Columbus discovered America in 1492; Jamestown was soon after; 1776 independence was declared. With over 500 years history, is it OK to say "100% American" after someone asks what nationality you may be?
by 
Simply99 -- Not a fan favorite.
ANSWERS: 8
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I don't think that it's possible to be "100%" ANYTHING. You had to have come from somewhere before that place was discovered. However, you should be able to correctly say that you are "100% American" if your family has been in America for that long.
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Really, the only "pure American" would be someone for whom all ancestors were American citizens at the time the relevant offspring was conceived... otherwise you have some non-American blood, yes? You have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, and so forth. This progression grows rapidly, until you reach a time in history when there was no such thing as America, at which place the purity breaks down for everyone! So basically, nobody is "100% American". We seem to function just fine without that honor, though.
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My family's been here for generations, but I tend to call myself a "Mutt American". American has been a mutt ancestry ever since it began, and really being an American is more of an attitude than an ancestry. Almost nobody's 100% anything anymore, and I think my "Mutt" gives the impression better than any pure-breeding claim could manage.
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It's a frame of mind. I think it must be better to consider yourself 100% American than to constantly hark back to a distant heritage that you have never really experienced, like Irish-American and Italian-American. It's really no different to the situation in Britain where the Vikings, Romans, French, etc. came and went after leaving their genes behind.
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Politically, your answer is yes, a citizen of the US is 100% American. This even applies to people born in another country and naturalized here. However, if you mean by lineage, scientists are still battling that one out. There are several claims that there is proof the earliest inhabitants came from Russia, Asia, or elsewhere, and claims that is proof of indigenous people, with no evidence that they came from somewhere else. To be really far-fetched, can we even be sure we are all 100% Earthlings? Some people will dispute that. My ancestors were here before the European Invasion, but no concrete proof has been established they were "first".
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Was really speaking of this conversation... 1) What nationally are you? 2) American. 3) No, I mean originally. Just seems like Americans are the only ones subject to this. If the answer was 'Canadian,' answer is generally accepted as given. Not meaning to start anything, just a hoo-haw question, really from this 100% American and proud of the fact.
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Jamestown soon after Columbus. Jameston was May 14, 1607. Depends on if you think a century just a moment in time. But back then you are talking three to four generations. My family arrived in America in 1690. And no it is not right that I call myself 100% American to ethnicity. I add I am also a US Combat Veteran and still do not have the right as to ethnicity. Only those that are 100% Native American have that right. Go right ahead and say you are American by birth, and your citizenship American, just not that you are ethnically American.
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If you are an American citizen, your nationality is American. Your ethnicity is not the same as your nationality. Your ethnicity is determined by your genetics, not your citizenship.
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