<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML dir=ltr><HEAD><TITLE>Message</TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1543" name=GENERATOR><BASE href=HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><SPAN class=774124813-12062006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>On the
2000 census, respondents were asked to write in up to two ancestries that
defined their background. 20 million people wrote 'American', an increase
from 13 million in the 1990 census, but still only about 7 percent of the total
national population. Following the Americanization period, the percentage
of people of German ancestry in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan,
Nebraska declined sharply. In the 1910 census, over 2.3 million people
claimed to have been German-born compared to less than 1.7 million in
1920. IN Nebraska, about 14% of the population self identified as being of
German origin in 1910, compared to only 4.4% in the 1920 census. In
Wisconsin, the percentages went from 29% (1910) to 6.6% (1920). The point
of this is that ethnic identification is highly influenced by historical context
and economic factors, among other things. It is interesting that only
about 7% of the population sees itself in 'non-ethnic' terms; whether that
means of English/Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, or Western European background is
difficult to say. In day to day life, however, these distinctions between
'German', 'English', or mixed European backgrounds are less significant than the
phenotypic constructions of 'race' which continue to be pervasive and often
determinative in designation of 'in group' and 'out group' mindsets based on
such superficial criteria as appearance.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=774124813-12062006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=774124813-12062006><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Tom
Ricento</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
[mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Anthea
Fraser Gupta<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, June 11, 2006 3:35 AM<BR><B>To:</B>
lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu<BR><B>Subject:</B> RE: German heritage in the
US, cont'd<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV id=idOWAReplyText10036 dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>On the longer form of the
2000 census the ancestry question was free choice. There must have been a
wide range of answers. I would guess that some would base it
on patrilineal ancestry, others on the ancestry they saw as dominant. The
answer did not look as if it could be fractional, so someone of mixed ancestry
(most Americans, probably) would be most likely to choose one alternative.
Despite this, 6m people chose more than one.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>In 2000 15.2% of the population described
themselves as of German ancestry, and 8.7% as of English ancestry (see
attached, from 2000 census website). We don't know how many of those declared
multiples.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>But it's possible, isn't it, for 66% of
Americans to have German ancestry and (picking a figure out of a hat, 'cos I
couldn't find the 2000 results on the website) 75% to have 'British'
(aggregated or not) ancestry? I describe myself as English but I have (that I
know of) English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish Tinker ancestry. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>I feel that there is a worldwide drive to
make people have a single ancestral identity, and that these figures can
disguise a history of mixing (coming from both consensual and non-consensual
conception), just as a lot of figures on language background disguise
bilingualism.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2>Anthea</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV id=idSignature15397 dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><BR>
<DIV><FONT size=2>* *
* * *</FONT> <BR><FONT
size=2>Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)</FONT> <BR><FONT size=2>School of English,
University of Leeds, LS2 9JT <www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg></FONT>
<BR><FONT size=2>NB: Reply to a.f.gupta@leeds.ac.uk</FONT> <BR><FONT
size=2>* *
* * *</FONT>
</DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><BR>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> owner-lgpolicy-list@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
on behalf of Harold F. Schiffman<BR><B>Sent:</B> Sat 10/06/2006
21:57<BR><B>To:</B> Language Policy-List<BR><B>Subject:</B> German heritage in
the US, cont'd<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<P><FONT size=2>When I saw the recent message from Bill Beeman, stating that
"More than<BR>60% of all Americans have some German ancestry" I was
dubious, because I<BR>remembered a figure of about 24% from the 1990 census.
So I did some<BR>googling, and found
this:<BR><BR>**************************************************************************<BR><BR>Who's
Counting?<BR>The l990 Census of German-Americans<BR><BR>The results of the
1990 U.S. Census indicate that the total U.S.<BR>population is: 248,709,873.
The five major groups and their percentages of<BR>the total population are as
follows:<BR><BR> 1. German 57,985,595 (23.3 %)<BR> 2. Irish
38,739,548 (15.6 %)<BR> 3. English 32,655,779 (13.1
%)<BR> 4. Italian 14,714,939 (5.9 %)<BR> 5. Polish
9,366,106 (3.8 %)<BR><BR>The "German" category does not include Germans
from other German-speaking<BR>states and regions of Europe and the Americas.
Hence, to the "German"<BR>statistic the following can be
added:<BR><BR> 1. Austrian 870,531<BR> 2. Swiss-German 700,000
(this is 70% of the total Swiss statistic)<BR> 3. Pennsylvania German
305,841<BR> 4. Luxemburger 49,061<BR> 5. Alsatian 16,465<BR> 6.
German-Russian 10,153<BR><BR>These six additional Germanic ethnic groups total
1,952,051.<BR>The total combination then of all seven German ethnic categories
is:<BR><BR> German 57,985,595 (23.3 %)<BR> Other categories
1,952,051 (4.8 %)<BR> Total 59,937,646 (24.09 %)<BR><BR>The
results clearly confirm that German-Americans constitute nearly a
full<BR>one-fourth of the population. German-Americans take pride in the fact
that<BR>they are the major ethnic group in America, just as they can be proud
of<BR>their long history, dating back to the arrival of the first Germans
in<BR>America at Jamestown, Virginia in 1608.<BR><BR>The 1980 Census included
a map of Where in the united states<BR>German-Americans lived...[map not
included here, hs]<BR><BR><A
href="http://home.earthlink.net/~tricentennialfoundation/census.html">http://home.earthlink.net/~tricentennialfoundation/census.html</A><BR><BR>updated
July 26, 2004 Home to Tricentennial Foundation Web
Page<BR><BR>**************************************************************************<BR>[addendum
(hs): Previously, "British" (or even English) heritage topped<BR>the list, but
in 1980 the US census stopped aggregating British heritage,<BR>and divided it
into English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh etc., at which point<BR>German then
topped the list.<BR><BR>Note, however, that a category "Hispanic" does not
even figure in the top<BR>5 in 1980; and unless immigration from all
Spanish-speaking countries is<BR>aggregated, it still may not...<BR><BR>If you
go to an on-line US census page<BR><A
href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf">http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf</A>
you get some statistics<BR>on language use in the US, which of course is
different from "heritage"<BR>or "ancestry": the largest percentage of a
language other than English is<BR>of course Spanish, with 28 million, followed
by "other Indo-European<BR>languages". Chinese is spoken by 2
million...<BR><BR>Hal
Schiffman]<BR><BR></FONT></P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>