I think people make fun of it because to a non-American it comes across as deeply insecure. The trope is that the USA has no history of its own and so its people latch onto the smallest scraps of foreign heritage as a way to give themselves some cultural context and cachet.

I don’t think it’s invalid - in many cases the ancestry is genuine, even if distant/fractional. If it helps them find meaning or feel connected to something then I’ve got no issue with it. Humans like to feel connected to other humans, and it’s fun to discover that you have things in common.

The issues only really arise IMO if someone starts weaponising that ancestry or insisting they now have the authority to speak for a people they have no tangible connection to.

I call myself "Chinese American" because I was born in China and I can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and can read basic Chinese.

Especially online because otherwise people just be white defaultist and assume you're white. And I wanna be unique (while sharing the common national identity as an American).

I feel better about myself being unique.

Its also about self-esteem... I mean I get "jokes" thown at me all the time for being Asian looking... might as well just lean into it... embrace it...

Some communities are closer to their culture than others. I sometimes call myself Irish American but I didn't grow up with Irish culture and know nothing about it.

l fantasize about moving to Ireland mostly because I hate America and want out, knowing that it'd be a big culture shock if I left and I may not get accepted because I'm American.

Some families are much more connected to their home country than others. Americans 3rd gen and beyond often have very little connection. The issue is where Irish culture is distinctly different from Irish-American culture, Italian different than Italian-American. You can't go "back" to the home country and fit in. It's not the same.

I'm Appalachian. Yes I'm of Scotch-Irish descent and my family name is most definitely English, but I'm Appalachian. My forbears were rednecks and communists. And bigots. And public servants. And settlers (murderers of many indigenous peoples). And Union soldiers. In my ancestry are victims of rape and rapists. I'm most comfortable in Northern Scotland and Southern Scandinavia. The land calls out to something ancient within me. I want to raise sheep and live above a barn. My tribe is nebulous, and I'm at peace with that. Some are not.

The United States is a melting pot, and personal identity is both exalted and at the same time completely irrelevant. You're "American" first, and everything else second. Some people cling to a tribe or identity to call their own. Since no one in Europe knows what a "Packer" is, they'll say they're Norwegian-American. They want recognition of their tribe. They want to identify with something bigger, and have the security of others of their tribe when they travel. They want connection. I would hazard that most who put their foot in their mouth while traveling don't realize the faux pas. They think it's a way of connecting with others from another place.

"Oh! You're Italian? Hey, so am I! My mom makes the best Fettuccine Alfredo. I love cannoli. Do you like pizza? Please see me. Please accept me. I'm alone here and no one will riff with me. I'm trying to connect. I'm trying to meet you halfway. I'm trying…"

There's a fine line between celebrating the history of your ancestors and performative cultural appropriation. Being interested in ones ancestors is one thing - swearing that you're 'fiery' because of your Irish ancestry when you're 3 or 4 generations removed from that ancestry is a bit weird at best.

I think the US does have a culture all its own - some of the world's best authors, musicians, artists etc are from the US. It does puzzle me that some US folks are so desperate to claim deep cultural ties elsewhere when they have a pretty good culture already, formed in part from those ancestors.

I am of Italian descent but also Italian-American. Those are different things in my mind. Like, I am learning Italian and learning about Italian culture today (my father and I are trying to get our Italian citizenship although it's a long road). That is separate from the Italian diaspora that my father's family settled into as immigrants in the US. That community has it's own cultural practices and nuances that may be roughly sourced from the same place as my ancestors from Italy, but they aren't the same. I am proud of both, I see no reason to discard the Italian-American label just because Italians might make fun of me. I don't pretend being Italian-American makes me Italian or able to speak for Italians or Italy.

That said, my mother's side of the family is decidedly more WASPy and while I am no less accepting of that heritage, I see no real reason to deliberately celebrate it. It's the dominant "culture" in the US and in no danger of being assimilated away. It may just be that those of us who came from a minority community (no matter how distant that status is from the present) feel driven to protect it on some level.

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have experience with there being a tradition of researching family histories and genealogy among later generation immigrant families in nations outside the US?

I've had multiple friends and relations start researching their family history with the intent of finding the first ancestor to immigrate to the US and their country of origin. As some others have said, I don't believe these people consider themselves to truly be a part of that culture, but it's a fun bit of personal trivia and some fresh new traditions to explore, so it gets talked about.

I wonder if that's universal, or if it could be more of a phenomenon in the US and contributing to what the OP is observing.

I'm English, but neither of my parents are - I'd never claim to be English+(X/Y) though. I'd likely get the shit kicked out of me for just thinking one of them (maybe both for different reasons).

But irrespective of these 2 generations, people have been living where i do for far longer than England has been a country. Just since the Romans left there have been major influxes of Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Normans, Vikings, probably some others . . . not to mention many waves of smaller scale immigration and emigration. It's no lie when they say 'the English all are bastards' - mostly Franco-germanic-scandinavian mongrels.

Most European countries have populations that far outlive the current set of lines on the map or the current flags. And most have been involved with a lot of migration. And most people will have ancestors died on the losing side of one war or another or for a country that is no longer there, or a dividing line that has long since moved.

It just seems odd to me to keep track of all that stuff in any specific sense.

Regarding those from "The Old World" this phenomenon isn't unique to the USA. Most other countries in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa exhibit tying ancestry to not being of the land since time immemorial. It just happens to be that Americans tend to produce the most cultural discussion about it in volume, especially in the English language.

The big thing is recognizing that the culture of the land doesn't match the culture of your "people". It can be tough to reconcile that, especially if someone is from a mix of different origins.

So I'm not American but I do identify as Mexican-Canadian. I am an immigrant so for me that is a very important distinction.

In my perspective though, I wouldn't ever want to make fun of someone for identifying as whatever. However, there is something about the cultural aspect of it that bothers me. If you are many generations in and have, for all intents and purposes, lost your connection with the hyphenated part of your culture, and don't have any intent to learn with or contect with that culture other than by name, it does feel a bit preformative. If someone is actively reconnecting with their culture and trying to learn/understand more about their heritage, then it's fine IMO, otherwise it seems disrespectful/appropriative. You can just as easily say "my ancestry is _____", without claiming it as your culture.

The US population never got to unify as one people with a common culture, so they identify with their DNA to have something similar to what most people in the world has, a place, a culture and millennia of history you are an ingrained part of. There was political will to try uniting the population in the first half of the 1900's, but their racial focus kinda was a fork in the road for that whole project.

So while the rest of us see them as solely US-ians, we have to suffer through the "I'm 3,17 % Bohemian" bullshit. And it is really stupid, but I do understand where it comes from.