I have a friend at home who likes to get a rise out of people. This is a girl who, working her job at the public library, loudly announced to a coworker that she thought Nelson Mandela was overrated and it doesn't take that much effort to sit in jail for 30 years.
One of her favorite tricks is answering "American" to any inquiries of her heritage. Conversations usually go like this:
"Where are you from?"
"I'm American."
"Oh, no. I mean what's your nationality?"
"American."
"Like...your heritage?"
"American."
"Oh. Like Native American?"
"No, just American."
"That's not what I mean! Where is your family from?"
"America."
It's funny to watch people who don't know better try to fight with her, but more intriguing is that people have such an angry reaction to her completely honest answer. What is it about our distant heritage that we Americans, normally so proud of our nationalities, must identify within ourselves?
...if you were wondering, mine is German, Scottish, Norwegian, Swedish, Czech, and Magyar.
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