PEEVE ››
When people say "American" when they mean "White" or "Caucasian."
People do this all the time. A friend of mine had to step out of the room while we were watching a show on TV. She came back and asked what she missed. Her way of asking for clarification was, "Was that the American guy or the Asian?" Both characters were American, most everyone in the show is American. He just happened to be an Asian-American, which threw her off I guess.
Once a teacher asked me what ethnicity I was. I proceeded to tell her that my mother is Mexican and my father is a Pacific Islander. She said, "That's very interesting, because your features are so American." Huh?
— whothegoods from California | Language | 3.3.2010 | Comments (5)
COMMENTS ››
Boy, there are about a million comebacks to that one about Mexican "looking American." I would have really had to bite my tongue. Or maybe not! God. Mexicans are Americans.
— jmc posted 3/3/2010
haha even south americans and central americans are american!! how come people from the united states are the only ones called american when there's a whole nother continent named s. america
— sprinkles posted 3/4/2010
People from the USA often shorten "The United States of America" to "America". This doesn't mean they don't understand that they are residents of the continent of North America. The continent's name is in their nation's name. It also doesn't mean they don't understand that other people living in the Americas could call themselves Americans and be technically correct. But, Brazilians would probably not call themselves "Americans" to avoid confusion. It's just nit-picking semantics really. Sorry it bothers you. It can (somewhat) confuse people from other parts of the world, however, especially if they aren't native speakers of English. Just one of those things really. Not a marker or geographic or international ignorance. But think what you like.
— Rio posted 3/4/2010
way to miss the entire point of the peeve
— wow posted 3/6/2010
Yep, Nationality does not equal race does not equal ethnicity. Especially for somewhere like the USA where most places are pretty diverse.
— Punky posted 3/8/2010
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