I'm not Scottish

[Larry124]

Kilts are worn as an expression of pride in Scottish heritage.

And also as a distinctive and attractive and comfortable garment, without a heritage emphasis.
Example: A group of men at an American music concert, wearing non-tartan contemporary kilts, and with casual accessories, will not be asked if they are Scots or of Scottish descent.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Kilts are worn as an expression of pride in Scottish heritage.

And also as a distinctive and attractive and comfortable garment, without a heritage emphasis.
Example: A group of men at an American music concert, wearing non-tartan contemporary kilts, and with casual accessories, will not be asked if they are Scots or of Scottish descent.

Betcha a nickle they get asked if they're Scots, Scottish, or from Scotland. Unless, of course by "contemporary" you are referring to the quasi-kilts offered by some of the advertisers on this site.

[David Dubh]

Perhaps the forum can tell me what I am. I was built in Scotland, but delivered in Canada. Translation my mum was 4 months pregnant with me when my parents emmigrated.

[JelicoCat]

My mother is from Saigon. My Dad from Texas. His mom from England. His father was ....
What you call yourself is part of your self identity. Your nationality is what passport you carry, but ethnicity is also part of who/what you are. It does not matter where you live. If you ask my dad what he is, he will tell you he is Texan. He currently resides in Arizona, he has every thing from native american to scottish to dutch ancestry, but the one thing he identifies himself with is being Texan. If a person has scottish ancestry and that is the most significant thing they identify with, then what nationality they are is often secondary.

[puddlemuddle]

This is a point which I tend to find puzzling and amusing. I frequently get asked what part of Scotland I'm from, or my family is from. Folks see a large, ruddy faced, bearded guy kilted and playing the pipes, and make the automatic assumption. I explain that my father was an avid genealogist, and that the earliest Young (family name) he found he believed came from the Kincardineshire region of Scotland, but he was unable to get firm proof. However, we do have the record that shows he was married in Phila. PA in 1742, so by my estimation, that makes me an American.
Just the other day I was speaking about "hyphenated Americans" to three of my grandkids. I sit (stand and sometimes run) at the head of a decidedly interracial family. I'm of European stock and my wife is Japanese. Our youngest daughter married a black man. I picked up her three youngest kids from school to have dinner with us. On the way home the conversation turned to ?/Americans. I explained to the kids that their grandmother is a Japanese/American because she was born in Japan, and became an American citizen, but in my opinion, anyone born in this country is simply an American. We all have different ancestry, but we're Americans.
My granddaughter seemed a bit disappointed that she was just a "plain American", but her brothers seemed to take to the idea better.

[LANCER1562]

When asked if I am Scottish or Scot when wearing a kilt, I tell people I am of Scot descent on my dad's side with a little Canadian thrown in for good measure since he was born in Belvue, Alberta and a mutt on my mom's side being of French, English, Italian, Austrian, Hungarian ancestry.

My dad used to tell people he was all Scotch with a splash of water. But, then again, he used to drink a lot.

I identify most with I'm an American who happens to like wearing a kilt.

[kiltedsawyer]

When asked if I'm Scottish while wearing a kilt, I usually begin yelling at them and say something like; "Of course I am you moron! Do you think I'm wearing this silly skirt because I'm an eskimo? What's the matter with you?" It seems to be a complete answer as there have never been any follow-on questions.

[davedove]

When someone asks if you're Scottish and you really don't feel like explaining, you can always just respond with "Why no, are you Lithuanian?" or some other random nationality. It really throws them.

[latinamckeegan]

It is apples and oranges, lads. Apples and oranges. Citizenship has nothing to do with ethnic background and everything to do with lawful domicile. A Mongolian, moving from Ulan Bator to Dublin, may acquire Irish citizenship, but that does not make him Irish.

Being "Scottish" in the sense it is being discussed here, refers to having a specific ethnic and cultural background, not the mere fact of lawful domicile. I always find it interesting (and somewhat flattering) when someone on this forum identifies himself as "Scottish" on the basis of having discovered an ancestor who came to the new world from Scotland perhaps 300 or more years ago. But I also find it a bit shall I say, disappointing?, when an individual with a diverse ethnic/cultural background rather vociferously proclaims his Scottishness without any apparent cultural investment in the Scottish community.

How can one claim to be "Scottish" or to be a member of a clan, that most defining element of Scottish culture, without even the most basic involvement in the clan unit, as constituted today in clan societies? Even the now disgraced professor and "American Indian" Ward Churchill, went to the trouble to join a tribal association to lend some credence to his spurious claims of aboriginal antecedents.

I think there is something of the social gadfly (and possibly a bit of disingenuousness) in the individual who trots out a seemingly endless array of diverse ethnic forebearers and then, like some sort of genealogical smorgasbord, chooses the convenient ethnicity of the moment. Especially when there is possibly little or no regard, understanding, or respect, for the cultural and ethnic values of the assumed identity.

It is ethnic and cultural descent, along with the willingness to maintain cultural identity and traditions that makes a Scot a Scot, and not a Gerrman or Soiux. Residence or place of birth have nothing to do with it at all.

I am so confused. I am Mexican-American both parents born in Mexico and myself born in California. I am now married with a man with different ethnicities including Scottish and Irish. But his family not active in cultural traditions. I enjoyed last year my first Scottish Festival and would like my son to wear a kilt this year. We are also going to an Irish Festival too. Is it safe to but my son in a California Tartan since I don't know much about clans and I would not feel comfortable claiming 3% of a Scottish Clan. I would like my son to experince different parts of his being. I dressed him in Mexican guayaberas shirts, my husband too. In a respectable way. I wouldn't like to offen. I felt offened when my parents-in-law rubbed in to much about being Irish when the have not kept up with traditions. They did it in a bad way. My Irish born friend felt sorry for us when my father-in-law was saying the speach. It was bad in our rehearsal dinner making April 4th Irish Day and giving our wedding party St. Patrick candy and green beads and Leprechaun hats. Will be forever reminded of that day. I incorporated alot of my Mexican traditions but thats what my parents and grandparents and so on did and I added my twist to it and I owned it, we got married at the zoo. And I did it in a tasteful way not like giving marcas for favors. I wil stop typing I will go on and on about my lovely father-in-law. (To my father-in-law I speak Mexican not Spanish)

[kenpobob]

She is proud of being Polish born & raised and of her Polish heritage instructed me to quit explaining and "Just say yes, you are Scottish! and let it be...they already know you are an American..."

Oh yes sweetheart anything you say!