karl wrote:I like Usain Bolt like everyone else, but more United Statesian than a United Statesian? I dunno if that's actually possible. A lot of Hispanic immigrants bring their respect for their home country to the US. That's cool. But at the games? A little out of place methinks.
The Annoyed Man wrote:
Seriously Jim, people have been using the term "American" to denote a citizen of the United States of America for at least a century......including liberals. In the context you're using, it would be like using "European" to describe a French citizen, but nobody else uses "American" in that context. It's not cultural chauvinism or jingoistic nationalism. It's just common usage. Nothing more.
Have you run that opinion by other countries in the Americas?
How extensively have you traveled? I've travelled and lived abroad some.
In Paris, when I met an english speaking guy once, I asked him, "American?" He answered, "No, Canadian." I have asked spanish speakers in Europe if they were Spanish, and been told "No, Venezuelan. You?" I answered "American," and they understood and were not offended. I have been asked in french, "D'ou estes vous?" and I answered, "je suis Américain," and the other person understood perfectly well that this meant that "Je suis un citoyen des Estas Unis." This thread is the very first time in my life that I've ever seen someone get offended by that usage, and I honestly think that it amounts to making mountains out of molehills.
So yes, I have vetted the term in actual use, and have done it over decades.
You may have been offended by it, but in my 60 years, including large parts of it living overseas, I've never heard or seen anyone use the term in any other way than the same one
I've used it in, and I have never seen anyone understand it any differently than I understood it.....or get offended by it.
Like I said, it's not cultural chauvinism or jingoistic fervor, it's simply common usage.....just as 57coastie acknowledged above, and it certainly isn't anything worth getting all worked up over. I'm actually a little surprised that you persist in that line of reasoning.
To each his own, I suppose. I'm not going to change a lifetime of speaking the way I speak just to suit you, when everybody else I've ever met, including another friend's Argentinian wife, knows perfectly well what I meant, and it wouldn't even have
occured to her to misunderstand or be offended. If you don't want to understand what I mean, then that's on you, because I don't know how I could be any more clear. Have a nice and peaceful afternoon.
Edited to add the following:
I have no opinion on Bolt, except to acknowledge that he can run faster than me. A LOT faster. I am appreciative that he was respectful during the playing of our national anthem, but I would hope that, as an olympian, he would be equally respectful when some other country's anthem was being played. It's the right thing to do, so in that context, Bolt did the right thing. But I don't think that makes him any more or less American than anyone else. Now, as to the other guy.....I'd ask him, who did you compete for, the U.S. team or the Mexican team? Make up your mind, because they only count you once. It is perfectly OK to be proud of your cultural heritage if your family comes from another country, but waving a flag is a sign of national allegiance, and he was waving a Mexican flag. Under which flag does his heart reside? When you go to the olympics as a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, those are
Americans (
my usage) who are paying your way there. Mexico did not pay for your training. Mexico did not pay for your coaching. Mexico did not pay for your airfare to the Olympics. And Mexico did not pay for your support 8,000 miles from home. Mexico will not be paying for your airfare home. When you get there, it was your effort that got you there, but you
go there representing the nation that nourished your ambition and paid to get you there, as a member of that nation's Olympic team. Show the people who got you there a little respect. Don't wave some other country's flag at them, some country which had nothing at all to do with fulfilling your personal ambitions, because....contrary to popular belief some times....it
isn't always all about you. If you can't do that, then I am no longer interested in your personal success. When you offend
enough people who got you there this time, then maybe they won't be so willing to send you the next time, because you don't represent us.....ALL of us, not just your little cultural corner of the United States of America.
So that's how I feel about that.
