Citizen, identity yourself! "I'm an Asian-American." What is wrong with that sentence? Well, nothing really, unless you think about why I would call myself something like that. My English teacher posed an interesting question in class: "When did Americans stop being Americans?" Wait... huh? Consider this: When Americans talk about their race and cultures, they often refer to themselves with a "dashed word". For example: African-American or Asian-American. My fellow classmates were quick to defend this usage of "the dash" saying that it signified their family's origins. However, they said that when they travel outside the US, they refer to themselves as plain old Americans. Why is that? Why is it that when Americans are at home, it's usually something-dash-American? And yet abroad, they're just Americans? Does this symbolize anything? By doing this, are Americans unwittingly revealing their need to be separate? Perhaps a distaste for other cultures? And why is it that, correct me if I'm wrong, other countries do not use this method to identify themselves? Aren't Chinese people simply Chinese; Irish people simply Irish? ... The "Great American Melting Pot"... is it there?
I think it's just naming a race. Sure, if you live in America, Your American, But if your race originates in a different Continent/Country, Its used to identify a member of the country as a different race. Example: A Black man; Maybe his Great/Grandparents are from Africa, But he was born in the United States. He is still of the African race, But was born in America. So instead of being straight up with the guy and call him black, Hes called African(his race)-American(his birthplace). Atleast thats what I think..
Im Russian-French-American :] lolol I see it as a preference I am American and proud of it. God knows im joining the military to kill in the name of it and possibly die for that title "American".
Why though? For political correctness? What's wrong with being an American in America? You know what, why don't we just replace the race part with hair color; what if there were Brunette-Americans or Blonde-Americans? To me, this doesn't make sense at all. Race is just another description along with hair color, facial features, etc. Saying you're "race-American" doesn't speak to me.
Hair color and facial features are nothing major. Race defines who you are. People have different cultural backgrounds and beliefs, hair is... hair.
I understand, and perhaps my examples were poor. However! Cultural backgrounds mean nothing if you are ignorant of them. Saying your ancestors were Anglo-Saxons means no more than hair color if you don't know anything about them. Also, what if you are of mixed race? Take James McBride's The Color of Water when he recounts his struggles to find what his identity is being a child of two races. EDIT: And does race really define who you are? Where you've been? What you've done, have done, or can do?
Two men are in a park, in America, talking. One says that "he is an American". Well, that is information already assumed between the two parties. A "no-****" situation, really. Now, what if this man had an accent, a French one for example. If he said "I'm French-American", then that could be information worth having. If he said "I'm French" (although I don't hear Americans even using a "dash word" to be honest) his fellow man on the park bench might misinterpret the sentence and assume he is a tourist in America, from France. Two men are in a park, in France, talking. One says "I'm French". Again, we encounter the "no ****" situation. However, if one man couldn't speak French, or spoke it very poorly, then if he said "I'm German", "I'm Swedish", "I'm American", then again that is information worth sharing. However, if the man was "German-American" and said to the French resident in whose country he was in, and said "I'm German-American", what difference does it make to the French man? The German-American in front of him is American nonetheless, if not more so, and the only information worth gathering from stating your country of residence is to express/explain more about one's self in better interest of the other man. If the man had recently moved to America, chances are he wouldn't even call himself "German-American", just "German". In the end, it is just a form of heritage identification. To say "I'm Brunette-American" is like saying "I'm Vegetarian-British". You're combining an adjective, a description, with a heritage. "I'm Tall-American", "I'm Young-Scotch". Of course that doesn't make sense, because you're taking two things unrelated and creating a correlation between them with the "dash word". Beyond all else, unless the person dyed their hair or stood on stilts, these descriptions should be obvious without communication between individuals. Again, the "no ****" phenomenon. Now, you could say "African-American" is obvious, but not necessarily. Those of black skin tone are not just from Africa. What about Brazil?- the Middle East? A black person, if they cared, could say "I'm Brazilian-American", which may just change your original conception, that this person is "African-American". Again, though, I hardly hear people calling themselves "_______-American", because it all goes back to the original assumption: if you're in America, speaking English, and furthermore live here, then you're obviously American and so you have the "I'm _______-no ****".
Some people do acknowledge their cultural backgrounds and I respect that. If a person takes the time to learn about their ancestors, they deserve to call themselves whatever race they are. If someone doesn't, it's not such a big deal because they can't just stop being that race. As I said, race defines who you are. Sorry, I've never read The Color of Water, but I can understand what you are talking about. Race defines who you are because it shows that you are an ancestor of a certain group of people. I, myself, have a Scottish background and it shows that my ancestors lived a certain way and sometimes my dad's side (Scottish side of my family) of the family celebrates that background. By the way, I have to finish a science project right now. I've got to call it quits for tonight.
