Bentley Little

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?

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That is my 2 cents.

Sp0rAdiC

I completely agree with the African-American one, I've always had an issue with that. As for the others, it's the same thing, but I really don't hear those nearly as much as African-American. If it were like that, then I would be a French-Irish-Canadian-German-American. Now that's just rediculous.

Cynthetiq

I am American. My heritage is Filipino.

I resent being called a Filipino-American.

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

The Phenomenon

On a side note: Something that IRRITATES THE SHIT OUTTA ME is when African-Americans start going off about their heritage and the mother land BLAH FUCKING BLAH while I, a white boy in Africa, know more about African culture than they do. IDIOTS STFU!

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Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self-sacrifice - which means: self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction - which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good.

Trisk

I think part of the reason people say things like that - especially if you're asian, is so that people can differentiate between first generation and those who are second, third or fourth generation. It's kind of pointless with saying African-American unless you're trying to be PC because there aren't as many African people immigrating here right now. However, there have been a lot of recent asian immigrants and to make sure people are aware of who they are, a lot of my asian friends will call themselves Asian-American. It's kind of like saying "yeah, I look asian but I'm just like you."

For Italians...maybe it's not the same with you, but some Italians I know can get a little bit snobby about their ethnicity. They only want to marry other Italians. Maybe they feel like the labels will better help them to find their Italian husband/wife.

Really...I don't know why Americans are so into where people came from. If someone asks you where you're "from" and you say "America", the person who asked will give you stupid stares and then say "no...I mean...your origins. Where are your ancestors from?" Saying you don't know will get you more stupid stares. I agree that it's sort of stupid for me to say "I'm a quarter polish, a quarter russian, a quarter chinese....1/16th irish...." At what point does it not matter anymore? .....but I guess it just comes with being a "new" country made up of so many different people.

The Phenomenon

Whats even richer to me is that if I were to immigrate to America i won't be called African-American, even though I more African than most of them.

__________________
Do not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which, in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self-sacrifice - which means: self-immolation, self-abnegation, self-denial, self-destruction - which means: the self as a standard of evil, the selfless as a standard of the good.

ARTelevision

Personally, I prefer - for myself, mind you - to totally and completely drop all references to my ethnic heritage and accept only the label "U.S. citizen." I'm quite adamant about this in my personal life.

This was my choice growing up. I never had any desire at all to identify with anything having to do with my "ethnic heritage".

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create evolution

lurkette

I have mixed feelings about this. I think identifying oneself by ethnicity is limiting and creates separation between people that doesn't necessarily need to be there. I don't have a problem with it, but it creates obvious resentment (witness the posts above) for some people who see emphasizing difference as a threatening thing. Hyphenatig people are tilting against a pretty strong windmill on that one.

On the other hand, for a lot of people their ethnic heritage and their culture are huge parts of their identity, and that ought to be respected. To demand that they assimilate and subsume that identity to a larger, homogeneous identity of just "American" is a little fascist. Nationality is, quite frankly, as arbitrary as ethnicity in terms of how you look at people, and I don't see why it ought to take precedence.

Bottom line, I have no problem with people referring to themselves as whatever-American, and I think it wouldn't be a problem if people didn't find difference threatening. I think it's a legitimate means of drawing attention and acceptance to cultures and practices and identities that are outside the mainstream of American identity. But it can also backfire and actually solidify prejudices and fear of difference.

Complicated situation. Thanks for bringing it up! I'll have to think about this some more....

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- Anatole France

Trisk

Oh...another reason a lot of Americans might tie themselves to some type of ethnic group is because America has no real culture. It's a land of individuality, big chain stores, and due to its nature of being a mixing pot, there are many Americans who can't identify with a lot of the history of America. If you're a second generation Korean in America, you don't want to say "I'm American" because your home is a Korean one. You follow all the Korean traditions and eat Korean food. You speak two languages at home. You are, essentially, a Korean American. It wouldn’t be fair to call yourself one or the other.

