The Economist, a journal recommended by Harvard/Qinghua Dr. Larry Ho (Yichi Ho), showed 1/5 of US total population is German Americans. That number surprised me tremendously. I asked around which ethical group is the top: Many people answered "It's Chinese."
In reality, Chinese Americans are about 1% of the US total population, compared to 18% of German Americans (see the chart below, Chinese can't make up to the chart, cut-off at 4%). How come do people got this impression about Chinese?
I asked German Americans. They told me "Our German Americans speak English, live here quietly, integrating into American culuture while you Chinese speak Chinese, so distinguished that you stand out of the crowds -- I've never experienced such a partisan crowd like Chinese - you have your own ChinaTown, your own language, your own restaurants, your own Chinese schools - a quite separated world. During WWII, many Germans came to the US. Americans worried about German Americans speak German only. WWII, many hate Germans - we got live quietly so be ignored"
I's shocked by what they said about our Chinese - Yes, I'd admit our fellow Chinese like staying with Chinese; however, in reality, Chinese isn't united by any religion at all even we speak Chinese. We don't have a unifited goal, a belief, a purpose, to influence other ethical groups.
Knowing that, I look around. Yes, I've been working with many German Americans and didn't know about them. I try to catch up now by reading:
There have been two presidents whose fathers were of German descent: Dwight Eisenhower (original family name Eisenhauer and maternal side is also German/Swiss) and Herbert Hoover (original family name Huber). Presidents with maternal German ancestry include Richard Milhous Nixon (Nixon's maternal ancestors were Germans who anglicized Melhausen to Milhous)[156] and Barack Obama, whose maternal family's ancestry includes German immigrants from the South German town of Besigheim[157] and from Bischwiller in the Alsace region that is nowadays part of France; both families came to America around 1750. [158]
None of the German states had American colonies. In the 1670s the first significant groups of German immigrants arrived in the British colonies, settling primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. Immigration continued in very large numbers during the 19th century, with eight million arrivals from Germany. They were pulled by the attractions of land and religious freedom, and pushed out of Europe by shortages of land and religious or political oppression.[15] Many arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others for the chance to start fresh in the New World. The arrivals before 1850 were mostly farmers who sought out the most productive land, where their intensive farming techniques would pay off. After 1840, many came to cities, where "Germania"—German-speaking districts—soon emerged.[16][17][18]