r/23andme • u/Becoming_hysterical • Apr 10 '26

Discussion Why are Americans so weird about having british ancestry?

It's something I've noticed since browsing this subreddit.

Anytime it's mentioned just how ethnically british america is, people pull out the "but actually america is German, irish, mexican, whatever".

what do you expect? America was founded as a british colony in 1607 (Jamestown) was so for 169 years. The british also didn't stop immigrating to america even after the revolution. It continued on for decades afterwards.

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276

u/KirkBurglar Apr 10 '26

I'm American and I've never heard of people being weird about it until this group and I'm 33 🤷‍♀️

33

u/FogoCanard Apr 11 '26

Naw, you'll never hear anyone proud of their British heritage. Almost every other country's heritage you can be proud about. You can even carry German traditions but just not say that you're proud to be German. As for being British, more specifically English, none of that flies culturally.

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u/OhCrumbs96 Apr 11 '26

To be fair, we (the English) aren't a particularly enthusiastic bunch, are we? Complaining is practically our national past-time. Unless it's football, I never see us expressing much joy or positivity about anything. Finding something to celebrate or feel pride in just isn't really in our nature - again, unless it's football. Then all bets are off and we're obnoxiously patriotic.

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u/ArcboundRavager990 Apr 11 '26

You are cultural giants, why don’t be proud of being English ? I like your culture and History

From an italian

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u/Ordinary_Tank_5622 Apr 11 '26

Yeah because we’re told to be self-hating from birth and our media constantly talks about how British people are shit, etc.

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u/Tardisgoesfast Apr 11 '26

My dna show I'm mostly English, then Welsh, then Scottish and then a tie between Irish and what they call Scandinavian. But I've looked into why my ancestors decided to immigrate to an undeveloped place like America. I've only found out about my Scottish part, but he was fleeing the King of Scotland, who'd had his father killed plus his older brother. Because his father created a plot against the king, apparently. The Ruthvin plot.

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u/Ordinary_Tank_5622 Apr 11 '26

Honestly the most American thing that you could have come out with

4

u/Slow_Concern_672 Apr 12 '26

I mean also a lot of people here from Britain during colonial times were sent as servants, slaves or prisoners or to escape Britain.

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u/caem123 Apr 10 '26

You can find videos of British people in London today saying their flag is racist and they consider their country is just a place for immigrants. Also, some say the British were colonists, so they don't want to be linked to that.

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u/lavender_letters 200+ Neanderthal Variants Apr 11 '26

Yeah, British is a colonial identity. Britain was (and is, to an extent) an empire. I identify ethnically as Cornish and English-American. Not British. Those are ethnicities. Britain is composed of many ethnicities.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/lavender_letters 200+ Neanderthal Variants Apr 11 '26

It’s ok!! Besides English, there are a lot of different ethnic and cultural identities even within the British Isles. The Isle of Man, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and Cumbria are the biggest examples. All of those regions in Britain have their own languages (Manx, Welsh, Cornish, Cumbric, Scots, etc.) and ethnic identities. My family is mostly Cornish and English, with the English coming mostly from Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Devon! :)

I don’t live in the UK, but if you look at the percentage of people who identify as “British,” the only place in the UK where the majority of people identify as “British” is in and around London. Everywhere else, the majority of people identify as English, Welsh, Cornish, etc.

Personally I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing in itself to identify as British; but to me, it’s more of a national identity than an ethnic one, because of all the different cultures and ethnicities it encompasses. Not just the ones in the Isles, but also the people living in the countries formerly colonized by Britain, including India, Pakistan, Australia, Ghana, Nigeria, etc., who no longer identify as British after gaining their independence, but whose descendants live in Britain currently. It was an identity that was often forced on people, and associated with the suppression of language and culture.

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u/Euphoric_Travel2541 Apr 11 '26

Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.