I'm proud to be an American because I believe in many of the roots of America, I love our founding fathers, I'm pro free-market and I know I'm lucky to live in a country with so much opportunity. HOWEVER, I would never consider my culture an American one. I (and many other people around the world) associate American “culture” with reality television, Jerry Springer, white trash/extravagant bimbos (so basically, a lot of people think all Americans are either like Paris Hilton or the people you see on Jerry Springer) malls, a recent influx of crappy music, stupidity, huge candy bars (most other countries sell candy bars about half the size of the ones here…they also generally have smaller serving sizes at restaurants), obesity, McDonalds, and a vast array of other things I would never touch/waste my life on.
So I kind of have a love-hate relationship with my country. I'm proud to call myself as American but I would prefer that people realize that I identify myself with certain ethnic groups/traditions not widespread in America.

omega2K4

I don't consider myself anything, I'm me. Labels suck.

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"Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form."- Karl Marx

MSD

Ethnicity is an artificial label created by man-made borders. Ethnic pride (one of the stupidest concepts I've ever heard of) is therefore an artificial concept that has no relevance to me. My standard response is, "So, you're proud of being born in [country]. Would you have that same pride if you were born in some small country that nobody knows anything about?"

I'm half Polish, with German being another large portion of my background. If I tried to start a Polish pride movement, I'd get laughed at, and I think we all know what would happen if I was proud of my German heritage.

Bentley Little

Your answer made me stop and think. I think it is insightful and I hadn't looked at it from this way before. In this case calling yourself a "whatever-American" would truly be correct. But, I think my thoughts basically stemmed from the way I see it "abused". To explain, the Phenomenon said it, "On a side note: Something that IRRITATES THE SHIT OUTTA ME is when African-Americans start going off about their heritage and the mother land BLAH FUCKING BLAH while I, a white boy in Africa, know more about African culture than they do. IDIOTS STFU!" I think that is why I feel the way I do is that most people who call themselves "whatever-Americans" know nothing of their true culture. I personally do not know too much about my Italian heritage or culture, (which in itself is not a disgrace to me or any other Italians or the culture) because I consider myself American (in culture). Although I hate the fact that many Americans have a disgusting culture, like Trisk says; fat, lazy, Jerry Springer, McDonalds, etc... I have the mentality that there is another side of the American culture, which I fall into: hard work will reap benefits, original ideas can be rewarded, freedoms shouldn't be abused, etc.

Edited to add content.

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That is my 2 cents.

Polyphobic

Either drop the hyphenated labels or at the very least list every ethnicity you have in your ancestory. That most likely will kill this idiotic desire to label oneself by your ancestory\ethnicity.

Thus, I am a swiss-german-irish-cherokee-american.
But just call me American for short. Or an inhabitant of Earth.

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<--The great infidel-->

THGL

The only time I agree with the hyphenation is when the said person has immigrated to America from their home country (Italian-American for example). When that person is granted American citizenship they are no longer xxx-American, they are American.

It's my understanding that this all started with the label "African-American". Someone got tired of the label "Black" and needed something different.

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"The truth is merely an excuse for lack of imagination." - Garak

Bentley Little

Personally, I would like to be a XXX American. hehe.

THGL, sorry, the joke was there and I made it, but I get what you meant.

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That is my 2 cents.

bigoldalphamale

<<< irish catholic
<<< irish american

no issues being referred to, or identified, as either. i also dont care about being called a honkey, cracker, mic, et. al.

everything has a context, and that is what i use to guide my interpretation of language.

Karby

...yes..
and before that it was 'negro'
and before that it was 'colored'
and before that it was 'darkie'
and before that it was 'nigger'
and before that it was 'savages from the jungle'


i'm sorry. i don't mean to be...'strange', but really, i think the whole label thing didn't start 'because black people wanted it to'. it started because others wanted to separate blacks because "they were inferior". really, i think it was a long time before blacks or any orther ethnic group other than white could truly call themselves an 'American'.

