I've had a problem with this for a while now and the workshop yesterday on regional and national history got me thinking about it again. It bothers me that when people say, "I'm going to America" or, "I am American" they are expecting people to assume that by 'America', they mean the United States. The Americas are from Canada all the way down to the southern tip of Chile. That's 35 countries (plus 11 territories). Why should one country deserve the title of all the other ones combined? If you are from the United States, when someone asks you where you're from, you shouldn't say "I'm American", because that could mean you're Haitian, Canadian, Brazilian, Cuban, Peruvian or from any other country in the Americas. You should say, "I am from the United States of America" or "I am from the US in the Americas." And no, I'm not blaming individuals who refer to the country as the two continents, I have done it myself, it's just the concept that disturbs me. It makes the country seem like it's superior to all the other ones in the two continents, as if they did something to deserve it. Is that something wiping out the populations of practically every country south of it up until Chile, way back when?
It's the same as referring to China as Asia and ignoring all the other 43 countries in the continent. That's calling a country with a population of 1,359,450,000 as a continent with a total population of 4,298,723,000 (meaning China's population is 32% of Asia's). Calling the United States the Americas is referring to a country with a population of 316,491,000 as two continents with a population of 972,005,000 (meaning the US' population is 32.5% of the Americas'). And yet, we wouldn't have anyone calling China, Asia, now would we?
It's not right.
LM
It's the same as referring to China as Asia and ignoring all the other 43 countries in the continent. That's calling a country with a population of 1,359,450,000 as a continent with a total population of 4,298,723,000 (meaning China's population is 32% of Asia's). Calling the United States the Americas is referring to a country with a population of 316,491,000 as two continents with a population of 972,005,000 (meaning the US' population is 32.5% of the Americas'). And yet, we wouldn't have anyone calling China, Asia, now would we?
It's not right.
LM
