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The term hyphenated American is an epithet from the late 19th century to refer to Americans who consider themselves of a distinct cultural origin other than the United States, and who claim to hold allegiance to both. The first term typically indicates a region of origin or ancestry, which is generally (but not always) paired with "American" by a hyphen, such as African-American, Chinese-American, Irish-American, German-American, Armenian-American and Japanese-American.
The linguistic construction functionally indicates ancestry, but also may connote a sense that these individuals straddle two worlds—one experience is specific to their unique ethnic identity, while the other is the broader multicultural amalgam that is Americana.
Usage
The hyphenated or compound term is most often used with pride or respectfully - xenophobic usages tend to drop everything after the hyphen or space. Current style guides most often recommend dropping the hyphen between the two names, such as African American instead of African-American, although some recommend hyphenating when used as an adjective, but not when used as a noun.* On the other hand, compounds with name fragments, such as Afro-American and Indo-European, are recommended to be hyphenated.
Latin American controversy
"Latin American" refers to the Spanish-speaking people of America including Mexico, Central America, and South America. In the U.S., people of Latin American descent are thus often referred to as "Hispanic Americans", or by their specific country of origin, e.g., "Mexican-Americans". Some observers, particularly those in Latin America, feel that this is implicitly U.S.-centric or American exceptionalist since in some sense all Mexicans are Mexican-Americans (Mexico being part of the Americas), but many U.S. citizens are not aware of other uses of the word American or do not find the phrase ambiguous in practice. In Spanish, the word americano means "of or relating to the Americas" and "a person from anywhere in the Americas".
Hyphenated American identities
Most usage experts recommend dropping the hyphen because it implies to some people dual nationalism and inability to be accepted as truly American. The Japanese American Citizens League is supportive of dropping the hyphen because the non-hyphenated form uses their ancestral origin as an adjective for "American."
By contrast other groups have embraced the hyphen arguing that the American identity is compatible with alternative identities and that the mixture of identities within the United States strengthens the nation rather than weakens it.
'European American,' as opposed to White, Caucasian, or Non-Hispanic White, has been coined in response to the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S., as well as to this diversity moving more into the mainstream of the society in the latter half of the 20th century. The term distinguishes whites of European ancestry from those peoples of Middle Eastern or North African descent. It is also meant to discourage a dichotomous view of the racial landscape, in which "Whites" are conceived as separate from the rest of the racial groups, which have hyphenated terms denoting ancestry. The term nonetheless has many detractors who criticize it for collapsing the pronounced cultural differences between Europe and the United States.
History of the term "hyphenated American"
The term "hyphenated American" was popularized in the 1910s by President Theodore Roosevelt, responding to the increasing fractionalization within the nation along ethnic lines. In an October 12, 1915 speech to the Knights of Columbus, Roosevelt said,
- "There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. ... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. ... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."
President Woodrow Wilson also regarded those whom he termed "hyphenated Americans" (German-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc.) with suspicion, saying, "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."
Opposition to hyphenated identities outside the U.S.
Some Canadian newspaper writers have attempted to promote "dehyphenated Canadianism" in the 1990s. The trend of Canadian English in this aspect follows that of the American English in general.
Views of hyphenated Americans
While some "hyphenated" Americans do hold to loyalties to other countries, which draws criticism from some Americans, others do not, and some claim that the critics miss important points.
There are many "hyphenated Americans" who do not define or desire to define themselves as such, but rather are defined as such by other people, both with linguistic descriptions, and with different treatment. The result is that even if these Americans are, in Roosevelt's words, "American and nothing else," they still may end up having a different experience, and for that reason may develop shared understandings with others of their type, whether they want that or not. This in itself becomes, ironically, a reason for them to be interested in their "hyphenated" identity, as they learn how to cope with the unique experiences dealt them.
There are many Americans immigrants or children of immigrants - a rapidly increasing number of whom claim dual citizenship - with profound and immediate connections to their homelands. Whether their loyalities be mixed or not, they require hyphenated identities because they cannot sacrifice half of who they are. Moreover, while criticism of "mixed loyalties" may perhaps be warranted in the political sphere, it is very often a cultural inevitability. As globalization has changed patterns of immigration to the US, having "mixed loyalities" may have become merely one among the wide range of political biases that people hold.
Lastly, some do not view hyphenated Americans as having conflicting loyalties because they agree with the "global citizen" concept of caring about all people regardless of nationality, a concept that more people are following in light of increasing globalization.
List
- Afghan American
- African American
- Alaskan Native American
- Albanian American
- Arab American
- Armenian American
- Asian American
- Austrian American
- Basque American
- Belgian American
- British American
- Canadian American
- Chinese American
- Croatian American
- Cuban American
- Danish American
- Dutch American
- English American
- Estonian American
- European American
- Filipino American
- French American
- German American
- Greek American
- Haitian American
- Hispanic American (cultural/linguistic group rather than national one)
- Indian American
- Irish American
- Iranian American
- Italian American
- Japanese American
- Jewish American (ethnic/cultural/religious group rather than national one)
- Korean American
- Laotian American
- Latvian American
- Lebanese American
- Lithuanian American
- Mexican American (Chicano)
- Native American
- Native Hawaiian
- Pakistani American
- Polish American
- Portuguese American
- Romanian-American
- Russian American
- Scottish American
- Scots-Irish American
- Swedish American
- Taiwanese American
- Turkish American
- Ukrainian American
- Vietnamese American
- Welsh American
See also
"Hyphenated American"