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~my karma ran over my dogma.~

Averett

I'm not quite sure if I get what you're saying, so correct me if I'm wrong. Yes, black people have been saddled with some pretty shitty names. Hell, myown grandfather who's 78 refers to the guy who does his lawn as the "Colored boy who mows my lawn." It makes me cringe...

Anyway, Karby, are you saying that white people came up with the term African American to further seperate Blacks and Whites? It seems to me that blacks came up with it to get in touch with their "heritage." And really, it doesn't make any sense. All it does if further seperate Blacks and Whites.

Excuse the poor spelling, I'm sure I butchered a few words in there.

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Trisk

It was never about skin color, Karby. It was about your status in society. If your skin color could help determine that, it was used. But African people weren't used as slaves because of their skin color. The color of their skin became a status symbol because they were used as slaves. For a long time, many white people couldn't call themselves American either, so to say "whites were the only ones" is somewhat ignorant. Perhaps if you say "only the white people of British/French/Spanish (from Spain) descent"....but when the Irish (who were also white) came to America, they weren't considered real Americans either. They were never slaves but they worked for next to nothing and weren't allowed into many establishments. There were considered no better than the African-Americans of the time.
What about asians? When the Chinese first started immigrating here, there were laws made against them and they were widely hated because of their strange looks and quick success in the gold rush and railroad business. Even more recently,the Japanese were shunned and not considered Americans because we were in a war against them.....but asians have paler skin than some white people I know. I'm sorry - I just get sick of hearing people tell me that everything is about how light or dark your skin is when history shows it's not about skin - it's about where your ancestors rank on the social ladder. This does, in some cases, reflect in skin color. But not in all cases.

billege

The use of "-" labels is one facet of American tribalism that is keeping our great melting pot from melting. New people come to our country, find the largest concentration of thier fellows to live near, and then learn as little about America as possible. They don't learn english, they don't experiance our culture, and we don't do much to encourage them otherwise.

Everyone retreating to thier own corners, speaking thier own languages, does not make us a mixed country deriving strength from diversity. I does make us a pack of disimilar peoples living in close proximity. That's not healthy.

Thinking of yourself as anything before you think of yourself as American is not good for this country.
If we want a strong country, we need to do everything we can to welcome those new people in, and expose them to our culture with all it can offer. As they expose us to thier culture, we all become stronger.

Hiding in our own corners, behind labels that seperate us, will destory us.

__________________
I can sum up the clash of religion in one sentence:
"My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."

Bentley Little

Now I am just posing a question here...but I agree that I see this "trend" as well. Does anyone think that we function better as a society if we stick to "like-kinds"? (race, culture, skin-tone, religion, etc.) I mean there is some validity to this. We do get along better with those we feel more comfortable with. Now I am not saying, hate thy neighbor or treat those differently with disrespect or the like, but could it be more inherently natural that we follow in crowds of similar backgrounds than to interexist?

Just posing a hypothetical here...

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That is my 2 cents.

bigoldalphamale

there is some degree of comfort in masses of like people. but these homogeneous communities also serve as a buffer and means of gentle immersion into a culture that is very much unlike any other in the world. from these little communities, new comers can adjust and become 'american' at thier own rate.

do i appreciate that a good number of these people never bother to integrate? fuck no, and fuck them. however, i think these communities still serve some purpose in that they help to prevent culture shock and provide a proper platform from newcomers to become americanized at a pace that works best for them.

besides, i think i would kill someone if they tried to take away my beloved chinatown eateries and bistrows. KILL!!!!!!!!!

Averett

I think you're onto something Bentley...

We're all animals right? You don't see too many animal species hanging out together. Not going to find a lion playin cards with a zebra. Might just be natural that people may be more comfortable with people who look like them.

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Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

Karby

oh no...i was responding to TGHL's post about how the the whole hyphenated label bit got started. i was just trying to say that labels have existed for a pretty long time. i read THGL's post as 'blacks started it because they had nothing better to do.'--of course s/he didn't say that, but that's how it came off to me. i said those things to give a reason as to why any labels exist at all, and also to say that one of the reasons the hypenated label exists now is because the labels that were given earlier were, as you said, shitty.



