Is Ethnicity Still Important?

I believe that ethnicity is important to some people of white ethnic racial groups, but not the majority of them. When I come across people who ask me what my ethnicity is, I reply back with the fact that I'm Kazakh. And yet, they are so surprised that I speak English very fluently and "act American," making them question if I am "Americanized" or if I actually speak the Kazakh language. I, along with many people I know of European descent, do take into account our ethnicity in this country and consider ourselves, Kazakh-American, or Polish-American, or Norwegian-American. We eat food/meals that are considered traditional foods from our home country, and we can speak the language to communicate with family members. However, there are many Americans who don't necessarily care which country they are descendants from, and could care less, which is very unfortunate. When I ask what their ethnicity is, they either respond back with "I'm American.. well, I mean, I'm white" or "I actually don't know.. ask my parents haha."

In regards to the political cartoon above, as a Kazakh-American myself, I end up celebrating New Years twice a year; January 1st and March 21st. :)