yes. There are still people who speak an Italian dialect, there are even people in the US who speak a German dialect or even Chinese. And they have their own celebrations beside the American events. Like many Chinese-American families have been there for generations and still speak Chinese and celebrate Chinese holidays, should they stop calling themselves Chinese-American?
That’s just being part of a minority no matter where you live. White Americans don’t all celebrate the same things and don’t all talk the same way, with some of them being nigh impossible to understand if you weren’t raised around people who speak like them, yet they’re just called Americans. Hell, if you were raised in the USA and have Danish parents no one will call you a Danish-American as long as you don’t have an accent, but if you are of Latino origins and your family has lived on US soil since before the USA was a thing you will be called a Latin-American. It’s just racism.
Speaking a heritage language or celebrating occasional holidays doesn’t justify claiming a nationality you don’t possess.
Most “hyphenated Americans” cherry-pick pleasant cultural elements while remaining disconnected from the contemporary realities of those countries. The vast majority don’t speak their ancestral languages or meaningfully participate in authentic cultural practices.
There’s a significant difference between recent immigrants maintaining strong cultural ties and 4th/5th generation Americans with minimal connection claiming the same identity. Americans also inconsistently apply this logic, often identifying with only one ancestral line while ignoring others.
When “Irish-Americans” visit Ireland, locals don’t recognize them as Irish in any meaningful sense—revealing the fundamental disconnect between claiming an identity and being accepted as authentic by actual members of that culture.
These hyphenated identities ultimately function as American cultural constructs rather than genuine connections to the nations they reference.
No one is claiming a nationality. They’re claiming an ethnicity, a heritage. You being hung up on this distinction is on you. Not the people you go out of your way to misinterpret.
Do they speak a different language, have their own celebrations or social groups?
yes. There are still people who speak an Italian dialect, there are even people in the US who speak a German dialect or even Chinese. And they have their own celebrations beside the American events. Like many Chinese-American families have been there for generations and still speak Chinese and celebrate Chinese holidays, should they stop calling themselves Chinese-American?
That’s just being part of a minority no matter where you live. White Americans don’t all celebrate the same things and don’t all talk the same way, with some of them being nigh impossible to understand if you weren’t raised around people who speak like them, yet they’re just called Americans. Hell, if you were raised in the USA and have Danish parents no one will call you a Danish-American as long as you don’t have an accent, but if you are of Latino origins and your family has lived on US soil since before the USA was a thing you will be called a Latin-American. It’s just racism.
Speaking a heritage language or celebrating occasional holidays doesn’t justify claiming a nationality you don’t possess.
Most “hyphenated Americans” cherry-pick pleasant cultural elements while remaining disconnected from the contemporary realities of those countries. The vast majority don’t speak their ancestral languages or meaningfully participate in authentic cultural practices.
There’s a significant difference between recent immigrants maintaining strong cultural ties and 4th/5th generation Americans with minimal connection claiming the same identity. Americans also inconsistently apply this logic, often identifying with only one ancestral line while ignoring others.
When “Irish-Americans” visit Ireland, locals don’t recognize them as Irish in any meaningful sense—revealing the fundamental disconnect between claiming an identity and being accepted as authentic by actual members of that culture.
These hyphenated identities ultimately function as American cultural constructs rather than genuine connections to the nations they reference.
No one is claiming a nationality. They’re claiming an ethnicity, a heritage. You being hung up on this distinction is on you. Not the people you go out of your way to misinterpret.
So when does the heritage end? As I said, they don’t have much Irish anymore
Why do you even care? Some of them still have living relatives who came from the old country.
Sometimes, yes, yes.