When I was living in Dublin, a very frequent jab thrown at Americans was that they were uniquely obsessed with claiming Irish heritage. A simple walk through the Temple Bar District, and you would see the basis for these jokes. Group after group of American tourists with the last name “O’Something” would be making a comment about how they were Irish, only to be met with the rolled eyes of every Dubliner within earshot. 

One of my roommates, a German, once told me that she finds it so odd how Americans fixate so much on their genetic heritage, and work so hard to link themselves to other countries in a way that Europeans simply don’t. 

In a recent UFC interview, this topic came up in such a salient way, and I thought it would be interesting to explore it from the perspective of this sport. 

UFC fighter Paul “The Irish Dragon” Felder explained why Conor McGregor, another UFC fighter, disparagingly refers to him as “The German”. 

Felder, an American, was given the nickname “The Irish Dragon” many years ago due to his great admiration for “The Dragon” Bruce Lee and his clear Scotch-Irish physiognomy (Felder has very fair skin and bold orange hair).

To McGregor, A Dublin man born and raised (and with a brand largely based around his own Irish nationality) Felder is no real Irishman. To make this point, McGregor cheekily invites us to look at the last name “Felder” and think of him as German instead. 

At one point, Felder says “I hate talking about this with people that aren’t American, because …  I know I’m not Irish. I’m not German. I’m not Italian. I’m not Swedish. I’m American. I get that, okay?”.

Felder’s comment actually goes a long way in explaining the foundation of the phenomenon: that Americans are uniquely positioned to have this problem. 

“America” as a sovereign state has been around for 200 odd years, while American settlements for a couple hundred more. This means that unless you are Native American, your family history in America goes back some 7 -10 generations. To put this in perspective, Italians, who consider the Roman Empire as part of their heritage, have to go back around 65 generations simply to reach the fall of the Western Roman Empire  in 376; and a modern day Egyptian (which, according to a 2017 study shares significant genetic similarities with ancient Egyptians) would have to go back around 186 generations to reach the construction of the first pyramid. 

My point is that “being American” is a very new concept, and while civilizations across the world can look back to an ancient past, often to inspire or connect themselves to their land and their history, Americans cannot do very much of this without having to follow a line back to some other place on the planet. Due to the British colonial origins of America, the physical and historical connections it shares to the south with Mexico and other countries of Spanish colonial origin, along with the massive European migrations to America in the 1800’s and the history of the African slave-trade, a reflection into the past of an American always leads him abroad. 

Living in Colombia, I experience this all the time. When people ask me where I am from, I tell them that I am American. This never satisfies my interrogators, who then proceed to tell me that my skin is “too brown” or that my features are “too dark” for me to be “purely American”. I must “be” something else. I then explain that I have some Mexican and Spanish ancestry on the side of my mother, which immediately satisfies them. In essence, the questions “where are you from?” and “what is your ethnicity” have two different answers for me, as they do for every American (that isn’t Native).

To return to the UFC interview, I think that sports, and particularly fighting-based sports, really show the importance of the ancestral pride and deep connection to one’s history that I believe is the root of this seemingly uniquely American habit we are discussing. Fighters from all across the world will be waving their flags, speaking in their native tongues, and representing not only their countries, but the cultures of their peoples, which go much further back. Fighting is an inherently primal activity, and for this reason one sees the importance of embracing the ancient parts of one’s culture. Samoans will have “warrior mana” tattoos, Dagestanis and Chechens will wear their Papakhas, and northern European fighters will embrace their Viking past. 

The real point to be made here is that all people, not only fighters or Americans, draw power and meaning from their cultural past. The difference is that Americans can only look back so far before needing to travel across the genealogical ocean, which often draws the bristly ire of Europeans (as well as other nationalities) who are blind to the privileged connection they have with their own epic and enduring cultural history. 

To return to the comment of my German friend, older countries with long histories aren’t “obsessed” with connecting themselves to other cultures, because they don’t often have to. The statement, “I am German” can answer the question “where have you and your recent family come from” as well as “what is your ethnicity”. 

Perhaps we should all stop caring about where we come from, but I don’t think it’s fair to poke fun at Americans for caring about the same things that everyone else does, just because it looks a little different for them. 

So, to sum up my point: Conor McGregor, don’t make fun of the “Irish Dragon” nickname because you think that Paul Felder isn’t Irish — make fun of it because it’s a lame nickname.