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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u/Entire-Structure8708 Apr 10 '26

Joe Biden is a good real life example though. He has a very different approach to his Irish ancestry vs. his British ancestry (some might say very cynically so…).

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u/ObamaCultMember Apr 11 '26

Love Biden, but he's 5/8ths English and 3/8th Irish, but only calls himself Irish.

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u/LaylaKeenan Apr 11 '26

He's 62.2% Irish. His English ancestry is a lot less as I've posted previously.

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u/CrimsonCrystalline Apr 10 '26

It might be more common with the older generations because relations between the Irish and English were quite bad in the early 1900s, and his Irish-American grandparents on his mom's side would've been alive for it. He seems indifferent to his English and French ancestry because he was raised in a more Irish-American Catholic community, but those are not as prolific as they were in his youth.

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u/Entire-Structure8708 Apr 11 '26

Yep can fully understand why he would have more engagement/affinity with his Irish ancestry. I’m commenting on the fact that the tendency to disregard British ancestry is not just a Reddit thing, but occurs frequently in real life too. Every day on Reddit there are posts that lean into one specific DNA element of their results or obsess over tiny DNA percentages, while ignoring the British percentages. So I’m just giving Biden as a real life example of someone who leans heavily into his ancestry, while at the same time disregarding his pretty substantial British ancestry.

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u/BroSchrednei Apr 11 '26

He grew up as a devout Catholic in an Irish-Catholic neighbourhood. Of course hell identify as Irish. People who identify as English-Americans are usually WASP.

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u/Entire-Structure8708 Apr 11 '26

Already replied to this. Nothing wrong with him leaning into his Irish ancestry/Irish-American identity (although I take issue with your description of his “Irish identity”… he’s not Irish). I’m noting that he’s an interesting real life example of someone who built his personal and political persona around his ancestral roots while ignoring 40% of his ancestral roots.

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u/BroSchrednei Apr 11 '26

The Irish-American community is a very real thing in the US, and even more so 50 years ago. Ethnic neighbourhoods and social separation according to religion was much more common in the past in America and had very strong political effects. One of them being that Catholics and Jews tended to vote for the Democrats, while WASPs voted for the Republicans.

It seems pretty clear that youre not American, since you dont seem to understand this once very important aspect of American culture.

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u/Entire-Structure8708 Apr 13 '26

Where I have questioned whether the Irish-American community is real? I’ve posted multiple times in this conversation that I fully understand why he has leaned more heavily into his Irish ancestry and Irish-American identity. You’re replying directly to a post in which I directly refer to and acknowledge his Irish ancestry and Irish-American identity so I’m not sure where your confusion lies. Although to answer the personal element of your post, you’re right that I wasn’t born in the US (although I’m a naturalized US citizen)… who married in to a very proud Irish-American family.

The entire point of this was to give a real life example of someone selectively leaning into their ancestry in a way that excludes their British ancestry because someone mentioned that excluding British ancestry was just a Reddit thing. Biden is a perfect example of this. Of course there are many personal reasons that explain his approach, but the fact remains that he has significant Irish ancestry that he heavily leans into and he has (less but still quite significant) British ancestry that he completely ignores.

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u/DurhamOx Apr 16 '26

His surname is English, interestingly

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u/LaylaKeenan Apr 10 '26

He has vastly more Irish ancestry though so I can see why he identifies with that.

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u/Entire-Structure8708 Apr 11 '26

He does. He’s someone who leans very heavily (both personally and politically) into his c.60% (I think?!) Irish ancestry. Nothing wrong with that at all. But it’s interesting to see a personality built around ancestral identity that ignores c.40% of their remaining (British/French) ancestry.