Is the term "British" offensive?

[captcalhoun]

^

we didn't just found America, we found the goddamn continent too!

 

[Michael Chris]

^It always warms my heart to see members of the public embracing such impartial and fair-minded views of history.

Well, my statement has a little hyperbole, but otherwise is true.

 

[Goliath]

^

we didn't just found America, we found the goddamn continent too!

What do you mean "we," pale-face?

 

[RoJoHen]

I just want to say that the US was founded a long time ago, and as an American citizen, I have no reason to give a shit about the UK's history.

 

[Goliath]

Well, that's true.

But if you look into it, I think you'll find that the UK has a very long and interesting history. Fascinating, even.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, that's true.

But if you look into it, I think you'll find that the UK has a very long and interesting history. Fascinating, even.

I'm sure that can be said of any country (hell, any TOWN) around the world if you look hard enough.

 

[Goliath]

Well, that's true.

But if you look into it, I think you'll find that the UK has a very long and interesting history. Fascinating, even.

I'm sure that can be said of any country (hell, any TOWN) around the world if you look hard enough.

No. Not any country.

Take Canada, for instance...*yawns*

My Canadian-history colleagues keep trying to convince the rest of us that our country's history is just as rich and fascinating as any other's.

But, deep down, even they don't believe it.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ The Human Race has an interesting History.

American accents all sound completely different to me and I think to most Brits, I can distinguish quite easily and tell where somebody is from in the US with a good degree of accuracy.

Where do you think I'm from?

I heard you reciting some of your poetry years ago, and I thought to myself, now there's a fine Bostonian accent if I ever heard one.

Honest!

Heh. I believe you. I've heard that a few times. In fact, pretty much everywhere I've gone, people have known where I come from.

I don't hear it, though.

 

[Colonel Green]

Whoah, no need to make those kind of remarks.

I was just using the same terms as Shatmandu, relax.

SAY WHAT?! The UK did not found the United States of America. It's former colonies came together and tore apart the false crown of the British and those men, freed from the tyranny of the crown, founded a unique nation.

The UK founded the colonies that later formed the USA. The British empire is the direct historical antecedent to the Uniteddr States.

I just want to say that the US was founded a long time ago, and as an American citizen, I have no reason to give a shit about the UK's history.

The US was founded in response to and as an outgrowth of the political culture of the United Kingdom. To suggest that one can understand the history of the USA without a basic grounding in British history is akin to claiming that one could fully understand the history of Oregon without any knowledge of the of the US east of the Mississippi, or modern Russian without Tsarist Russia.

The story of America doesn't start in 1776, or even 1620 for that matter. While of obvious importance, the US is a relatively young part of human history, it's culture and traditions drawing heavily on centuries of western history.

 

[Danoz]

Here's a (hopefully) more serious question:

Is the term "Brit" offensive? Do British people object to being called "Brits"?

I always discourage my students from using that term, and I flag it if I find it in their written work. Even if it's not offensive, I think it's too colloquial for an academic paper.

To me it seems like calling Americans "Yanks," Germans "Krauts," or Irish people "Micks."

Or should I lighten up?

I like cultural intolerance when it's ridiculous. I would never be offended if somebody called me a "yank."

 

[RoJoHen]

Whoah, no need to make those kind of remarks.

I was just using the same terms as Shatmandu, relax.

SAY WHAT?! The UK did not found the United States of America. It's former colonies came together and tore apart the false crown of the British and those men, freed from the tyranny of the crown, founded a unique nation.

The UK founded the colonies that later formed the USA. The British empire is the direct historical antecedent to the Uniteddr States.

I just want to say that the US was founded a long time ago, and as an American citizen, I have no reason to give a shit about the UK's history.

The US was founded in response to and as an outgrowth of the political culture of the United Kingdom. To suggest that one can understand the history of the USA without a basic grounding in British history is akin to claiming that one could fully understand the history of Oregon without any knowledge of the of the US east of the Mississippi, or modern Russian without Tsarist Russia.

The story of America doesn't start in 1776, or even 1620 for that matter. While of obvious importance, the US is a relatively young part of human history, it's culture and traditions drawing heavily on centuries of western history.

This presumes I care about America's history as well. I live here. I know the gist of what I learned in school. Beyond that, I don't need to know how much more.

In scifi terms, American history is "Battlestar Galactica," and UK history is "Caprica." I don't need to know how the Cylons were made in order to know that they wiped out the entire human race.

 

[RoJoHen]

Here's a (hopefully) more serious question:

Is the term "Brit" offensive? Do British people object to being called "Brits"?

I always discourage my students from using that term, and I flag it if I find it in their written work. Even if it's not offensive, I think it's too colloquial for an academic paper.

To me it seems like calling Americans "Yanks," Germans "Krauts," or Irish people "Micks."

Or should I lighten up?

I like cultural intolerance when it's ridiculous. I would never be offended if somebody called me a "yank."

I'd be more confused and wondering where they were from.

 

[Sci]

]
The UK founded the colonies that later formed the USA. The British empire is the direct historical antecedent to the Uniteddr States.

Not exactly.

