by Dee Holder

Created on: December 06, 2009

When I first moved to the states I was so irritated with filling in racial information on forms. The only choice that fit me was African-American, but at that time I was neither American, nor African I was black. Now at least half of that equation is correct. I didn't understand at that time why it was important for black Americans to have that hyphenated ethnicity. I now know better. After being exposed to American culture I saw that other groups had hyphens and it did not seem to bother anyone, there were Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, German Americans and so on. There never seemed any issue with those identities.

But blacks, unlike many other groups did not come here willingly, they were brought here in the most horrific circumstances. Many lost any ties to ancestors and were the only group that did not have a hypen to add to their name. The decision to call themselves African-Americans was an attempt to reclaim an identity that has been forced on them from the outside.

Why is the title of this assignment not "Can't Irish-Americans, Italian Americans, etc., just be called Americans". There is a suggestion in the current way the title is worded that it is 'more' wrong for minority, brown skinned groups to identify with their roots. That their doing this is somehow threatening to the majority culture which often celebrates their hyphenated status with festivals and parades.

Basically the question boils down to why can't they ignore their real identity and become more like us that would make us so much more comfortable, why do they have to have an identity anyway?

The last part of the question is an interesting one. It is funny that in this context, minority Americans are suddenly Americans but in others they really are not considered 'real' Americans. I was reminded of this as I watched the US OPEN tennis competition in New York this year. America has two amazing athletes at the top of that sport, yet when you hear the commentators speak you would never know it. American commentators often praise other athelets from other countries more than the two top American tennis players, who happen to arguably be the top two tennis players in the world.

American commentators fawn over Russian tennis stars, Belgian ones, Swiss and even a french one, hoping that one day they will actually beat the two Americans who have dominated the sport for years. There is almost disappointment that these two young ladies, have done so well for so long. "Why

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