DSM wrote:Most white Americans don't hold an identity deeper than being white and just mistakenly assume the rest of the world works the same way.
Is this actually true, or did you just pull this out of somewhere? I don't have anything but my personal experience to go on, but I would have said the exact opposite.
My mother's family is Italian, and some of our extended family members were interred during World War II. Growing up, she faced a lot of discrimination - to the point where her mother actively tried to suppress the Italian-ness (when my mom went to Italy, her mother went on a screaming rant about the ingratitude and going back to the place she left). Nonna failed to squash the Italian-ness, though - my mom picked up a lot of family recipes and traditions from other relatives that weren't trying so hard to be indistinguishable Americans (and Nonna, herself, couldn't shake them all).
My dad's family came over on the Mayflower, but other lines of the family stayed in England (and in contact). I could technically register as a Daughter of the Revolution because we have family that fought for American Independence. The Protestantism runs strong with them - they are the consummate WASPs. When my father and mother got married, my father's parents were absolutely pissed that my father was marrying an Italian Catholic. I didn't realize the depths to my paternal grandparent's bigotry until after they died, but they certainly considered themselves to be superior to all other white people - almost like they were blue blood Americans.
Ess' parents also have some sort of identification with their heritage. His father's family is Norwegian (his dad is second generation American). When Ess graduated from college, his father flew out to celebrate with us. We went out for Thai food, and his dad looked at the menu completely baffled. He asked us to order him something as close to meat and potatoes as he could get because he has never eaten much outside of his Norwegian diet.
Ess' mom has the weakest link to her heritage, but she still totally identifies as being Scottish. She's looked up her family's clan in Scotland, and frequently uses her heritage as a justification for lots of things (like miserliness and various health issues common to Scots).
Personally, because my father was not a major part of my life and I was steeped in my mom's culture, I identify as Italian. I have always attributed the homogeneity of being "white" to the civil rights movement because it seemed to change the discourse from being about heritage to being about skin color.