I recently watched a fascinating segment on the concept of "Heritage Americans" - a term used to to describe people who trace their roots to the founding generations or descend from cultures that are predominantly white and Christian (the "original" settlers of the United States).
In a nutshell, if you weren't white and Christian, you could never truly be American (or Canadian). There was a funny section of the video that described social medias response to Kash Patel when he wished people "Happy Diwali". People told him to go back to India and worship his sand gods, despite the fact that Kash was born and raised in the United States.
I have encountered something similar (although not with a racist intent). When people ask me where I am from, it is never good enough to say "Canada". The follow up question is always "Where are you really from (lineage)?", despite the fact that I was born in Toronto. I am also acutely aware that I will always belong as an "Other" in Canada - I used to do a lot of research in rural northern communities, and I was always viewed differently because of my skin color. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it felt like there was a performative aspect to prove that I was "one of the good ones", because I spoke like them and shared similar values/interests.
I was curious to get people's thoughts on how they feel about the concept of "Heritage American". Is a Buddhist Chinese guy from San Francisco as American as a anglo-white church goer from Nebraska?
