Also offensive: pointing out that English speakers do not use the word “American” to refer to people from Latin America. The term in our language is universally used to refer to people from the country America.
Also offensive: pointing out that English speakers do not use the word “American” to refer to people from Latin America. The term in our language is universally used to refer to people from the country America.
If they want to use it, I’m not going to correct them. If they try to “correct” me for using my language in its most widely accepted manner, that’s when I start getting mad. The only one policing others’ language arethose insisting you cannot call Americans Americans.
The issue for me is that you were the one insisting that it was “arrogant” of certain Spanish speakers to have the temerity to consider themselves American by virtue of living in The Americas, just because the USA enjoy cultural hegemony in the English speaking world. I guess if all you want to do is reify US cultural hegemony, then go for it I suppose. But English isn’t a static language and cultural hegemony isn’t unchanging either, it is constantly being contested. In the context of the US renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, I do feel your position comes off as a bit racist even if it wasn’t your intention. If all you were saying is “this is the commonly understood meaning of ‘American’ in the English speaking world if you exclude any additional content”, then I agree that’s true. But you can get there without claims of arrogance and without excluding the possibility of differing interpretations.