It's an American thing. Since no one is ethnically "American" (except for Native Americans) we instead list off every country any of our ancestors ever stepped foot in as part of our background and ethnicity. Its gets pretty tedious since practically everyone here is a mutt but that's what we do. I suppose it also has to do with the fact that America is a "Melting Pot" and listing off every country of origin in our gene pool celebrates that part of American History.

That said, even though we're all American there are subtle differences between the different ancestral origins that I suppose most Europeans wouldn't pick up on. For example, a WASP family is a lot different from an Irish-American or Italian-American family even though all 3 are white and of European origin.
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Just because a woman looks good, smells good, and makes you feel like the man you always wanted to be...doesn't mean her vagina isn't lined with sharp teeth

Why do American celebrities often have their ancestry prominent on Wikipedia?

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