My family came from a diverse set of places on this Earth– if I were to turn over enough stones, I could claim relatives from Scandinavia, Mongolia, the river valleys of Germany, the mountain slopes in Northern Ireland, and the highlands of Scotland. I do claim these relatives, and I claim their legacy… and their legacy was a search, a struggle to find a free land.
I am an American. Why would I wear the oppression my ancestors bore as part of my identity? Should I wear the scars my German ancestors gained from the Romans? Or perhaps the ones gained by my Irish ancestors under the care of the British? Or should I simply leave off all hyphens, prefixes and suffixes and say that I’m from here?
(H/T I Own The World)
