Are ‘Heritage Americans’ Real?

The term has caused controversy and confusion, but seems to have better legs than the alternatives.

I have a new column at the American Conservative this week. This article is on the Heritage American concept and how real it is with actual Heritage Americans:

Throughout American history, the core population stressed its distinctiveness in response to perceived foreign threats. Nativism expressed the fear that new arrivals would wipe out the real America and animated millions of Americans to demand immigration restriction in the early 20th century.

But the core population has long struggled to figure out what to call themselves. Sometimes they went with Native Americans, which fell out of use and now only refers to American Indians. For a time, Anglo-Saxon became the preferred term. But it’s now an anachronism only used as a pejorative by the likes of Vladimir Putin and other non-Americans.

Hence, the demand for a new term like “Heritage Americans.” There have been a number of terms proposed for this group over the years. Legacy Americans came to prominence thanks to Tucker Carlson, but it’s no longer used much. Some pushed for “Founding Stock” or “Old Stock,” but those haven’t caught on. Your humble writer suggested “Settlers” three years ago. Not even I use that anymore. Heritage American won out.

Read the rest here.