...i wasn't saying that whites were the only ones. i was saying that whites got the benefit before anyone else did, and they weren't quite...open to sharing.

i didn't say blacks were the only ones who always got the short end of the stick:
...that was all..

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~my karma ran over my dogma.~

lurkette

Ugh, no!!! There's a difference between different species who happen to eat each other, and people who belong to the same species and whose only real differences (aside from the cultural ones) are essentially cosmetic. People might be more comfortable sticking to their own kind, but I don't think we as a society or as a planet are better off. Insulated cultures stagnate and die, while a diverse society tends to be adaptable and flexible. Segregation might be an easy answer - far easier than conquering our own fear of The Other - but I don't think it's the best one.

Further, if you segregate people based on race, they'll just find some other characteristic within the racially homogeneous group to focus on - sexuality, ethnicity (Irish vs. Scottish, Basque vs. Spanish - they're all white, but that hasn't really kept things happy), hair color (Aryan blonde, anyone?), religion, gender, etc. The fear of "otherness" is universal and deeply ingrained, but that doesn't mean we should capitulate to it. The urge to bash someone's head in if he pisses you off is also universal and deeply ingrained, and yet we've decided as a society that that's not behavior we want to encourage.

Exposure to difference inevitably breeds first, fear; second, acceptance; third, incorporation whereby each group modifies the other in some way. We're only a generation out from Jim Crow - I think it's a little early to declare integration a failure.

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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Anatole France

Averett

Hey lurkette, we're on the same side here

I was just cutting down to basic animal instincts. I don't think we should have segregation of any kind of course. When people can make excuses not to be mongomous, saying that it's not in our basic animal nature, then why can't they make the same excuse for "sticking with their own kind"?

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thubpt

Side note to this one - the ethnicity question on job applications. To this one I'd like to say "What's it to ya?"

I'm constantly asked my ethnicity because I favor my Italian grandmother. My two favorite answers: "I'm a mutt", and "I'm Heinz 57."

America is the melting pot, after all.

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Averett

That's what I say too thubpt. My mom is mostly French but my Dad is lord knows what. So I guess I'm a French-Mutt-American?

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roofles

I believe that American is an idea, not an ethnicity as some people like to use it. My own blood is half Colombian and half Italian. Both cultures feel equally alien even though I speak spanish and have travelled to colombia and spent much of my childhood with my italian grandmother. I choose to be whatever I like.

I don't use labels for a couple reasons. I think people should be identified as a person first and then as a person of certain origin, not the other way around. Secondly, I'm not aware of a label that accurately describes what I consider myself. Personally, I'd prefer just to be nothing. I just don't care.

When filling out some sort of application I always choose 'other' when they ask about ethnicity. This is again because I have no clue what else to put down. Checking the hispanic box would be equally inaccurate as checking the european box since I am half of each. To be technical, I have more european blood in me than indigenous colombian blood since there is a good deal of spaniard blood a few generations back... but do you see what I'm saying here?

I'm just a person. I choose what groups I want to mix and fit in with and the country or ethnicity is of no concearn. I understand american culture from growing up here but I dont fit into it, or the cultures of my heritage by any means. It is for the most part all equally alien.

In the end I'd rather just be a person and I think that is the idea behind being american, but it seems this has gotten lost along the way somewhere amongts the endless cornfields and warm apple pie. American means too many things right now for people to wholely subscribe to the idea. Either way, in my opinion it should just mean "people." Nothing more, nothing less.

I have to agree with the bit about people immigrating here and then not assimilating. This is something I really hate, since to me these people come here and reap the benefits of the assimilation of other before them but refuse to give anything back to the whole system by themselves assimilating into the culture. I realize cultural mixing is difficult for many people, but honestly when you immigrate to another country the last thing you should expect it to be is easy. Either way, for the people who make it here from third world countries this is understandably the very last thing on their minds. Consider Maslow's Triangle. My colombian grandmother has lived here for at least 30 years and doesn't speak a bit of english. She first lived in New York and now Miami. She lives only in the parts of town that are run by other hispanic or southamerican people. This has always irked me to no limit.

