HYPHENATED AMERICANS

[Roy]

Teddy Roosevelt put it this way in a 1915 speech before the Knights of Columbus in New York: There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism ... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.

I'm "white", maybe you're "black".

I'm Caucasian, perhaps you're Negro.
(The NAACP continues to use "Colored".)

I'm NOT an English-American and you're not an African-American.

If anything, we both are Americans.

[This message has been edited by Roy (edited 12-19-2000).]

[BBA]

I agree, as I have always said... since the first military in processing paper I ever filled out...I am American.

[awwall]

I totally agree Roy, too much of this ******-American.

If you are a citizen here you are an AMERICAN, period. If your are a citizen of Africa, then you are AFRICAN. Same holds true for all other countries.

I don't believe that the color of one's skin automatically makes them a citizen of a country. If you leave one country and become a citizen of another, then you become a part of that country and should assume the correct title. I don't care if you are born and raised in another country, when you take the oath to become and American Citizen, your are then an AMERICAN, period.

my .02

aw

[Fingers]

and learn the friggin' language too... In America, we speak ENGLISH.

[krusty the klown]

... and I always thought you spoke American-English http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[BBA]

GRRRRRRRRRR!

[krusty the klown]

LOL!! <IMG SRC="http://cwm.ragesofsanity.com/s/net4/jump.gif" border=0>

[Warthog]

LOL king! http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Excellent point, Fingers.

Warthog

[daveleau]

Hey guys...While I tend to agree that we should come together as a nation, I think this topic could easily offend others since it seems to be pointed at one group. I am of French and Cherokee decent (50% French, 10% A.Ind., rest is mixed Irish and the normal blend that makes up a Southern lineage) and do not subscribe to calling myself as Franco-American. That language crack was pretty bad though. Let's not turn ourselves into some hate-group-that-loves-computers forum here.

[gyoung]

I don't think if you are from Africa you are African or if you are from Asia you are Asian. I think if you are from Africa and from Egypt you are Egyptian, or from Libya you are Libyian.

Being from the United States we are American. You wouldn't call someone from Canada American or North American. It has more to do with your nationality.

Technically I am a French-English-German-Italian-Greek-Beligian American. But if you could I would rather just be called Greg.

[Graham]

Here in the UK, my company asked us all to fill in 'ethnic origin', apart from the fact it doesn't matter, the options included, afro-caribian, asian, african, and white !!!

I refused to enter white, white is a colour NOT an ethnic origin, I am British or English as are most of our 'non white' ihabitants.

G



[This message has been edited by Graham (edited 12-20-2000).]

[pickel]

I don't know about you's guys, but I'm from
"QUEENS" out on Long Island. If you can make it there, YOU can make it anywhere!!! And we speaks our own language!!!!!! LOL http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[MadMatt]

LOL Pickel! However, my Mom's originally from The Big Apple and she says it should be pronounced all as one word - "longisland" ....with emphasis on the 'G'.

[tonym]

The hypocricy of the hyphenation of America is that we all become defined by the "big bucket" theory.

"Hey, he's *****-American, then he must be ___________(insert assumed opinion here)".

For example, I have a friend that's African-American. In fact, he's Zimbabwese. He was severely chastized at the Mass. RMV when he applied for his license because he checked off the little box that stated "African-American" that asked "What are you?". Unfortunately, he's white as snow. But he IS African-American. More so than a lot of folks that claim this heritage. His family goes back to 1700-something in Africa. The State Trooper at the registry even gave him a hard time after the clerk at the window called him on his check-box selection.

This is foolish. We are all Americans. When called to defend our country, all our blood spills RED. Not black, white, yellow, tan, etc., we should rally behind the colors red/white/blue!

But keeping these artifices of race and heritage and wearing them on our sleeves like weapons will lead to greater separation and division. We need each other, every single one of us, to be successful as a country and as a society.

You or I can't change this...it takes *everyone* to change this and to come together as Americans. Until then, we will suffer a "Balkanization" (unfortunately) with differend colored individuals hating/loathing/despising/distrusting each other because of a characteristic we cannot change or control.

I think Reginald Denny said it best after his horrific beating: "Can't we all get along?"


Happy Holidays!

Tony

[Szech]

Hold up a second...

I agree that in an ideal setting, all citizens of the United States would identify themselves as American (United States-ian?). But the fact is that a lot of American citizens are not seen as being "American". People caught up with the notion of American = White (Caucasian). Factor in the racism that prevents minorities from truly being equal, and the need is created to identify with a different group.

