[PymnImmen]

There isn't some sort of cutoff point or test for being British.
It's all subjective anyway.

From the poll responses, it seems that Anglo-Americans vote yes and everyone else says no.

I know, but I was also asking for subjectivity. In the sense, what metrics can be used to say if someone is British, or belongs to an ethnicity, when they are not living in the country. You know, how close are the two cultures. How much assimilation has happened. So one can say "Yes, he is a xxxxx person now". I get your reply, that is it hard to put it down on a measurement scale.

Are the cultures close enough, that the "yes" here is valid. Not disputing this, but opening up the OP more.

[adesseridopaw]

I consider this to be more about culture than merely ancestry.
Mexican-Americans aren't really 'British' because they have a different culture, not just different genes.
Anglo-Americans have a more similar culture and genetic background compared to a normal English person than to a Mexican-American.

[wmhardware]

I consider this to be more about culture than merely ancestry.
Mexican-Americans aren't really 'British' because they have a different culture, not just different genes.
Anglo-Americans have a more similar culture and genetic background compared to a normal English person than to a Mexican-American.

Do you consider ex. Mexican-Americans to be Spanish, based on their ancestral and cultural influences?

[Caluabdum]

Do you consider ex. Mexican-Americans to be Spanish, based on their ancestral and cultural influences?

Probably not.
Spaniards and Mexicans share a smaller amount of DNA on average.

I don't really know much about it but I think that Spanish and Mexican culture is probably further apart than British and Anglo-American culture.

[Cyclicymn]

Voted no. I self describe as an Anglo-American as that was the culture I was raised in. I would go so far as an American of British ancestry/descent but not British. That whole Revolutionary War puts a kink into it.

I also have ancestors that fought on both sides of the Rev war too.

[Nabeqiv]

I also have ancestors that fought on both sides of the Rev war too.

I have at least two 6th great grandfathers like that. Their grandchildren married. Clearly the hatchet was buried by that point.

[Tw1anJOO]

It's always rubbed me the wrong way to hear Americans say "I am X" as opposed to "I am of X descent/ancestry/heritage/etc."

I am largely of British ancestry, and I've lived in England, but I would never say "I'm British."

[*Playergirl*]

I think the Anglo-Saxon roots in America are quite strong and deeply rooted in the countries history, so it depends on which American you ask, and it also depends how much British they are in order for them to define themselves as "British" genetically. I think culturally speaking America has derived much of its cultural, political, and social framework from the British Isles, and the original founders of this country were by and large of English/Ulster Scottish ancestry.


There were others involved such as the French and Germans to a lesser extent, but early American society was very British in its whole orientation. If you read into the whole history behind the British migrations in the U.S. you will find that there were certain waves of British individuals from different parts of England/Scotland/Northern Ireland who spread out into the different parts of the country.


The North Britain/Ulster Scottish/Scottish tended to come into the country in the areas the Quakers dominated, and then were sent out into the Appalachian region where they typified the backwoodsmen, who also influenced the American agrarian and ranch culture in the South. The English from the south of England influenced the plantation culture, and generally settled in Virginia, the Midlanders from England influenced the industrial culture in the Midwest, and finally the East Anglia Puritans who settled in the Northeast influenced the corporate culture.


I think sometimes we don't realize how British derived and influenced our culture can be at times, and I think it has aided in building such a close and integrable relationship with the British Islanders. Basically the argument during the Revolutionary War that was we were fighting in the name of British rights, which justified the rule by people via John Locke and Thomas Paine's own writings on the matter.

There of course a few Frenchmen who played a part, but the majority of it focused around preserving a British notion of rights and freedom. There was also a boost in trade and economic transference between the British and the Americas after the Revolutionary War, and it was seen as the quickest peace that has ever been established between two enemy nations.

Also we speak the English language, so that is another thing that connects us with the British, and genetically there are of course some pure English/Ulster Scottish mixes, although some early on in America mixed with Germans, French, Irish, Dutch, and even Scandinavian peoples in the colonies.

That said in some specific areas the pure WASP identity has been maintained, and there are also clearly many of pure British Islander descent in America, which includes Irish ancestry. I think its fair to say that America has some strong British roots, which they have derived from early on in many ways in a genetic, cultural, and linguistic manner all of which supplemented each other.

Therefore I think some Americans, even if they are not pure Anglo-American feel some connection with the British Islanders in some ways, since they are genetically partially British in most cases.

---------- Post added 2012-06-26 at 15:13 ----------

I consider this to be more about culture than merely ancestry.
Mexican-Americans aren't really 'British' because they have a different culture, not just different genes.
Anglo-Americans have a more similar culture and genetic background compared to a normal English person than to a Mexican-American.

I don't think you can separate ancestry/genetics from culture though, and the strong impact and influence they have in shaping the cultural experience. Language is a means through which the genetic/psychological element of the culture is expressed and communicated about a specific "something" which holds a symbolic cultural value.

Anglo-Americans genetic orientation predisposes themselves towards a more British experience culturally speaking.

I mean when you think about it even the non-European elements of Anglo-American society, such as the African-Americans in particular, have Anglo-American cultural and genetic influences, although I think the African component largely dominates.

[ppaelkos]

It's always rubbed me the wrong way to hear Americans say "I am X" as opposed to "I am of X descent/ancestry/heritage/etc."

I am largely of British ancestry, and I've lived in England, but I would never say "I'm British."

But most everyone knows that it means British ancestry, not nationality.

Americans of Irish descent say they are Irish, Americans of Italian (or Sicilian) descent will say they are Italian (or Sicilian), Americans of German descent say they are German.
Why can't an American of a blend of British ancestry say they are British (which means they are of British ancestry)?
I don't go around saying "I'm British" the way Italian-Americans will say they are Italian, but when someone asks me what I am, what ethnicity/background/heritage, it is understood what is meant by that. It also depends on where one lives. I was asked what I was nearly every day when I lived in NYC (where I was born and grew up). It's what people ask. Most people in NYC who have asked me this don't even know where Scotland is, so I'll say England or Britain (some think England/English and Britain/British is the same thing) or if they still don't know what I'm saying I'll say "near Ireland" and then they'll get it. But then they will be baffled that I am not Catholic (because all Irish in NYC is Catholic). Everyone in NYC has heard of Ireland. I'm not Irish. Most white people in NYC are second or third or fourth generation Irish, Italian, Russian or Jewish. Each group has a stereotype(s) attached to it, so people want to know how to think about you when they meet you, and they judge you according to how you are compared to the stereotype.

[Eltabaco]

I ended up voting yes. My ancestry is primarily English, I would say 70% or greater, and the majority of the rest German. There are some women with Irish surnames, Murphy and Fitzpatrick, that married my paternal ancestors several generations back also. I am an Anglo-American of colonial ancestry though I do also recognize and appreciate my German ancestry. I consider myself to be ancestrally English and German and I guess that makes me culturally British since American culture is derived almost entirely from British culture.

[sposicke]

Most stupid question I've heard.

I'm shocked that three of the americans voted "yes".

[MatueHarton]

I'm amused by the number of non-Americans and non-British who were compelled to vote no.