Everyone from Europe are Europeans, everyone from Asia are Asians, but if you are from America you have to be North Americans or South Americans becouse the US took Americans for themselves.
Every once in a while i get into heated discussions about this, usa citizens ask me how should we call us then i always say i dont care but why should my right of being American should be remove just because of one comutry in the whole continent!!
So if you ask me im as much American as the usa citizens!!
I don't understand what you are saying. I have friends from Brazil, who call themselves Brazilian, or South American.
You are Venezuelan. Do you want to be called "American?"
I wonder if people from South Africa are annoyed that they're South Africans. Or North/South Vietnamese and North/South Koreans. And those pesky Eastern and Western Germans of the past.
Seems like a lot of anger for something insignificant. I'm "American", if you want to be called Amerian.. POOF! Wish granted. As soon as you change your name to AmericanFoxy it will be complete. Problem solved.
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. Socrates Well, given that there are two "American" continents, even if those from the United States of America weren't called "Americans," we would still have to differentiate between the north and the south, and then there's Central America, which sometimes is referred to as "Latin America" though that is usually considered South and Central America combined. I've even heard North American to encompass only the US and Canada, with Mexico being lumped in to the Latin American category because they seem to have a culture that is closer to the that group than to the culture in the US, but I would be interested to hear someone like Magical Felix comment on where Mexico fits into the whole Americas picture.
Given my well known anti-US bias, I am pretty happy not being referred to as American. I'll stick with Canadian, or North American, with heavy emphasis on the "North" so there's no confusion.
as a Canadian I never really thought about the label... just know that Americans means you're from the US and if you're not from the US you're from somewhere else. No big deal really. However, I'm with the comments on the global community -- the sooner we all realize we are all in this together the better off we will be and perhaps we can save ourselves from the artificial political borders our ancestors created for us. Lennon had it right with "Imagine"
Blame the Italians. Or at least, one Italian in particular. It was an early explorer and cartographer named Amerigo Vespucci who first identified the new world as separate from Asia, and since his maps all had his name on them the new world became called "America". Vespucci sailed further, and was the first man to suggest the idea of two separate Americas, the North and the South. When the American colonies were founded, they were settled by people from all over Europe - and they were called the American Colonies, of just America for short. When the War for Independence was fought, the earliest Americans couldn't agree on what they wanted to call this new country they were trying to found, since every colony would become a state, and each new state wanted to be more important than the rest. Eventually, they settled on The United States of America... for lack of anything better.
Ya gotta call em something, United Statesions is a bit of a mouthful
We over here in the land of Oz just call you all Yanks.......If you see two crocodiles locked in a death wrestle, how do you get them apart? give them a big Yank!..... sorry couldn't resist
If I read my history right the only people that have the right to call themselves true Americans are the Indians. It was the rest of the world that came over and drove them out. As for me, my mothers mother was from Mexico but go a few generations back and they came from other places. Same with dads people, he has ancestors from Ireland, England, Germany and who knows where else. So you can just call me Tami.
Over here in the land of Oz, we call you all Yanks....If you see two crocodiles in a death wrestle, how do you get them apart?... give them a big Yank!.....So sorry, couldn't help myself.
Same here in Australia Tami, true Aussies are the aboriginals, the rest of us are blow ins from other countries or descendants from convicts, or settlers.
I understand where your coming from ... but please don't fall for all that labeling crap, be you and be proud to be you, the label you attach doesn't really matter and I'd much prefer to know the country you are from then the bigger label, which just dilutes our cultures ...
Have a good day the lovely lady from Venezuela ... :-)
If your born in the norther hemisphere of America technically you should be classified as north Americans. But, since the United States is actually the United States of America, we generally classify ourself as Americans.
Well that's just my opinion, sorry if you don't like.
BigDaddyRich
We have the same issues in the Uk - am I British or am I English?
To me, I'm always British - yet to some that would be wrong, and they would insist on English, Scottish, Irish or Welsh.
Live and let live and be open-minded.
Far more important is the "fanny" debate! Listen my American cousins! Fanny is a word much loved and much used in the UK and it means vagina. NOT ARSE! And another thing, don't say ASS! Ass means donkey. We really left you in a terrible state didn't we? I love using the word fanny(to mean vagina) but when I know Americans may be reading it it makes it awkward. Fanny is a much raunchier word than pussy to me. As is "knickers", "panties" sounds so weak..................
Say it loud! FANNY! ARSE! KNICKERS! (Oooooo I feel soooo much better now!)
You guys have too much time on your hands for real. Giggles.
Earthling from Illinois 
