[OFB Cafe] Political Challenge

[Fred Smith]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 8:02 PM, saki <tjmc at torhouse.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
> Steven Hatfield wrote:
>
>> As my African American friend Mike Simmons once told me
>
> As a mere Brit, may I ask why it is, in the much vaunted melting pot of the
> USA, there are no groups insisting on being defined as English Americans,
> German Americans, Jewish Americans etc., and making a political platform out
> of the description?

Most relatively new arrivals to the US identify themselves as
something-Americans. Or, more often, are identified as such by other
groups.  Vietnamese Americans, Chinese Americans, Italian Americans
etc. African American is a bit of an oddity, as most people
identifying themselves as such aren't first or second generation
immigrants like the other groups.  There's a bit of interesting
history on "hyphenated americans" on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenated_American

Basically, at the end of the 19th century, hyphenated nationalities
were used to derogatorily emphasize the fact that the people in
question weren't really Americans.  These days, it's more often used
to make new arrivals feel and seem accepted. It's certainly not a new
terminology, and not solely associated with african americans.

> Is it because to be other than African American and wishing to be identified
> as a member of another ethnic group is racist?

Not at all.  Ethnicity is a huge deal for many groups in the US, and
they identify themselves as such proudly.  Italians, Puerto Ricans,
Irish, etc.