I call you dviss myself....and in fairness, people are called Irish Americans, Italian americans, Jewish americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans etc....and I don't believe European americans started the African American tag but all ethnic American backgrounds have tags...it's not just African americans...George Carlin did a bit about this topic that's pretty interesting. Sort of like Canada has French Canadians eh? That being said in the end we should just call each other americans in my view with the occasional reference to assholes thrown in..
Historically, Hyphen-Americans has always been done to designate lesser. In some groups, it was embraced (take ownership of it), but in most cases it's trying to separate classes.
Call me whatever you want, just don't call me late for Thanksgiving dinner. Makes EA Sports sound kind of racist...and boring.
I have never associated this as a lower designation....you often read the word proud before the adjective...
I'm largely Irish American and even though we weren't considered upper class immigrants at the time, I know of no Irish American who is offended by being called that
I think it has to do with modes of immigration and cultural background. White people all immigrated to America and its easier to figure out their lineage. So we have Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, German-Americans and such and its somewhat common or use to be common to refer to yourself or others that way. Since black people came over mostly from slavery, its harder to determine their direct heritage so they are referred to as black or African-American instead of Nigerian-American or Congo-American. African-America is more politically correct than black. I've also heard European-American and Asian-American but neither are very common.
That's the "ownership" aspect I was talking about. I'm talking about the original use of the phrasing. It was used as a slur against people who weren't "Real" Americans (i.e., foreign born or the incorrect European heritage or whoever is whoevers enemy at the time). As in, they don't really represent what it means to be an American. It created a division and started the growth of the "other" among us. And any time those people said they wanted to just be Americans, they were then ask "why are you such and such American than!?" Well, they weren't the ones who created the label... But anyways, it wasn't until groups that were "hyphenated" Americans had became accepted as part of the whole, that the hyphenated Americans started to use the term as a sense of pride. And now that we've, for the most part, grown past the labeling of sub groups as not being considered Americans, and the -American name taxonomy doesn't bear the insult it used to, although there are still groups that fall into the grouping of not being "Real" Americans (currently, "Muslim-American" is probably used as much as an identifier that the person is not a "Real" American). I know that Maris will just point out that me pointing out historical facts proves I'm racist or some other nonsense, but actually understanding history plays a role in why things happened or will happen.
Proud is used as a code word for poor or low breeding. He’s got nothing but pride. Proud immigrant, proud servicemen, proud workers. Never hear proud hedge fund manager, proud billionaire, proud CEO.
Good point/question. It was originally used after the civil to differentiate black and white authors. A term to identify blacks as lesser than whites. It became an alternate to black after the 60s. I have always thought black and white were strange terms as your skin isn't black and mine isn't really white.
Steve Nash was born in South Africa, and then moved to Canada. So technically, he's an African American. I wonder if he filled out his college applications as such...
I think this is a bit off base....the slurs were there but Native American is used without slur...redskin....savage...etc..those are slurs to me. Mick, Spic, Kike, N....etc....all slurs against ethnic identity....I don't associate negativity to the use of adjectives at all in this case....in every country I've visited they use these adjectives to reference ethnic cultures...in Taiwan for example there are 18 aboriginal tribes and dozens of communities of Haka, Fuxing, Mandarins, etc....it's not unusual to reference someone as Taiwanese Amei or Paiwan....all 18 tribes are known in Mandarin as "Original People" roughly translated...the slang or slur would be to call them all "Mountain People" or Shan di ren…..that's considered uncool in their society but is used by uneducated Taiwanese pretty often..
I love Josh Blues comedy...as a handicapped man he puts everything in perspective..and he's hilarious...Check him out sometime..his Netflix special was great
