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Comment by CraftThatBlock | Hacker News Reader

Non-natural born American is still American. This is what immigration is.

Immigrant myself, came in this country when I was 17 from Albania, and have lived most of my life here (on my late 30s now).

While feeling 'american' is a subjective thing (I consider myself Albanian), There are still limitations. A naturalized citizen, can't be a US president, and in rare circumstances you can be stripped of your citizenship (it is called 'denaturalization').

So, yeah.... lets live it up to him to call himself whatever he wants, but calling him American is like calling Einstein/Tesla/Von Brown american. Sure, they got US citizenship at some point... but that's not how Ethnicity works.

'American' is not an ethnicity. That is a big reason it is so great. If America is such an awful place why are you here and not in albania? Why did Einstein et al. come here? The American system enables things that are impossible in other countries.

Wat... americans born here have no 'ethnicity'?

eth·nic·i·ty /eTHˈnisədē/ noun "the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition."

Also, I love this country... where did I say this place is awful? I live in NYC and I love it. That doesn't mean that I don't love my original country as well, (Albania).

IMHO, this kind of thinking setups an us vs. them mentality. The best part of America is that anyone who lives here can call themselves an American. It is maximally inclusive. Segregating us into 'immigrants' vs. 'ethnic Americans' is antithetical to the ideals of this imperfect society.

@ardit33 I am glad you are here and like it here!!! IMHO all immigrants are great and the US government should never restrict immigration.

Regarding 'American' as an ethnicity check this out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_pot

America is the most diverse place on earth. Ethnicities from all over the world call it home.

That is perhaps literally the only limitation and even that isn’t absolute since the law could be changed for a candidate with the right support.

Despite the current political climate, it think this is, at it's core, what /America/ is.

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