This is also the reason I dislike mecha on college campuses alot. For those who don't know its a student organization for chicano people, aka mexican american. I realize they can provide service and support but most of all it just becomes a mexican social club that works very strongly against the integration and assimilation of these people into mainstream society. I hate any organization that impedes the assimiliation of cultures here, because as it was stated before, different kinds of people living in close proximity equals problems. No point in making an arguement about it since its been proven historically time and again.

Many people will take a country that has a largely homogeneous population and compare its lack of grave societal problems to the united states' abundance of issues. Its a wholely unfair comparison since many of our societal quagmires have risen from the fact that people of different cultures and heritages do have difficulty coming together and working cooperatively and are forced to do so here. This is the reason I feel so strongly about assimilation as a positive process, not a negative one. When we can truly become one great homogeneous neo-ethnicity, I believe things will improve. Yes, older cultures will be dissolved and fade away, but such is the way of things. All things seem to come and go, and only because we have the knowledge and foresight of these things at work doesn't mean we should move to stop them.

On a lighter note, I love visiting different parts of LA where I cant read at least 85% of the signs on the street. Even though these are obviously centers of non assimilation I can't deny that the little anthropologist in me is giggling with glee to be here and there in these places. Touche with the little chinese bistros or that great ramen shop in little tokyo

Sorry for the length, but this is something I've thought of alot. Thanks for reading. Great subject btw

edited coz i am incapable of proofreading my own stuff.

ironman

You know what bothers me? US citizens calling themselves AMERICANS. Last time i checked, America wasn't a country but a continent, hence, ALL people who live in the continent called AMERICA is AMERICAN.
Now, for the main theme been discussed here, i do hate as well taggin people with ascendence nonsenses, if you live in the US, then you are a US citizen, if you live in Guatemala, then you are guatemalan, etc... embrace it, or get he F... Out and go back to wherever place on earth you think you are from, you will be lucky if you can find it, as today's world population is the result of many, many race and national mixes.

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If I agreed with you we´d both be wrong

Trisk

I think people just say it like that because saying United Staters or United Statian or USer just doesnt sound good.


....and I think you missed my entire point. My point was: "White" is not an ethnic group. I used all those examples to show that other people with "white skin" or "pale skin" have been persecuted and shunned in the past due to their ETHNICITY. Like I said in my last post, your statement is perfectly fine if you say "It was a long time before any other ethnic group other than caucasians from Britain, Spain, or France could call themselves American"....but you didnt. You just said "white" as a general term for an ethnic group....

Karby

no, i read what you wrote and understood you. i was just trying to make clear that i never said that blacks were the only ones to suffer the whole discrimination to labels thing. ...though reiterating that same statement didn't really show for that. so yeah, i apologize for not clearing that up.

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~my karma ran over my dogma.~

Sargeman

While I don't care much for the hyphenated labels and some on here, and well pretty much everywhere, say that we are all Americans still use labels when describing about someone.

In other words, if you see me walking down the street do you say "Hey there goes that American guy." or do you say "hey there goes that Mexican guy." Hypothetically speaking of course, seeing as how I probably won't be walking down anyone's street and you won't be saying those words just out of the blue even if I had been walking down the street. But you get what I'm saying.

When you describe Shaq, you say "he's big, tall, black, and the man is a monster on the basketball court." When you see me would you say "he's about 5'10", good looking, brown, and he's a monster on the softball field"? Chances are you would say he's hispanic or latino.

So no matter how you look at it most minorities still get labeled whether it's with or without a hyphen.

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...because there are no facts, there is no truth, just data to be manipulated. I can get you any results you like, what's it worth to you.....

