MIDUS Study participants were asked the following: "How closely do you identify with being an American, in the sense of being a U.S. citizen?" Answers ranged from "not at all closely" (1) to "very closely" (4). I calculated the means for each ethnic group with at least 30 respondents:
Mean American identity score (N = 4,561)
Lebanese 3.86 (n = 14)
Polish 3.86
Amerindian 3.86
Norwegian 3.86
Mexican 3.85
Czech 3.81
Irish 3.81
Swedish 3.80
French 3.79
All Americans 3.79
German 3.79
England 3.78
Italian 3.78
Russian 3.77
Scottish 3.77
Black 3.75
All groups score very high, with no significant differences among them. I included Lebanese Americans even though there were only 14 respondents. Most individuals from all ethnic groups closely identify with being American. This is true even of groups with many immigrants and connections to the Old Country (e.g., Mexican Americans) and for groups that were mistreated historically (i.e., Amerindians and blacks). Surprisingly, somehow, America still seems to do a good job of winning over its people. God bless her.
Are gun owners mentally ill?
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I'm very surprised by this.
ReplyDeleteI always figured this was the general sentiment amongst blacks and other minorities:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi523TdWj_E&playnext=1&list=PL6FBB76E0B1666BDA&index=3
"in the sense of being a U.S. citizen".
ReplyDeleteUh-huh.
I think a lot of you have a skewed version of how blacks/Latinos think. A lot of them arr proud of who they are and where they come from. They may not identify much with white American conservative culture, but they're proud to be from LA or Philly or Harlem or Atlanta (ATL!). So they're proud Americans, in a sense.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that their America and your America might be different places.
Truly the allegiance of conquered aliens and their toiling peon descendants to the McDonalds-Walmart-NFL regime is commendably firm. It has lately been observed by journalists here in Australia that our subdued worker conscripts from nations which aren't British specifically, or European generically, is weak. The faith and loyalty of these non-white colonists to imperial capitalist Australia is by a great measure not equal to the strength which ties the alien to America's idols of Britney Spears, social atomism and contempt for culture or self-development.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, America, Canada and Australia have all been blighted, ah rather blessed, by migrant inundations so early in the history of our settlement as to prevent the formation of a fixed national character as to morals, appearance, lineage and religion. The above journalists have bemoaned the good fortune, ah rather bad luck, of the European countries which by their ancient and unalterable natures cannot assimilate hordes of aliens into the national body. Every one knows what it is, and how you would look, to be a Pole, a Spaniard, a Scotsman or a Dane - America and Australia are merely zones for commercial enterprise, cheap credit and anonymous relations with any race or sex.