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.
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.