(He was like “but after three generations they should be just American” and I was like “how long have your ancestors been British and you’re still Scottish” and he was like, seriously affronted, but that was the point)
if evolution is real, why are there still Irish
If your argument offends you when used on you, that can be a good reason to re-evaluate your argument.
That makes no sense. Scotland is part of Great Britain, so the people who live there are surrounded by and living that culture. People whose ancestors immigrated to the US don’t live in that original country and culture anymore.
Or am I missing something?
You are: Scotland is still Scotland, and people who live there are also surrounded by and living Scottish culture, which is visibly distinct from other parts of British culture.
And people who immigrate to the US frequently live with enough exposure to their ancestor’s culture that it’s a significant component of their identity. I have been to the Oktoberfest in New Ulm, MN. There are people there who still have fairly thick German accents, because that’s just what their immediate community is like.
I assumed that @kontextmachine was talking about Native Americans?
It’s a followup to this in which the Scotsman asks me to explain the significance of “African-American”, this just wandered down a reblog chain unconnected.