Hyphenated Americans should get half a vote

In spite of the fact that we're all allowed to have our opinions, and that rules of grammar are not absolutes, there are certain linguistic applications that weaken any argument stating that labeling myself as Spanish-African-Polish-French-Native-Chinese-American means I'm not proud to be first and foremost, a U.S. citizen. All those pre-hypen words are used as modifiers modifying the word that follows. "Pre" does not take away from "hyphen," it modifies and adds meaning to it.

For now, let's ignore the fact that calling myself American references a continent, and not a nationality. I mean, seriously, if I'm Canadian-American, am I a US citizen of Canadian decent, or am I a Canadian who lives on the American continent? Canada, Mexico, the US--all part of America. Ok, so I didn't ignore that...my bad.

But as long as we're at it, if I'm a proud-American or a real-American, then where do I sign up for my American voting rights? All I have now is a right for voting as a US citizen. And, as a US citizen I live in a republic made up of states. Does that bleed away some of my American patriotism?

Why refer to a group of people according to their skin color? Were they not Americans? When we refer to a group of people who are citizens, why is it necessary for us to label them as "not one of us"?

Other than just a random opinion, can we show that identifying as an American of a certain decent makes us less patriotic? Clearly, there is no support for such an idea other than that random and unsupported opinion.

One of my great-great-grandfathers came here from England. He is still considered my great-great-grandfather even though the hyphens separate (or link) him to me. I don't believe he considered himself more great than grandfather. Grammatically speaking, great is a modifier used in this case to show a generational difference and in no way takes away from being a grandfather. It's the same with ethnicity. British-American only indicated his origin. In no way did it indicate allegiance, nor did it white-wash the fact that he came to the U.S. voluntarily.

So many Mexican-Americans can say the same thing. The Native-American and African-Americans I'm descended from knew no other country. The U.S. was their only home. They fought wars for this country. What they wanted was to not be herded into stereotypes and tagged with all kinds of denigrating labels that limited their acceptance into the greater society.

What do you do when you get labeled based on your physical appearance? You can't change the ignorance of stereotypes, and you have little else left except to accept yourself for who you are. Don't be shamed out of it by others. Don't pretend you're not of an ethnicity because you can't hide that. Accept it and be proud of it.

Enjoy your opinion, but don't try to force it on my multi-ethnic-red-blooded-American heritage.

 

I knew you didn't make the statement about 3/5ths but I was too lazy to track back and find another statement to use. Enjoy yourself.

 

And how exactly is it my fault that every single thing in society that requires my signature requires me to check a block stating what race I am? This is a society and government problem, not mine.

I was born in Louisiana, my parents were born in America, their parents were born in America, and so were their parents, and their parents. I have zero idea whether or not my lineage comes from the slave trade or if my family got over here some other way, nor do I care.

I have as much connection to "Africa" as I do with China or Russia yet if I apply for something in society the application will almost certain ask me to check a box that says "Black/African-American". Society is who identifies me as a hyphen American from a continent that I have never even been to for some reason, not me.

Blame the government and society who has normalized this, not the individual people.

 

Folks identify as hyphenated Americans largely because society has normalized that for as long as anyone can remember. Businesses, media, the government, etc has called me an "African" American since the day I was born. They call all black people born in America that and always have. When you are identified as something every single day then it becomes normal at some point.

You want to "normalize" calling everybody American and have people born in America just call themselves "American" then have society and the government stop calling them hyphenated Americans every day.

I have co-workers who are African-Americans, actual African-Americans. They don't count me as one of them AT ALL. And quite frankly neither does anybody else in the world. I've traveled all around the world for work, every single place I go I am called an "American". I was at a bar in Spain and some drunken white Sailors came in there acting up and the bar tender shook her head and said to me "uhh it's always YOU PEOPLE who act like idiots in here on Friday nights". You people? I asked. "Yeah, you damn Americans always get way too drunk and I have to kick you out". I'm a black guy sitting at her bar, some white guys walk in drunk acting like fools, to her we're all just "Americans", and in that particular case "Stupid ass Americans" even though me and those drunken white Sailors obviously don't "look" the same.

But when I go HOME to America all of a sudden I'm not just an "American" anymore, I'm a hyphenated American because my own government and society calls me that.

Get rid of all that crap on documents and tell the media and society to stop calling me that and give it a few generations. It'll go away. But they won't do that because unfortunately a lot of people like it like this. For a lot of people they don't want race on documents because they think it'll hurt or unfairly help certain "races". I don't want race on documents or in the media because it's just flat out stupid to call somebody an African-American who was born in Louisiana....

 

Of course people have a choice. I'm just saying that folks choosing and not choosing something like this personally isn't really something most folks think about too much. It's not exactly something that is consciously on someone's mind too often. At this point since it has been "normal" forever it's just background noise.

I see what you're saying, folks born in America should identify themselves as Americans only, and I agree. However, I don't think most people are making a contentious effort to NOT identify as just "American", I think it's just not something people are even thinking about on a regular basis. The whole "African" American thing has been synonym for "black" for pretty much the entire history of America. Even today being hundreds of years post slave trade when folks in society say "African-American" they mean "black people". Nobody says African-America and means actual African immigrants and when they do they specify it. When folks ask me where I'm from when they hear my accent they are asking me what part of the South I'm from, they aren't asking me that with the expectation that I'm going to say Zimbabwe or something because everybody knows that African-American means black people even though it makes no actual sense in the literal term.

We've just always called black people that so we still do.

What exactly are you expecting people to do? Go around society correcting anybody who calls them some form of hyphenated American? How exactly would you verify that somebody identifies as American only for this vote thing?

 

How exactly would you or anybody know whether somebody self identifies as a hyphenated American or not? And since you claimed that if someone self identifies as African-American they should only get 1/2 vote then how exactly are you going to verify who does that in order for them to only get 1/2 vote?

 

Or people would just check the box that says American since the new policy would be if you don't check that particular box then your vote won't fully count....Then turn around and "self identify" as whatever they want anyway.

I mean I seriously doubt anybody cares SO STRONGLY about being called African-American that they would absolutely refuse to check the American only block on a voting document...

This isn't some hardcore religious beliefs during the Crusades where folks would literally rather die than denounce their God at the tip of a sword or something man. It's a tag that people check on public documents, I don't think people care as much as you think they do.