Claim It

One of the professional organizations I belong to recently discussed, in the context of the written word, the proper way to refer to the people who lived on this continent before the great influx of Europeans in the late 1400s.

Of course, the U.S. and Canada have different practices. Native American, Native, Aboriginal, Indian, as well as the names of specific groups of people (Inuit, Mohawk)--all are in use in different ways in the two countries.

The advice and consensus was to ask the person you're writing about what reference she prefers. Common politeness wins again.

That got me thinking about how immigrants to Canada think of and refer to themselves. My husband's parents were Finland-Swede immigrants; my husband spoke Swedish until he went to elementary school. When I asked him how he thought of himself, he said "I'm Canadian."

Then I asked if his identity is a fact or if it has emotional content. He said that if he were talking with a person from, say, Italy, saying "I'm Canadian" would be a simple fact. But if he were talking with an American, saying "I'm Canadian" would be an emotional statement, a flag planted, a line drawn in the sand. So for him, saying "I'm Canadian" is saying "I'm not American."

Back to me (it being my blog)--I say "I'm an American." (Let's set aside for a moment the need for a term equivalent to, but less bulky than, "a United States of American," as considered here and in the article to which it refers.) That's, first, a factual statement.

It's also a claim of responsibility. I participated, and still participate, in the public life of that country and have benefited from all the rights and privileges of doing so, and therefore bear some responsibility for what the heck is going on down there.

But I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing. I'm also not comfortable saying "I'm an American," and I'm uncomfortable with it regardless of the political party in power or whatever the heck is going on down there.

I have wondered if saying "I'm American" is more accurate. It feels more equivalent to "I'm a U.S. citizen," but it's also slightly harder to say. And in speech as well as print the two statements are barely distinguishable.

But, come to think of it, splitting those hairs might help. When I hear "I'm an American," I inevitably think of the song "I'm proud to be an American," and that's something I definitely can't say categorically. It's NOT "my country, right or wrong." Which I guess is pretty evident, since I choose to live here.

But I'm not Canadian. That's a legal statement, a statement of citizenship--and of course, that could change. But I don't know that I would ever feel like a Canadian. I don't know that I would ever feel entitled to call myself a Canadian. Hmm. That all feels very Canadian.

All of which makes me wonder if Groucho Marx, the man who wouldn't belong to any club that would have him as a member, was some part Canadian.