USian. I hate this term. No one I know in America uses it. No one seems to know how to pronounce it. It’s awkward and dumb and completely manufactured. It started showing up on social media, especially on platforms like Mastodon where there is a more internationally-diverse audience. Personally, I find it purposefully offensive, under the guise of being painfully, politically correct. The conceit is that America is the name of the continent and that the United States of America doesn’t get to claim the name as its own. This flies in the face of hundreds of years of historical precedent, is arbitrary at best, and ridiculous at worst.
Most people don’t identify by the continent they live on, including Europeans and Africans, and even when they do, their true identity is national, not regional. Japanese people don’t call themselves Asians, they don’t even say Japanese, because they’re Nipponjin. British are English. Nigerians are Nigerian. Canadians are Canadian. Mexicans are Mexicanos. Brazilians are Brasileiros. Costa Ricans don’t give a shit what you call them as long as the booze is flowing and the music is playing. Pura vida, Tico!
But no one calls themselves North Americans, Central Americans, or South Americans. It’s simple geography, not national identity. We also don’t generally refer to ourselves as Westerners.
The only people who call themselves Americans, the only people who have ever been called Americans, are the people who live in the United States of America. I get that everyone has a slew of good reasons to be pissed at our government (and even the people) for a whole shitload of crimes and misdemeanors, but let’s at least agree that it’s an ethnic slur you’re using, one that you’ve decided is acceptable and even warranted, simply because you don’t like the people who live here.