First off, the United States of America (the state) has no single predecessor state. Its predecessor states were the thirteen separate states that had formed a confederation -- little more than an alliance, really -- under the Articles of Confederation. (The US Declaration of Independence decalares the separate independence of the thirteen individual states.) The thirteen states themselves were literally sovereign and independent states prior to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and formation of the current state known as the U.S. in the 1780s. Under the Articles of Confederation, the confederation called the "United States" -- a separate legal entity than what currently exists -- was basically to the states as the European Union is to its member states.

The predecessor polities to those states, of course, were the Thirteen Colonies -- the Province of New Hampshire, the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the Connecticut Colony, the Province of New York, the Province of New Jersey, the Province of Pennsylvania, the Delaware Colony, the Province of Maryland, the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, the Province of North Carolina, the Province of South Carolina, the Province of Georgia.

Those colonies themselves were colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain, the predecessor state to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

"The British Empire" was not an actual state; it was a collection of states and colonies subjugated first by the Kingdom of Great Britain, then by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (which later renamed itself the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

The United Kingdom itself is the successor state to the Kingdom of Great Britain; it did not exist until the Acts of Union 1800 went into effect.

In other words... the United States of America is the successor state to the successor states of the colonies of the predecessor state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

 

[RoJoHen]

Does that make us our own grandfather...or something?

 

[Sci]

Does that make us our own grandfather...or something?

I mean, if you define successor states as being akin to offspring, it means that the US's relationship to the UK is akin to that of a someone to his/her great-uncle/great-aunt (i.e., their grandparents' siblings).

 

[Goliath]

"The British Empire" was not an actual state;

True.

In fact, India eventually became an empire all by itself. Queen Victoria was Empress of India.

it was a collection of states and colonies subjugated first by the Kingdom of Great Britain, then by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (which later renamed itself the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

This is only partly true.

You're overlooking the fact that the colonization of North America began before the Act of Union in 1707, which established the Kingdom of Great Britain.

So, the first colonial states were actually the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.

Indeed, the disastrous failure of the Darien scheme--the attempt to establish a Scottish colony of New Caledonia on the isthmus of Panama--helped smooth the way for the union of the two kingdoms.

 

[Michael Chris]

Whoah, no need to make those kind of remarks.

I was just using the same terms as Shatmandu, relax.

SAY WHAT?! The UK did not found the United States of America. It's former colonies came together and tore apart the false crown of the British and those men, freed from the tyranny of the crown, founded a unique nation.

The UK founded the colonies that later formed the USA. The British empire is the direct historical antecedent to the Uniteddr States.

Somewhat, but that sure is not the same thing as "founded."

 

[MANT!]

For the record... As much as the Spanish-speaking cultures cry about it, they are not "Americans". You never hear Canadians and Brazilians fighting to be called Americans (the Canadians are likely to kill you if you try).

American is the diminutive of the United States of America just like Mexican is the diminutive of Los Estados Unidos Méxicanos.

And I hate "Estadounidense". If we're Estadounidenses, so are Méxicanos.

And there is no continent called America. There are North America and South America, which are the Americas, but never America. The only America is the U.S.A. It's the same with how the United Mexican States call themselves Mexico for short.

United States is the equivalent of Bundesrepublik or Estados Unidos. You don't hear Deutschen calling themselves Bundesrepublikaner and you don't see Méxicanos calling themselves Estadounidenses. Same thing. We are Americans and the short form of our country is America.

You're gonna have to deal with the fact that in Latin America Americans are "Estadounidenses". I know it must be hard for you to accept but for us all people from the continent know as The Americas are "Americanos". It's not done to irk people from the US it's just the way it's worked out for Spanish speakers language wise.

In Europe people from the USA and Canada are generally referred to as North Americans since it's difficult to tell them apart, except people from the southern states, who are seen as a separate group but more because of their accents than their philosophy. California is seen almost as a separate country.

And we Californians are very glad of that fact..


When I lived in the UK, I travelled around and found the Yorkshire and Cornish accents to be completely incomprehensible..just gave up asking for directions there..worse than Texas..or Boston


We used Brits as a term of camaraderie to our hosts..the derogatory term used at the time among American service personnel was "Blokes"..

Thankfully, I seldom used that term as I found most of the British I met all over the country to be friendly and helpful.. I met only a few ultra-nationalist xenophobes during my 3 years in the British Isles...Being called "Stupid Fuckin American" was about the worst I heard..


Yank was also used by my British friends towards me with affection..It actually was fun to compare cultures and history.. (US Civil War buffs in the UK?)..and it was enjoyable..


My wife and her Brazilian friends call me Americano..not the word used above.

 

[ITL]

We used Brits as a term of camaraderie to our hosts..the derogatory term used at the time among American service personnel was "Blokes"..

Calling a woman a bloke would be derogatory, it's true....but calling a man a bloke? Not so much....

ITL, Incomprehensible Yorkshireman.

 

[Deckerd]

In scifi terms, American history is "Battlestar Galactica," and UK history is "Caprica." I don't need to know how the Cylons were made in order to know that they wiped out the entire human race.

Entire?