I wanted to come back to something I said a while ago on another blog that got me a pretty angry anonymous message as a response. That person told me not to share their message so I will not, but I still want to express my point of view on this.
There are three continent systems in the wolrd
The 7-continent (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica)
The 6-continent (America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica)
And the 5-continent (America, Eurasia, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica)
I was answering to a post, most certainly from a South American, that claimed that using "America" for the US was US-centrist, which I disagree with. Because English speakers, and France where I'm from, use the 7-continent system in which America is not a continent. And I insist on that. It's not "a continent that we divide in two parts". In our world construction, America is not a continent to the same level as say Eurafrica is not a continent.
For example, a few years ago, I heard in a song that the US president was "ruling the dumbest of continents". My first reaction was not saying that he was ruling a country. My first, inate, genuine reaction was "America is not a continent, it's a country". Because I have never and can't consider America a continent, this is not how my world was shaped.
And listen. I was the kid who got pissed when people used Holland instead of Netherlands. I was the kid who corrected people all the time when they said Australia instead of Oceania. If I tell you that I genuinely don't see America as a continent, it's not a matter of wording. "Americas" I guess could be the name for both but I can't use America as a word for a continent.
I get it though. I hate when people say "Europeans do this" because we are all super different so I understand that feeling associated with the US as a Brazilian or Mexican or Argentinian etc must be excruciating, especially with the amount of racism up there. I get it because people often use "French" people to mean Parisians to the point where I don't even see the point of correcting them. But the difference here is that most people in the 7-continent system don't even know that some people use another system where America is the name of a continent.
Another example specifically taken from that message was the middle east. See, just like the two American continents can be seen as a very subjective subdivision considering the landshape, Eurasia is the same. Where does Asia stop and Europe start ? According to that message, the middle east was part of Asia so people saying there was no or almost no war in Asia were dismissing them. But when I learned the continent, Afghanistan, Azerbaidjan, Yemen and all those other countries were part of... Europe. Not Asia. It's all a matter of how our ancestors divided land.
So I'm probably gonna continue using Americans to mean US people, because there is not other word in my language for them first of all, and because to me those are two different things. I do not think of Latin America when I say Americans. Hell I don't even think of Canada. I know it's hard to understand but we just have different views of the world. America was never a continent to me and even if I tried, it could never become one. It's just not how I see the world and frankly, I don't really want to associate all of those countries to the US and that's what will happen if I start using Americans for the continent.
That may be because a strong sense of continental identity is not really a thing where I'm from ? Like people don't claim to be European and we don't classify people by continent but by country. If I want to talk about someone from South America, I'm probably gonna name the country itself and not say "South American" because I feel weird englobing a whole continent as if everyone on it was the same. Even more so for people as different in culture and mentality as North and South Americans. It just feels as wrong as saying "Asian culture" as if India, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China, Myanmar, Pakistan, etc had the same exact set of values and traditions. Or even European culture or African culture like no there are different people and cultures in there, continents are not cultures.
Anyways that message got me pretty upset especially since I don't like getting yelled at by anonymous people. I can change things and opinions given facts and everything but the continent systems being entirely subjective and cultural, I am not gonna give up my culture and upbringing that doesn't belittle anyone because people think theirs is the truth. You have your continent subdivision, I have mine, other countries have another. Fact is if we go by landshape the "true" system is the 5-continent system and people who separate Asia from Europe would be wrong too.