America I got stereotyped a lot in my high school for being the typical Asian nerd who's in honors classes, but in reality I'm not, and most people who know me know that aspect of me. I was mostly in lower-leveled or average-leveled classes which is considered unusual for Asian American kids but I know a good number of Asian kids who are not good with academics.

it actually kind of bothers me when I think of me being half-Asian and performing so poorly in school but now I want to move on with my life and be my own individual. however, me being my own individual won't stop me from embracing my Chinese heritage, because it definitely shapes up who I am. plus I loveee Asian girls

[hongkongexpress]

Will you shut up about China already?

[Autokrator]

All pride is in error.

[IAmCrystalHeights]

At 6/29/11 12:13 AM, hongkongexpress wrote: Will you shut up about China already?

why do you have to follow every post I make and reply to it? you make a LOT of posts about that country too whether it being negative or positive, and I thought you told me you would stop being a dick. I saw a thread about cultural heritage, and what am I supposed to post about, my German background that has absolutely no impact on the person I am today? it's not like somebody will be like "Hey it's that white kid Tim" or "that German kid Tim" when referring to me, it's always "that Asian kid" or "the Chinese kid Tim."

[wwwyzzerdd]

I will never understand the logic of "hey, so my grandfather was from this chunk of landmass between imaginary lines sociopaths hundreds of years ago murdered a shit-ton of people and determined it was theirs now, and then he fucked a woman from this other piece of shit area, so yeah, that's why I love eating strawberries."

[DarkMatter]

be proud of your heritage but not at the expense of other aspects of your own heritage.

Im Irish British Dutch German Italian and Russian, if I fell back on any one of those I'd be at odds with myself if you go as far back as WW2 xD

[IAmCrystalHeights]

At 6/29/11 12:40 AM, Xyphon202 wrote: Usually, I would agree with you, in fact recently I have been particularly mean about the whole China business. However, I think his posting about his Chinese heritage is completely justified. This is a topic about cultural backgrounds, and he didn't create it, so you can't bitch saying that he's made 50 threads about China. I don't mind it at all if he just mentions it here and there as long as it is relevant and not his own fucking topic.

he makes a lot of posts about China too because he used to live there. I've posted nowhere near 50 topics about China, probably less than a dozen at the most. yeah I admit I made a large number of topics about being there but hey nothing really exciting happens in my life, with exception of few things. I think visiting China made me mature a bit. before the China trip, I was just another stupid kid who has no real idea of how the world is.

no matter what kind of topic I make in the future somebody will just be like LOL SO WHAT ABOUT CHINA just like you guys did in my absolutely-nothing-to-do-with-China topics. if you guys would shut the fuck up about it would help a little more.

[IAmCrystalHeights]

At 6/29/11 12:50 AM, Xyphon202 wrote: Yeah because all of your other topics are about some uninteresting thing that happened in your life. No one cares man, only make a topic if something really cool happens so people won't be fucking annoyed with you. Or, make a topic that has nothing to do with your life at all.

a lot of the topics I make have little to nothing to do with my life. sure the majority are related to my life, but it would be a lie to saying a large portion of this forum's threads aren't about your life. be honest, a TON of people threads that nobody gives a damn about and think are uninteresting and stupid. get over it, it's a public message board that attracts to mostly teenagers.

but we really should move on and stop talking about this because it's irrelevant to the topic.