Nationalities

Today in class we talked about how America is the only nation that defines themselves by another nationality i.e. Irish-American or Italian-American. The reason for this could be due to a number of things, but i think that the most plausible answer may come from our past. It is only natural that because there was such a mixture of nationalities, people wish to stay close together with people that they can associate with. Most of other nations share a common lineage, however, Americans draw from such a diverse pool that most do not share in a common past. Therefore, people want to be with other people who have experienced the same things, and their way to do so was to bulk together, for example Chinatown, or Little Italy. All of these things carry over and contribute to why we think the way we think today.