Bentley Little

Lurkette, you know I was only posing a hypothetical question and not advocating segregation. I wanted to elicit some responses and got some good feedback. And I agree, that if we segregate (by our own free will) then yes, we will eventually find smaller ways to segregate those groups. This has been proven scientifically. But in regards to sticking to a certain group for comforts sake is not inherently bad. It justifies having differences that ARE good and make us who we are, and seperates the cultures in a good way. For example, if everyone were 5'8", white, and named John or Mary, our planet would be a dull one. I don't think you intended this but that would be the other side of that coin.

I think labeling perpetuates segregation. And Thubpt, like the applications do. You are not white, black, whatever, and there isn't a spot for you. That means you are excluded and discriminated against in a way. The reason it is done is so that we can collect statistics to see how well the "minorities" are fairing in the workplace so that we can make more laws to make everything "equal". I put that in quotes because forcing one side to do something essentially causes a reaction to make it lop-sided. (More on that in another thread later).

Quote from Roofle, "I don't use labels for a couple reasons. I think people should be identified as a person first and then as a person of certain origin, not the other way around." There is a comedian (Carlos Mencia) who (is very non-pc, but at the same time, completely un-racist) has a joke that goes like this.

You get mugged and robbed on the street and so you go to the police station to file a report. The officer asked you to describe the person so you say, well, it was a person. What kind of person, well, he was people, ya know.

Obviously we have labels for a reason. Was the mugger white, Chinese, male, tall, fat? But I agree with what you are saying Roofles. Don't get me wrong.

Ironman, America is not a continent. North America and South America are continents, America (or the United States of America) is a country. And our country has been here long enough to have a distinct culture all its own and I think people should call themselves Americans, esp. if they were born here, speak English, go out for cheeseburgers at a fast food joint, etc.

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That is my 2 cents.

THGL

Okay, from now on I won't try to keep my posts short.

It's my understanding that the label "African-American" was brought into the current vernacular because Blacks were tired of the label "Black".

It was, at one time, okay to call them "Negro" because that's what they are, just as I am a "Caucassian". "Negro" (which is Spanish for "black") was a little too close to the term "nigger" (which actually means "lazy") so another label was needed. Enter "Colored". This was the standard term until it was changed to "Black".

I believe it was John Wayne who said the hyphen's only use is to SEPARATE. Think about it.

__________________
"The truth is merely an excuse for lack of imagination." - Garak

ARTelevision

I like what billege said. Alot.

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create evolution

lurkette

Yeah, but blaming something on our "animal nature" or saying something is NOT in our animal nature is just a good excuse for justifying behavior that seems otherwise unjustifiable. We ceased to be "animals" when we grew opposable thumbs and started thinking linguistically. If someone wants to argue against monogamy or for segregation, arguing from utility would be a much stronger argument than "it's not in our animal nature." But I get the point you were making.

__________________
"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Anatole France

Glava

I think the problem is that it's hard to make a descriptive term for a person using the phrase "United States". USer? USian?
"American" while not being the most specific, is more convenient.

Also, do you think the Guatemalans living and working in Costa Rica should consider themselves Costa Ricans?

ironman

I'm kinda confused then, so Columbus didn't discovered America but the Caribbean? Central America does not exists?

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If I agreed with you we´d both be wrong

greytone

One of the problems we have on this topic, is that we confuse ethnicity and race. It is sometimes necessary to identify race because it may have a medical implication and it is the second most important part of any description (after gender). Other than that, I could not care less what someones race is. On the other hand, I feel my life in enriched by experiencing and learning about different cultures.

This does not mean that all cultural values are equal. Frankly I favor American culture that emphasizes individual rights and freedoms while encouraging community and cooperation over a culture that believes in the divine right of a monarch or intolerance. But there are good things that can be gleamed from a variety of cultures and these should be celebrated and remembered.

We need to drop the hyphens and focus on being Americans. But that means that we celebrate, and more importantly, share our cultural heritage.

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I was there to see beautiful naked women. So was everybody else. It's a common failing.
Robert A Heinlein in "They Do It With Mirrors"