Why are people called 'African-Americans' or 'Native-Americans', but people that look white are just 'Americans'?
This has annoyed me for awhile - many of my friends are called 'African-Americans' when they can trace their ancestry back 300 years in America. My German friend (who has a STRONG German accent) is immediately called and considered American.
If anything, shouldn't 'Native Americans' be called Americans and the rest of us should have a prefix?
No I don't think people should be identified by their color, we should all just be Americans.
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Posted by paclark Sep 4th, 2012 at 2:02PM
I read a book about this. It really stems from people natrually grouping themselves into categories. People do it by nature in most cases. Many of them actually like it. It gives them their own sense of identity which can be helpful when growing up or associating with others in the world. A commonality that they share, perhaps a shared expirience they have in common. Where it becomes an issue is when the second or third generations come onto the scene. They only know that they are American, they don't identify with their parents roots. However, they still have the enternal pressure to code swithc between their American identity and their cultural indentity. Most people, even second generations and on, have a hard time letting go of their roots. They try but it doesn't work. As for "white" people being considered American. That is because they have had the dominant role in the countries history. The name falls to them by default and in actuality, many minority groups do it as well. It's become the cultural norm. It becomes mostly a way to identify with one another. You may be one of those rare few who sees no need to do so. That's why it annoys you. I agree it's a strange reality.
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Reply by LaraS11 Sep 4th, 2012 at 2:15PM
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Reply by ELFINSONG Nov 6th, 2012 at 5:55PM
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