The Hyphenated American
Yesterday I received an incredible reply to last week’s blog entry. As soon as I read it, I started considering all that it implied and found myself unable to stop thinking about it. This reply stated that integration will not be possible if we don’t stop thinking of ourselves as hyphenated Americans. The author wrote “we cannot be a nation of hyphenated Americans,” and gives a succinct exploration of why he believes this, as well as touching on how this state of “separating ourselves” will keep us from integrating. I have to say that I don’t disagree with him. I also have to say that such views today, in our current reality, do not take into account the very reason for many of us differentiating ourselves in our self-identity as Americans.
I hope that it will be possible one day to speak of myself as an “American” and truly feel that when I call myself this that the word incorporates my cultural and ethnic difference. I hope that when any ethnically diverse individual calls herself American that she does so with pride because her difference is recognized and included. In our history, up to the current moment, this has not been the case.
The hyphenated American developed out of necessity. Which necessity was this? It was the necessity to say that though I am different, I, too, am an American. This need to self-identify as an American, though hyphenated, was a call for recognition.
America isn’t homogeneous. America isn’t a one size fits all nation. America isn’t strictly a white Anglo Saxon Protestant nation. America isn’t a 100 percent Christian nation. America isn’t a 100 percent English speaking nation. America is red, black, brown, and yellow. America is Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist. America is French, Spanish and Indigenous as much as it is Germanic and Anglo. Through the decades, the economic, cultural, governmental, and social leaders of this country have promoted the mythology that there has always been “One America,” when we know, in fact, that since its founding, this has never been the case. Any effort to promote that now, today, without first rehabilitating this word so that it truly reflects an inclusive society, is to promote the historical precedent with which we still live and struggle at this moment.
At this moment the word “American” is not as inclusive as it needs to become. Though I believe that it is expanding in this country’s collective consciousness (which is why I don’t disagree with the tenets of the respondent’s commentary), I also believe that today it still means that one must give up one’s diversity, heritage, culture, even native tongue in order to fully become this “American” that we want to claim. This is the legacy we have to undo. This is the work that integration must do. It’s not because we are hyphenated Americans that we will never be able to integrate. No, I disagree with that part of the argument. It’s because we have been forced to hyphenate that we have been unable to integrate, and it’s because we continue to meet resistance when we try to expand the meaning of being an American that we continue to say, “fine, if the word American doesn’t include me, then I will let the world know that I am an African, Latin, Asian, etc. who is also an American.”
When we can say, with confidence, I am an American, without meeting that resistance that we so often encounter if we don’t look a certain way, or don’t believe a certain mythology, or don’t behave in a certain cultural manner, then I can say, yes, it’s time to drop the hyphen. But that time is not here yet (just take a look at Leonard Pitts, Jr’s editorial for today, 11/20/08 for an example). That time has to be built by us. That time has to be accepted by all, particularly by those who fought so hard (and still fight today) to reject the notion that America is more than a crowd of white faces who speak the same language and believe the exact same thing. America is more than that, and right now, our only way of proving that is by serving as symbols of protest to the mythology of an American hegemony. Our protest? We hyphenate. Why do we hyphenate? To prove that we, too, are Americans. Recognize us, and we will drop the hyphens. Integrate us (not force us to assimilate by asking us to leave behind our tongues, our cultural practices, our differences), and we will be able to say (knowing that we are honestly and earnestly included), I am an American.
Tags: african american, american, american identity, american mythology, asian american, civil rights, hispanic american, hyphenated american, latino, latino american, latinola, lucas diaz, puentes
November 24th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Why must we separate ourselves?
I ask this again because I explained very little in my previous comment.
Separation seems a natural occurrence in human society. The family is the first form of societal separation, and nobody seems to mind that. We tend to make groups – fine. America is a diverse group – fine. But we are a group, nonetheless. The only thing that makes us cohesive is the fact that we are Americans. I completely agree with you that we are white and black and brown and red and yellow and purple and we speak the languages of the world. I don’t think I asked, in my previous comment, to homogenize. But there must be a little of goodwill from each side: if you just got hit on one cheek, you must be willing to at least allow the notion that your aggressor is sorry and will not want to hit you on the other cheek.
Hispanics are in a different situation from American blacks because a lot of us were not born here. Our children may be, but if you were not born in one country you are primarily, whether you like it or not, a foreigner. That we have chosen to make this country our home speaks volumes of the greatness of the country itself. So other than the native Indians that were robbed of their land and the Africans who were savagely forced into slavery, no other “ethnic” group has any claim to really being an American, and yet WE ARE AMERICANS.
You ever heard of the Chinese-French? How about them Lebanese-Mexicans? Never, because France and Mexico would have a collective heart attack if all of a sudden their citizens of Chinese and Lebanese descent would, respectively, start calling themselves their hyphenated names just to protest. These groups would be getting a nice swift kick in the romp and a big ol’ “go back to (wherever)!” from the rest of their citizens. We don’t really, until recently, get a big ol’ “go back to (donde sea)!” because we are actually accepted here. The government is set up in such a way that citizenship is attained rather easily (the process is indeed very easy). There will always be bigoted people, there will always be racist people, but for the most part people here will tolerate you (and tolerance is in the path to integration), so regardless of our differences, WE ARE AMERICANS.
If my neighbor thinks that I am different from him, isn’t that his problem, not mine? By the same token, then, if I separate myself from the group to which I belong, isn’t that my problem, and not the group’s? Integration must start with me. I must believe in “we,” not in “us versus them.” I will never forget who I am and where I come from, but by the same token, I cannot forget where I am. If “they” want to call me Hispanic American – that’s their deal. I am not white or black or Indian, but I have chosen to believe that we are all indeed created equal. I have willingly paid a price, rhetorically, to be here. So, no matter what those around me may think at first, I will convince them with my willingness to work together with one and all of them, that I am also an American. And I will continue to enjoy the freedom to converse openly with you, my American brother, in the faith and hope that you and I will strive together to make this an even greater nation, because it is evident that we both want to work toward that same common goal, and because after all, WE ARE AMERICANS.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:47 am
history american…
A Trackback is one of three types of Linkbacks, methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents.It…
December 16th, 2008 at 10:50 am
[...] few weeks ago Lucas dropped a very good piece on hyphenated Americans. Aside from cultural and social assimilation, It got me thinking about the fragile state of race [...]
December 21st, 2008 at 10:11 pm
electronic commerce…
hey i found this blog on google, nice information you have here! you have good quality content…