Look at the world for a moment when you buy a food, drug, and most other things the ingredients list starts with the largest quantity, or the most important first. If you asked a person what is important to them they will normally start with the most important. Countries with a stable society like Japan you will find no hyphenated names they will say I am Japanese period. Loyalty almost to a fault. Some Japanese were found on pacific islands still fighting a war twenty years after it ended. That is what you call patriotism. Western countries are more proud in their differences than in their patriotism that is why the hyphenated names. [African - American, Black - American, gay - American and so on] This all that is needed to have people fight each other. Only having differences can there be racist. The more differences the more you can call racist and get away with it. If people would wake up and say to themselves that I am American first it would all stop. You could say I am American of African descent that shows being American is the most important.
Yeah, I’m pretty much with you but to tell the truth, the African-American designation just doesn’t have the same “punch” as it did back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. It was in 1970 that Black History Month took it’s place in history and Kwanza was first celebrated in the U.S. around that time also. Back then, it was meant to instill some kind of connection and pride with a black person’s heritage but now it seems as though it’s simply a trade off for less slangy descriptive terms such as negro or an even less appropriate word; .colored. As a matter of interest though and also noting that 1 slave is too many, Brazil received 5 million slaves and other S. American countries were responsible for the purchase of several more million slaves whilst the land that is now known as the U.S. only received about a half a million. Strange but now that I think about it, I have met hundreds of S. Americans from all across the continent and not once have I heard of an African-Brazilian or an African Guatemalan. It is indeed trivial and I don’t really what that means but it’s still strange why there is no carry over.
Well, the fact is that many black Americans did not migrate from Africa, so why would they be called African-Americans? I have heard the term Italian-American and there are certainly plenty of Mexican-Americans, though. I've never heard anyone refer to themselves as "gay-American." People are free to refer to themselves however they please. I remember when people like me were called "WASPs"... white Anglo-saxon protestants. Personally I never liked the term "colored"; somehow that seems to have a negative connotation thought I can't say why. We are all colored, just to different degrees.
The more divided the American the easier it is to cause racial problems and in turn destroy the US. Here is some words from a president who had something to say on this matter. Theodore Roosevelt I stand for straight Americanism unconditioned and unqualified, and I stand against every form of hyphenated Americanism. I do not speak of the hyphen when it is employed as a mere convenience, although personally, I like to avoid its use even in such manner. I speak and condemn its use whenever it represents an effort to form political parties along racial lines or to bring pressure to bear on parties and politicians, not for American purposes, but in the interest of some group of voters of a certain national origin, or of the country from which they or their fathers came. Americanism is not a matter of creed, birthplace or national descent, but of the soul and of the spirit. If the American has the right stuff in him, I care not a snap of my fingers whether he is Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Protestant. I care not a snap of my fingers whether his ancestors came over in the Mayflower, or whether he was born, or his parents were born, in Germany, Ireland, France, England, Scandinavia, Russia or Italy or any other country. All I ask of the immigrant is that he shall be physically and intellectually fit, of sound character, and eager in good faith to become an American citizen. If the immigrant is of the right kind I am for him, and if the native American* is of the wrong kind I am against him… ….Now for our own citizens. We represent many different race strains. Our ancestors came from many different Old World nationalities. It will spell ruin to this nation if these nationalities remain separated from one another instead of being assimilated to the new and larger American life. The children and our children’s children of all of us have to live here in this land together. Our children’s children will intermarry, one another, your children’s children, friends, and mine. Even if they wished, they could not remain citizens of foreign countries….The effort to keep our citizenship divided against itself by the use of the hyphen and along the lines of national origin is certain to breed a spirit of bitterness and prejudice and dislike between great bodies of our citizens.
A man called a local talk radio show and gave this story. Russia invaded Czechoslovakia when he was a boy, so his father took the family to South Africa. Years later the family was approved for U.S. citizenship, so they moved to California and later to North Carolina. He wondered if he should call himself an African-American. He was white.
My wifes family has that same conundrum. After WW2 they were Polish refugees, sent to South Africa, for resettlement. The two oldest children Stosh and Alla were born and so were were citizens of S. Africa. They emigrated to the US in '51 and became Americans.
I think for most nationalities, the hyphenation only lasted about as long as it took people to learn English and assimilate. Hence, my parents and grandparents were Swedish-Americans for a time but soon became Americans. The hyphenation was more of a means of letting people know which language to expect, I think. We had Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, and so on. Today, it seems that some populations either don't want to assimilate or are not being permitted to. With African-Americans, it's particularly difficult because a continent is used to refer to a skin tone. It can be confusing, and it seems so unnecessary.