Arrogance... blah blah blah... imperialism... blah blah blah... hegemony... blah blah blah... military/industrial complex... blah blah blah...

(and so on, ad infinitum)

With my Melting Pot background I just consider myself an Earthling.

I'm ½ Guatemalan, ½ American, and ½ Swiss.

People ask me where I'm from and I shrug and tell them "I dunno. If you find out, please lemme know!"

I believe U.S. Americans calling themselves Americans is nor different to the French calling themselves European. They cannot exclusively claim that title though.

On the last Census when they asked for "Race" I checked off "other" and wrote "Human". I know it doesn't help their data any, but...

So, let's say you encounter three people walking up the street. One is carrying a Canadian flag, one is carrying a Mexican flag and the other is carrying The Stars and Stripes. (We'll pretend you have no idea what flag represents what country... which may or may not be the truth anyhow )

What are you expecting each of them to say when you ask nationalities they are?

Or, more importantly, let's say the one carrying the Mexican flag is the one who speaks up. When he tells you where he and the other two are from, what are you expecting him to say?

Do Canadians call themselves Americans? I think not.

Americans are US Americans.

Habla Espanol .... por favor?

The Mexican will call the American an "Estadounidense" or "Gringo" and he'll call the Canadian his Employer.

The American would call the Mexican a "wetback" and the Canadian "A hockey player, eh?"

The Canadian will say "I don't know which is which. One came for medicine, and the other one I found in front of a Home Depot."

(let the groans begin)

Darn it, where's that button?

Pointless exercise, all I am trying to say is that US Americans do not have exclusive access to that title. If you don't believe me , do some research into the meaning of the word/term "American".

My take on all of this is as follows:
Geographical and political distinctions have over time, become a bit confused and generalised.

First, geographically, everything from tip of Tierra del Fuego, in the south, to the northern wilds where land becomes ice, is known as "The Americas";
- this can be further sub-divided into:
1) South America,
2) Central America, and,
3) North America

In the past when I wanted to refer to the predominantly English speaking (but not exclusively) majority of N. America, I wrote Continental North America - this includes both Spanish speaking Mexicans and French speaking Canadians - and is a geographical, not political categorisation.

However, political boundaries and country classifications exist and normally supersede geographical definitions. When a group of States, in N.America, banded together and became united, the USA was born (obviously independence from the former European administrators was a major defining factor).

Since then, in my experience, when referred to officially, this nation is known as the United States of America, or (still officially) the United States.

In order to simplify and abbreviate, the peoples from this land are known as Americans colloquially - with the majority of people realising that this normally infers US citizens.

This is widely accepted, but it should be remembered that the term American is not exclusively or uniquely used solely for US citizens, even if people believe otherwise.

Although the majority of people from other countries within the Americas, are also usually happy to describe themselves as a native of from whichever country they originate.

I do not believe that any person from a country other than the US would self-identify as an American.

A person from Mexico, Canada, Chile, Peru and the US is a North or South American, but only those from the US are Americans.

Americans is correct, nobody else on the continent matters, or at least can be distinguished directly where necessary.

The guy with the maple leaf would be Canadian. The fellow with the bird would be Mexican, and the other person, Malaysian.

(Granted, it's more the "Star and Stripes", but this question was settled more than a year and a half ago on EF. Why was this topic dredged back up?)

'cause we're getting bent outta shape on another discussion....

In terms of nationality, 'American' is almost always used to refer to people from the USA. American is used to refer to things from a wider area than just the USA e.g. American Oak or American Crocodile.

Just to confuse matters, I think that the term American is less often used when referring to people from Hawaii or Alaska though.

So the President of the United States isn't actually... er... actually, I think I might not go there after all...

I did say 'less often'

(Even without the controversy, he only just sneaked in as American. He was born less than two years after Hawaii became part of the USA)

Technically, the "United States" could refer to the United States of America, or the United States of Mexico, or Estados Unidos Mexicanos, as Mexico is officially known as.

So, if you call Mexico 'Mexico', you should call America 'America'. ;-)