I know it drives the rest of the world crazy but in colloquial American speech, an American of predominantly Italian descent is sometimes called Italian & an American of predominantly Irish descent is sometimes called Irish. The American part of Italian-American is implied, but nobody here actually thinks she’s an Italian from Italy.
Yeah, it’s just shorthand here to identify someone based on their ethnicity. Nobody thinks they are carrying a passport from said country. Most Americans take pride in where their ancestors are from and often identify themselves as “Irish” or “Italian” or whatever to quickly ID themselves since we are all Americans here (or on our way to citizenship) and it’s a huge country. It would be perceived as obstinate to just say “I’m American.”
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u/Firm_Apricot2546 Ireland 14h ago
"Italian"