by Brian S. James

Created on: May 29, 2007

I heard someone ask, "Are there many African-Americans in Australia?" It took me a few seconds to realize just how little sense that question made...

As a nation, we really need to stop calling people [insert ethnic title here]-Americans. These titles just add to the confusion.

I consider myself an American who has many different characteristics, part of which happens to be my race and countries of origin. I guess I see myself as an American, not just a "hyphen American". Incidentally, there are some things I consider more important than my citizenship, such as my Christianity. But I will not go around calling myself a Christian-American. i am a Christian and I am an American.

I But I guess for the sake of argument I will call myself now a European American. Well, not all white people are of European origin. Not even all people of European origin are white. And what if someone was perhaps a Soviet-American? When the USSR fell, did they become something else? If I have a child with an African-American, is my child African-American? Why can't I find a box on the forms that say "African-and-European-American"? What if my hypothetical wife who is black doesn't come from Africa? Would it not be an error to her to use the term in reference to her?

I have no problem with subcultures seeking to maintain certain unique identities in addition to being American. But race is not a subculture. It is often spoken about as if it were however, and that is a shame. There are people of all different kinds of races within all subcultures.

Even if you overlook the wild inaccuracy possible in the use of the currently accepted turns, a question still arises; if we are expected to treat all people of all races equally, then why are people so quick to point out their differences from other Americans, in the very title of their race? I think the answer lies in the fact that we are using an antiquated form of labeling that has outgrown its use, if there ever was one.

Please stop the ambiguous and unnecessary terms from being continued any longer than they already have.

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