Scottish outlook on kilted Americans?

[Nathan]

My roots go back to both Cape Breton (MacLeods from St. Ann's) and the Scottish communities of Eastern Ontario and my feelings on the matter mirror your own. However, through this forum I have learned to respect people who love the kilt without having a drop of Scottish blood and be a bit more sensitive to the native Scots who fear their "national dress" is being appropriated, though I don't think I fully understand either.

Hey Singlemalt, thanks for chiming in! I agree with everything you said. I'll just add that in terms of "national dress", there's two definitions of nation.
Wikipedia was the easiest source for this common fact:

"A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, or history.[1] In this definition, a nation has no physical borders.

However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government (for example the inhabitants of a sovereign state) irrespective of their ethnic make-up.[2]["

So is the kilt the "National Dress" of Scotland or the "National Dress" of the Scots? I think the answer is both. You and I, Singlemalt, have one reason to wear our national dress proudly and someone named Chiam Goldberg from Glasgow is also wearing his national dress when he wraps the tartan around his waist.

I can't speak for an ethnic German in Germany who takes a liking to Kilts, but as for me, I'm not appropriating anything...

Again, I'm not disrespecting anyone, but I am demanding nobody disrespect me...

Here's one for the Scots of Western Canada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6KBf16qJIY