Why I think white Americans latch on to DNA tests so much.
(I'm sure other groups of Americans and non-americans experience this I'm just talking about white Americans because that's the group I know the most about)
I'll often see memes where it's like an "American finding out their 5% Irish 😲🇮🇪😄🥔" and as a white American, I think there's a pretty clear explanation for this behavior.
White American Is not a specific label, white just denotes European ancestry, American denotes nationality and also culture. But no specific ancestry, no land to feel historically that connected to other than "vaguely Europe" and no history passed like 248 years. And what part of Europe their ancestors came a handful of generations ago doesn't really impact their culture they're blended into simply the melting pot of white American culture without specifics.
I think it is also the case that white Americans view their culture as the default and globally sometimes American culture is viewed as the default so it can often feel like white Americans don't have culture because their culture is seen as the default.
So finding out your great great great grandparents came from a specific country can still feel meaningful, white Americans often will use terms like Irish, German, Scandinavian, despite only their great great grandparents really having any connection to the culture, due to the fact that well white American is a very broad label without a lot of history and a culture that is seen as "default" and really no ancestral homeland besides an entire continent vaguely.
White Americans have broadly turned into their own category with no real direct link to any specific European culture, considering America is known as a melting pot saying your ethnicity is American doesn't really make sense.
So of course white Americans reach out to labels of what their ancestors were considered even if they don't really have any connection to those anymore besides blood.
