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What would you think of a hypothetical campaign to rename the term "American" when referring to the US? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"American" is the official English word when referring to people or things from the United States, but it heavily implies that it means either all of North America or all of North and South Americas. Most other languages have different words for American (country) and American (continents). If there were a campaign to replace the word "America" with something else when referring to the US, what would you think of it?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 years ago* (last edited 4 years ago) (2 children)

This is a good point. In fact, the whole concept of continents is a social construct with very European roots. They're not based in Geography or the tectonic plate system despite what is often (wrongly) taught. They're not based on culture either. Central America (North America) has a lot more in common with South America than with the US and Canada. In fact, culture is like a fractal where you can subdivide forever.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 years ago

Central America (North America) has a lot more in common with South America than with the US and Canada.

Thats what the term Latin America is for.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 years ago (2 children)

should the adjective also be applied to the continents? sure absolutely. but I sort of think it's in a linguistic free for all since the name really doesn't connect to something of deep significance. anybody on any of these continents has about the same claim to it in my book.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 years ago (1 children)

honestly the more I think about it the more referring to "the americas" just feels..... rude? as if the Inuit and Guarani people and everybody in between get lumped into a bucket just because that was what seemed convenient to some dead Europeans from five hundred years back

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 years ago

I'm now gonna go to sleep pondering the division of "Europe" and its political constitution

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 years ago* (last edited 4 years ago)

Another thing is that looking at the level of continents takes away from the nuances of situations. For example: CGP Grey talked about how most native peoples located in where the US is now actually prefer the term Indian compared to Native American, because Native American is a blanket term for natives on both continents, and includes too many very diverse and different groups to really be relevant to individual communities.

Same with Europeans, where you have significant differences between Western, Central, Eastern, and Nordic Europeans. Asians and Africans too, and to an even greater extent.