From Spain here, when we want to speak about USA people we use the term “yankee” or “gringo” rather than “american” cause our americans arent from USA, that terms are correct or mean other things?

  • southsamurai
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    1 month ago

    IDGAF about what leaders called it/us. That’s almost irrelevant.

    But other people in the world absolutely were using the term American to refer to citizens of the US before the 1900s.

    I’m also not sure why you insist on staying on this tangent when the conversation was about current usage.

    • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      Getting you to read is impossible. Stop white-supremacist vibing and actually read about its historical usage. I even linked you an article, which I know you didn’t read.

      It’s so frustrating to read books about the long history of these things and then have confidently wrong children try to correct you with a vibes-based analysis.

        • slackassassin
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          1 month ago

          Obviously, recognizing that Americans are called Americans is white supremacist vibes because Americans are white, duh. You just have to read the correct things to agree properly.

    • Grapho@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      other people in the world absolutely were using the term American to refer to citizens of the US before the 1900s.

      I mean, a few, I imagine. There’s always been people saying shit wrong. Would help your case if you actually had a source and not just a vibe to refute an evidence based position.

      By population, however, most of the world isn’t the anglosphere. Spanish speakers, which is most of America, by and large call you “Estadunidenses” whenever it’s not “gringo”. A good chunk of us also speak English and object to gringos colonizing “america” much like Indonesians or Indians or Malaysians probably would have if Japan decided it was “Asia”.

      You might not have decided that we speak English, but the same government that made it a necessity for us in the global south to learn the language is the one that decided to steal that term. Language matters.

      • southsamurai
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        1 month ago

        Oh, I have sources. I’m just not rounding them up for this shit. After the assholery I’ve already dealt with, I’m done. I didn’t give much of a fuck about dessalines’ tangent to begin with, but was willing to engage a little with it just because of who it was.