Can someone explain to me the fascination with "heritage" among white nationalists and similar ilk, and how that specifically connects to their iden y as American citizens?
"Heritage" is such an arbitrary and flimsy idea when you actually take the time to logically examine it, and I find it funny that people kind of choose when their heritage begins (usually sometime a little bit before the birth of the grandparents and/or when their specific ethnicity started to contribute things of value to the world).
The further a German-American, for instance, goes up the family tree, he'll likely discover he was the descendant of a "sub-human" barbarian belonging to one of the Germanic tribes that emigrated into Rome not unlike hordes of Mexicans emigrating into the US. This ancestor likely mated with a Roman. So at his point, is our German-American, who is proud of his "pure-Germanic heritage," an Italian, Visigoth, or Vandal? Go back somewhat further, and that Roman ancestor was probably a descendant himself of a Greek-Roman union somewhere in his family tree. So does our German friend's "heritage" now include Greek? Go back further, and that Greek ancestor is likely the descendant of a Greek-Persian union (from when Greece conquered Persia). So does our German friend now celebrate this facet of his "heritage" by eating Hummus and practicing Zoroastrianism?
So what is "white" heritage then? Greek, Roman, Pagan, Viking, Celtic, Christian, Persian (brown people), Egyptian (influenced Persia and the Roman Empire. Also brown people).
"It's just a general pride in European culture."
And what the is that? Renaissance paintings and Mozart? "European culture" didn't start in the middle ages, nor was it ever "pure," since the ancient Greeks and Romans were heavily influenced by the Egyptians and Persians, also mating with them (brown people). Furthermore, Europe was in a culture war for a millennia or so that saw the eradication of paganism under Constantine who favored Christianity. Christianity is crucial to "white iden y," but the fun fact is that it's a Semitic religion invented by, you guessed it, brown people. Now some staunch Ethnocentric Europeans respond to that fact by embracing Odinism (and other pagan nonsense) as the "true white religion," which is ironic since pagans were basically considered sub-human degenerates, which is something modern far-right wingers rally against (degeneracy).
And how in the ever-loving does a person connect all of that to being a nationalistic American based on the premise of "white iden y?"
"Well, I just miss the good 'ol days of America, you know? Clean cut rock-and-roll music, innocently sharing a shake with your sweetheart at the diner, cruising down main in my T-Bird. Seems massive immigration changed our landscape."
Nothing inherently "white" about any of that, and rock-and-roll is a genre of music invented by brown people. Furthermore, the nativist East Coasters at the turn of the 19th century thought all you Irish and Italian "sub-humans" were changing the cultural landscape too quickly for their taste. Point being, there is no such thing as a singular American "white iden y." And then if you try to connect that iden y to your European roots, you dig up a lot of "brown people" and "sub-human" influences along the way.
Yes, I get annoyed when they fly the Mexican flag and expect you to speak Spanish, but they aren't changing the cultural landscape any more than the Irish and Italians changed the WASP landscape on the East Coast in the late-1800s.