How can I be purely American when idiots still don't see me as being "American?" Just yesterday when I was driving through Central California, I stopped at a winery, and a lady asked, "Are you Japanese?" I told her no. She asked, "Where are you from?" I told her L.A. She asked, "No, no, where are you FROM?" **** it... I wasn't dressed funny, I didn't have a camera around my neck and I only speak English, what deduced in her mind that I'm foreign? The way I look. I clearly must not "look" American to her.

That's not the first time I've gotten that either. I personally identify as being American, but I see the need to keep note of racial background so long as there are people like this still around. People who don't understand or can't accept non-caucasians being American.

~~ Edit:
I also find it really ironic that Roosevelt said this in a time when Jim Crow laws were in effect, as well as the Chinese exclusion act. These were both institutionalized racism that forced segregation and exclusion strictly by the origin of one's ancestors.

[This message has been edited by Szech (edited 12-22-2000).]

[BBA]

Szech...I believe your telling the truth and I understand where some would behave/treat you and others in the same fashion.

I still believe we can solve a lot of problems in the country if we simply stick to our ancestral beliefs that we are a smelting pot of all different cultures blended into a whole nationality...that being the essence of "American"

Please do not be insulted by the ignorance of a poorly worded question such as "No, I mean where are you FROM?" as opposed to "What is your heritage".

I think if we Americans can stick with being referred to as Americans, non-hyphenated, then eventually it will spread and improve all lifestyles. It will not be a fast process either, but worthwhile, none-the-less.

[NoCtrl]

I am an American as is any other person living in North, South or Central America. I happen to be an American that is a citizen of the United States. Does that make me an United Statesian? http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[Banti]

caddmannq,

Seen the movie BullWorth(sp?)?

Quote as I remember it fromt he movie,

"Everybody needs to keep f*?@ing everybody until we are all the same colour"


Banti

[This message has been edited by Banti (edited 12-22-2000).]

[Roy]

Lest we forget, our country is THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

We are called Americans after our country, a socio-political entity. Similarly, others on the two geographical American continents are identified by their countries, not their continents. Mexicans come from the United States of Mexico. The term Mexican-American is both foolish and confusing.

When you get down to it, there are NO "Africans". South Africa is a country, and there are many other countries on the continent. As tonym points out, one can be "African-American" without necessarily being "Colored" i.e. Black.

We should celebrate our freedom to be proud of our ethnic or cultural heritage. Teddy Roosevelt warned against getting in peoples faces with that pride.

As the song says, "I'm proud to be an American". That's a lot, and quite enough for me.

[Ted61]

This is a heavy string, but I did get ted jr the X-men movie for Christmas.

[Szech]

So long as there will be laws, policies and people that target the racial background of American citizens, people will continue to keep the hyphen in front of "American." Whether this agrees with you or not (likely the latter http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif ), people are going to do this. When race is no longer an issue regarding the treatment of people, the hyphens will fade into a distant memory.

Take the Jim Crow laws, for example. Laws that treated people differently based on what race they were. That did not discriminate against every American, only those Americans who were "colored," a.k.a. black. It was the African-American community that came together to form a civil rights movement, not the American community. The rest of America didn't care. The distinction was, and is used because people of African descent clearly weren't like every other American.

I also fail to see how any of it actually hurts anyone or disunifies people. There were a lot of African-American and Hispanic-American soldiers in Vietnam. My understanding is that they were sent to the front lines. Isn't that loyalty to the U.S.? And most people I know who identify themselves as a hyphenated American don't associate exclusively with others of the same prefix. That would just be boring and ignorant.

Question...

African-American

Does that read, "I am African, living in America?" or is it, "I am American, of African descent?"

There's an ambiguity in the term, and it isn't clear cut or well defined. It could mean a lot of things: race-culture, culture-culture, ethnicity-culture, ethnicity-location, culture-location, etc. I'm sure people use it and interpret it in a number of fashions.

It'll change. Sit back, get a drink, watch the show.

[medo]

Hello,

It is not so easy.
This is my second year in Australia and soon I will be eligible for Australian citizenship. Do I automatically become an Australian by receiving citizenship? No I do not think so. It really needs time. Who ever will speak with me in the next few years will automatically recognize a stranger.
To be part of your new country you simply have to forget the smells and pictures of your past. You have to, in a soccer match between Australia and your home country be on Australia’s side and it is really hard. It’s not betrayal; it is something under your skin, deep in your soul and still in your dreams. For someone who comes to a new country at the age of 7 or 8 it is possible to completely forget one’s own past but for someone who came to the new country older than 15 it is really hard.
Deep in me I still live in comparison with what I see today and what I’ve seen before. It is not about what is better, it is about something new.
Maybe in 20 – 30 years time when I lose my accent and pictures of my home country start to fade away I will be an Australian. Maybe. For the second generation the answer will be much easier.


Medo

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif