The Hyphenization of America

What is the meaning and effect of the rampant spread of Hyphenization in our cultural dialogue? The variants are many: African-American, Asian-American, Jewish-American, Italian-American, Hispanic-American, to name a few. Are these handles an attempt to carve out personal Identity? Are they a source or sign of ethnic pride? Yes, yes, and yes.

Unfortunately they are also sometimes employed as a means to set aside minorities who believe that in addition to respect for their ancestral origins, they deserve special treatment in the Now. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ramped-up discourse in some corners of the African-American "community." Their leaders – the Jesse Jacksons, Louis Farrakans, and Rev. Wrights of our podiums and pulpits – speak of (or scream about) the so-called modern-day subjugation of African-Americans. These trouble-mongerers tirelessly beat the drum of Entitlement, demanding the ear of our nation. And their angst-driven pounding is amplified by the presence of that tiny dash.

Their labels, like the hyphens within, serve more to separate than unite. As that-which-comes-after the Hyphen, the term “American” does not transmit as strongly as what precedes. This divides us into factions, unconnected and unable to relate to one another. As Roosevelt once said, “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism…. 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.''

Those words were spoken in 1915. Nearly one-hundred years later, the subject still bears examining. Is the American Melting Pot coagulating and separating as it simmers over the flame of socio-political fervor? Will the soup be spoiled? Perhaps not: if we turn down the heat, fish out the Hyphens, and gently stir.

Credits: Teddy Roosevelt’s words were read by Laura Ingraham on her radio talk show this morning. She wondered about the effects of Hyhenated Americans feeling greater solidarity with their countries of origin - whether African, European, Asian, or Hispanic – than with America.