Being a Hyphenated American

[ShyGuyInChicago]

American is a country whose people have originated all around the world. There seems to be a debate on how people should identify themselves in America. Some people object to calling someone Irish American, Mexican American, Chinese American, African American because many of those people were not born in the countries their ancestors were born in, do not speak the languages of their ancestors, and do not practice many cultural traditions of their ancestors or even visited the country their ancestors were born in.

However, many people object to that saying that although they are proud to be American they still value their cultural origins. Part of this attitude seems to be that people of color have been historically marginalized because of their race and so they identified with their ancestry more and over time as racism became more of a taboo people of color


Why do you think there are those opinions?
How come people in other countries that are nations of immigrants such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, do not have this hyphenated attitude to such an extent? (As a matter of fact, on those countries censuses one can choose Australian, New Zealander, and Canadian as their "ancestry")
Should people identify just as American, a hyphenated American, or an American of whatever descent?
If people identify as being in the country they live in and not by their ethnic background will that promote equality?

[darkwoon]

Because the culture differences vary. The cultural distance between, say, a Canadian and an US citizen is probably less perceptible than the difference between the same US citizen and a Mexican.

Some of the US inhabitants strongly identify to their ancestor's culture because they feel different enough from the "mainstream" consensus that they want to mark their difference to ensure their own traditions do not get washed away by the majority. It is also quite normal that somebody with a different, marginal culture, wants to find people of similar origin, and form communities.

I don't think it is a problem - quite the contrary, a diversified culture is a good thing. As long as all those cultures talk and exchange with each other, of course, and are all treated equally.