All Mutts want to feel like their pure breeds. haha I'm ironically Russian, German and Japanese... American

All Americans come from different backgrounds. All of us do, and we like to make that distiction. As for the culture thing, try walking around some of the neighborhoods in New York City. That'll tell you all you need to know.

Because to be American doesn't really mean much culturally. We are a salad bowl of many cultures but culturally we are sadly devoid of anything of real substance.Who wants to be associated with levis, burgers, and money with little else that is truly ours?

We all need the feeling of belonging to a tribe... being Scots/Irish I have the best compination... Irish eyes and a caber up my sporran ;-)

Because we keep our culture when we come here. We are American but we are equally whatever our ancestry is. I am a Cajun. I consider myself a Cajun and an American. American is my citizenship but Cajun is my culture.

I don't do that, I just identify myself as "American", with nothing else. I mean, I'm about 85% Italian, 10% German, 5% Irish and 5% Native American(Cherocee tribe)(sp?). I rarely define myself as "Italian-American" or "German-American". I guess a lot of American people identify themselves by ethnicity because America is so cultuarally diverse. I mean, America isn't just one culture. Italy is just one culture, Italian. Germany is one culture, German. I guess people want to show where they came from by calling themselves by their home country. No one is "true American" except for true Native Americans.

I think there is a misinterpretation here. I can say I'm "Scottish-American" or "Native American", and that identifies the origin of my ancestors. However, we should NOT forget that the word "American" is still in there. It isn't that they consider themselves culturally Irish or Italian. They are identifying that their family culture is a unique mixture of American and Irish/Italian/what-have-you. At the end of the day, we are all Americans.

I am a AMERICAN and I only IDENTIFY with MYSELF -- You ask as though we are not here

I think, historically, it came about when America was being populated largely by immigrants. People identified themselves both by their ancestry and as Americans. I don't think they are "culturally" identifying themselves. Culture and ancestry are not the same. I hear alot less of this type of identification today than was popular 20 years ago or more.

We have the same appellations in Australia. Our family is Italo-Australian. Why? Because my husband was brought up in a bicultural home, Italian-German, (but his cultural leanings were towards his Italian family, since there were no German relatives alive after the death of his grandmother). He ate Italian, spoke Italian as a first language (although he is matched bilingual, and is trilingual) and his attitudes are very European. Despite that, he was born in Australia, and there is no doubt that his allegiances politically lie here. When I married him, I already spoke Italian fluently, though I am not Italian (long story) and we decided to teach our daughters to speak Italian from birth. We still are heavily Italian oriented, though we are Australian. Our daughters feel a strong tie to the Italian community, and look on Italy with the fondness that Anglo-Australians reserve for England. We are extremely proud of the Italian heritage of the family, and the fact that we can move in differing cultures and help people of different backgounds. That does not negate our love for Australia, just qualifies us. We are proud to be Australians with an Italian heritage.

It's a very good question. People here in Scotland often laugh at the cultural pretensions allied with utter ignorance of "Scottish-Americans". "Irish-Americans" (with the connivance of government) aided the IRA with funding to help terrorists kill many soldiers and civilians. As other answers have alluded to, it may come from a cultural inferiority complex; for such a big and affluent country, you haven't achieved very much outwith the fields of movies, popular music and (arguably) novels. It may be comforting to hark back to the "motherland" where you believe your ancestors came from. See the film Local Hero for a very good treatment of this issue.

If I were to label myself thusly, I would be Romanian-Rromani-American. I do not want to say that mess. When I am asked, I am an American of Romanian descent. My ethnicity is Rromani (erm, Rromani is an ethnicity, RomaniA is a nation). If I wanted to get persnickety, I would say "first generation American of Romanian Rromani descent". I understand the reason people do this. It is showing pride in your heritage. Culturally, I am both, to me. I am American but I was raised by my father, who was from Romania itself and I was raised NOT in an American way. In fact, I was not just raised Romanian, I was raised Romanian Rromani... there is a difference between Gadje and Rromani upbringings. I also believe that many of us feel rootless in America. All of us other than the Native Americans came from somewhere else. None of us other than the Native Americans have deep roots in America and I know that I am not the only one who clings to a deep heritage. Heritage gives meaning to one's life, gives depth.

Depends on the question. If someone asks me where I'm from, I say Seattle, if they ask where my family if from, I say Minnesota and Ohio. It's only when I am asked about my heritage, that I will give a backround of immigration.

I think it depends on how long the person (family) has been in the US. I call myself American. My father's family has been here for many generations. My Maternal Grandmother was born in Poland. She was Polish-American. She was a naturalized citizen. I know I have some Polish background, and I learned a lot of their traditions, but I am not Polish-American. Someone that is a Naturalized citizen, or first generation citizen of parents who naturalized may be much more likely to be a hyphenated American because they still have very close ties to that other culture.

I am an Ameican, true red white and blue. My grandparents on one side were Norweigen immigrants who came over a long time ago. On the other side we think that they came over before the civil war and that they were Scotch. But in the meantime, we have married into almost every group you can imagine, except African Americans and I am sure that someone from this generation will do so. Over time, the United States will become more and more brown. That's okay with me. I am married to another true blue American and she hasn't worked out. We have four kids and she wants to play. I am trying to think what to do. In the meantime my brother married a Puerto Rican and it is the best marriage you can imagine. So it don't matter which ethnic group we are all Americans. That's the way I call it. My Puerto Rican sister-in-law practices a kind of voodoo called Santera and she has a little altar in a corner of her home which, at present, is devoted to improving my marriage. She is the sweetest woman I know. I wish I had my brothers' luck and sense when it came to marriage.

This self-identification is very important to many people. Both cultures are a huge part of their lives. Very few people in America can say they are strictly American. It's hard to find a peron that doesn't celebrate a holiday, follow a tradition or eat a food from another country or corner of the world because it is part of their family background.