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Bentley Little · 08-04-2004, 05:52 AM

Ok, here is something that bothers me and I want people's views on this.

I personally hate it when people in this country hyphenate their ethnicity. By this I mean (and I AM NOT singling out ANY group, just giving an example), African-American, Asian-American, Italian-American.

Let me explain how I feel. Let's say I am Italian. (I am) I live in America. I do not consider myself Italian-American. I am of Italian decent/ethnicity but I am an American (in values).

I think that our country has been around long enough that we can even consider our country of origin (America) as an ethnicity.

So I could conceivably call myself American, not Italian (ancestry) with American (origin).

Do gay people call themselves gay-American, or do people from Sydney call themselves Sydney-Americans, or the English--English-Americans? What about when someone from Germany moves to Russia? Are they German-Russians. No, they are Germans (living in Russia). I am sick of this stupid fad.

I realize that it is a great thing to have pride in your heritage and to respect that you came from another country, but to digress, we call all blacks African-American when this is wholly untrue. Not all blacks originated from Africa. Nor do all Italians originate from Italy, there is Siciliy (yes I realize that some Sicilians came from the boot. Since I am half Sicilian and half Napoli, should I call myself Northern-Sicilian-American?

Well you all get my point. What do you think?

08-04-2004, 05:52 AM	#1 (permalink)
Bentley Little Insane Location: In my head...	Hyphenated Ethnicity Ok, here is something that bothers me and I want people's views on this. I personally hate it when people in this country hyphenate their ethnicity. By this I mean (and I AM NOT singling out ANY group, just giving an example), African-American, Asian-American, Italian-American. Let me explain how I feel. Let's say I am Italian. (I am) I live in America. I do not consider myself Italian-American. I am of Italian decent/ethnicity but I am an American (in values). I think that our country has been around long enough that we can even consider our country of origin (America) as an ethnicity. So I could conceivably call myself American, not Italian (ancestry) with American (origin). Do gay people call themselves gay-American, or do people from Sydney call themselves Sydney-Americans, or the English--English-Americans? What about when someone from Germany moves to Russia? Are they German-Russians. No, they are Germans (living in Russia). I am sick of this stupid fad. I realize that it is a great thing to have pride in your heritage and to respect that you came from another country, but to digress, we call all blacks African-American when this is wholly untrue. Not all blacks originated from Africa. Nor do all Italians originate from Italy, there is Siciliy (yes I realize that some Sicilians came from the boot. Since I am half Sicilian and half Napoli, should I call myself Northern-Sicilian-American? Well you all get my point. What do you think? __________________ That is my 2 cents.