Learn how to spell your own nationality; it's Russian, not "Rushian". Anyway, the U.S. hosts a multitude of different origins in its people. In order for individuals to identify themselves and specify who they are, some exhibit themselves not only as Americans, but also as a hyphenated label, such as African-American. I believe this is for many reasons. One reason, like I said before, is to simply specify a person's origins other than American. Another is due to the indignity of many American citizens, and their need to basically say, "Hey, I may be American, but I also have different family origins." This also shows pride for someone's origins, so that person is simply expressing his/her people. In conclusion, this topic is very unimportant. It may just be me, but I couldn't care less about this.
Don't worry about it. You should know how to spell your own nationality, however. I am a Mecksican-American.
I agree, it is great if you can learn more about your ancestors. It may give you a strong connection knowing your background and culture, but race still doesn't define you. Anyway, I will see you later. That assumption is simply an assumption; not necessarily a "no-****" situation. Now, let's say the conversation involving the French man took place in China. Would the man (assuming he lives there) say he is French-Chinese? True, the dash-description is a quick way to identify yourself, but why does it seem like Americans are the only people that use it? Or am I just being ignorant? So do a lot of other countries. Everyone has an ancestry spanning multiple races, cultures, backgrounds, whatever. Everyone. To each his own.
Probably going to be marked as spam but here goes ****-all. What if you're a **** impersonator that is exactly 1/4 American, 1/4 Mexican, 1/4 Canadian, and 1/4 Jewish? Technically, you could say you're a **** amercan, if you live in America, and wish to be called that, but you are not german at all. You just belive that you are and you want to stand out because of our believes. That's probably why people in America call themselves African Americans or what have you, because that want to be thought of like that. If they are anywhere else in the world, that Country doesn't give a **** whatthey are because that country has their own race problems. That probably didn't make sense but just remember that Nazis are evil and you should be ok.
I know this much, the teenagers only do it to feel different. Does it matter if you call yourself Latin-American during your teenage years and can speak perfect English, It does not. So why do they do it? It's self explanatory if your English is broken and you have an accent that some people might not be able to identify then it's OK to say you are Latin-American, but once again if you can speak perfectly then just call yourself an American, and be proud of your country and not the country your parents emigrated from for a reason. Of course I only apply this to American Born students, who love to gloat that their parents were born in Colombia, or Ireland, or Britain. Just so that they may have some self pride that they cannot attain by any other means. But I do realize that maybe adults would have a better reason to use the "hyphenated" word rather then calling themselves American as stated by X5.
There are people here in Canada who like to be classified as French - Canadians,(Most likely from Quebec) And Asian - Canadians.(West Coast) Not just the U.S .
The difference between America and most other countries is that they've been established for longer and America is (mainly) filled with people who only moved there a few generations ago, as compared to countries in other continents, which have been "known about" for longer. The point I am making is that most American's families (not including Native Americans) have only had their families roots in America for a few generations, it being a newly settled land in comparison to others. Note that another area that could prove interesting would be australia, as it is in a relatively similar position.
While America itself is relatively new as an established nation it has the oldest constitution, so in that regards we are ahead of everyone else. Anyways, patriotism itself is fine. People should be free to celebrate where they came from and who they are. But there comes a time when it's not fine and I see it when people declare that they're origins are better than someone else's.
This is always going to be the case in this country. I don't see anything at all wrong with it. Some of you do, but that's part of it I suppose. Being a student of anthropology, this is a topic I have some well-formed ideas about, though. Here's a couple of anecdotes. I have a good friend at work who asked me one day (we were talking about race) "what do you think I am?" I answered that he was Mexican. He said no, because he was born in the US. My response was that there's a difference between nationality and race. He agreed but insisted that Mexican isn't a race, Latino is (which I also disagree with but that's not important.) We got into it a bit and I ended the debate by taking the anthropologist route. I said both race and nationality are trivial, they don't matter nearly as much as self-identification does. If you prefer to think of yourself as American, that's all that matters. Many people choose to identify themselves as Mexican regardless of where they were born because family comes first for most people. It's a personal choice. I got into this with my Dad once also. He is bothered because by cultural definition, we aren't Native Americans (actually his concern was Native Texan). How many generations does it take to be considered native? After all, he's a 6th generation Texan, I'm a 7th. My answer was... a lot more than that. You can consider yourself as Texan as you want, that's legitimate. You can even define your own terms and call yourself native, what the culture defines it as is another story. But there has to be a distinction between truly indigenous people and immigrants, even if for only scientific reasons. Personally, I identify with my Irish/English heritage, although nobody else in my family seems to. It's a strong cultural background to me that goes back much further than the founding of the US, which I need in some way. I think it's perfectly natural for anybody to want to identify with their deep roots, if they so choose. There's no reason why this has to conflict with what we are calling patriotism. But that's a different issue.