I believe this was the assignment - something about hyphens or what not.
I think it would be a little presumptuous to say that the hyphen in this context is a strictly American phenomenon, but it is probably safe to say that a hyphen next to "American" is more common than with other nationalities. This is unsurprising; the United States is a nation built by immigrants, a cultural melting pot. While other nations may be defined by a common background and ethnicity, the American identity and nation is defined by the multitude of ethnicities and nationalities that share in it.
The hyphenated identity shows that people are able to come to the United States and become American while still retaining their heritage (as opposed to having to lose a core part of themselves).
On an related note, there was a question today in class about how we identify ourselves. Personally, I do not feel particularly attached to my religion, ethnicity, or nationality. To me, they really should not matter. But I guess if I had to define myself along religious/ethnic/national lines, I'm a Filipino agnostic-leaning Catholic who happens to be an American national.
Sorry if this was a little rambling.
18 comments:
I agree with paragraph 2, and feel that people don't "hyphenate" their identities and themselves before others do. In our judgmental society, many people can't accept others like them, and the people who can just identify others as "friend" or "dude" or "guy" and stuff like that. It seems like using the hyphen and America has become an excuse for those who refer to others by their race/religion to do so; many feel that calling blacks African-American better, but it is still much worse than calling the person by his or her name.
Thank you for expressing yourself in the last paragraph, Clark.
well. Charlie is totally right. people do not call themselves a hyphened description until someone else had already used it for them. For example, new born babies do not call themselves Italian-American before someone tells them that they should be called that.
The hyphen to me is both seperative and connective, like we said in class. It is seperative but hinting that someone is not JUST american. At the same time, it is connective by putting someone in a group.
chuck you crack me up - but clark i actually agree with almost everything you said. i think hyphens are unnecessary in the way that we are discussing them. i cant remember the last time anyone referred to themselves as a ____ american. i think thats used more in description to let a reader get a sense of a characters background. in my opinion, calling someone an asian american, italian american, irish american, etc. could be considered racist. its basically labeling somebody by their race and judging a person by only their race, thus taking away from their individualism.
benjy-- how can someone be JUST american? unless everyone is JUST american? as clark said, we are a nation built on immigrants - everybody living here has at least one other ethnicity or race. unless your relatives have always lived here and are american indians, who are even given a label.
while the hyphen really doesnt affect me because knowing a persons race doesnt mean anything, i believe that it can be viewed as a way to separate/divide the nation.
but as benjy said it goes both ways -- it could also be a way of showing that we're all american, but we dont lose our ethnicity- we're both italian and american [for example]
okay i think i talked more than clark sorry guys!
I agree that the hyphen can be connective; it relates all american to each other. However, why separate ourselves between italians, africans, asians if we all are americans? It doesn't really make sense to me why we create more divisions in society. Our country could be a much better place if racial lines could be crossed or even disappear. I understand that people take pride in their heritage, but do we really need to put a label on it?
"We must build more bridges with whites and others in a meaningful sense, not merely for show" (Iwata 112).
The hyphen, when used with racial connections, is like a bridge. It allows people of all races to be able to be able to cross the fierce racial barriers created by white Americans. For hundreds of years, Italians, Irishmen, Chinamen, Africans, and Hispanics have tried to connect themselves to the vast conformity in white society. Unfortunately, some have made more progress than others, like Irishmen, and Germans. Most of them, including myself, classifies themselves as Americans, while younger American minority groups feel that they must hyphenate their name.
Due to white prejudice, minority groups feel that they are not fully Americans, but they must stay in their realm, connected only by the bridge, or hyphen, which is their temporary connection to the "acceptable" world.
Well guys, here i am, the absent man... Little side note for Siegs, the author that i'll be probably doing is Sherwood Anderson, he seems interesting
Anyways, wit the hyphenated thing, I didn't get notes or anything yet, but how about I take a crack at it with what i've read!!! I feel like the hyphenated language, even if it may be rude and apartheidish, is still a very important part of writing.
By analyzing the hyphen, i feel like we can classify writers and figure out what their message is. If a writer says black instead of African American or says negro, then we can easily classify him in terms of his boldness, his message, and his outlook.
Since this is an English class, I don't think we should be looking at the hyphen as whether or not it is an evil tool, but how it can be used in writing to benefit the reader. The hyphen is definitely a necessary tool that is unique to America. Yes it adds a demeaning level to the character or person or whatever, but it also explains the book and what the upcoming themes will be. It FORESHADOWS the attitude of the author and I bet that we could actually determine the idea of the book by looking at hyphens only... What do you think of that guys?!?!?!
Charles, the point was that I don't think that stuff like race and nationality do not matter and to me only serve to arbitrarily and unnecessarily divide humanity. I feel that it is often unfair and wrong to define someone along those lines. People should form an identity through their actions and own merit instead.
You're welcome, Charles.
i think that the hyphen speartes rather than connects americans because it classifies americans into separate culture groups and it sterotypes them within that culture. Like Edward from the article, he feels that people are always seeing him as japanese rather than american or an individual. At the same time his culture is apart of who he is and he is poud of where he comes from. It shapes his ideals and morals.
This separtaion can be seen everywhere, like in chinatown. A place within new york designated to just one group of americans, which is shown by the hyphen, chinese-american. I think if everyone just considered themselves americans then we would not be as separated but at the same time it would be worse because everyone would have the same culture and ideals and it would not be the american melting pot, which is full of different diversities and cultures.
I think that the hyphen has both good and bad things about it, which were mostly already mentioned. They hyphen certainly keeps each person unique in the sense that their ethnicity is retained, and I think that some who are more critical of that would appreciate being referred to as such. However, I think that the longer you stay in this country, the more you'll be inclined to just call yourself an American. After a few generations, immigrants and their children become more accustomed to the way things work around here. I believe that while everybody should unite as a group of people, it is still good to retain some sort of individualism.
I think that the hyphen is a good thing because it is there for those that feel the need to identify where their family has come from. I agree with what Derek said about how after a few generations people will tend to only identify themselves as American. In my family i am the third generation that has been born in America so if someone asks me what my ethnicity is id say American, not Russian or Russian-American. I dont think that the hyphen can ever really be that bad because although it does separate people i dont think there is anything wrong with that because if people think it is important to represent where they or their ancestors came from, that should be respected.
The hyphen is used to identify a person, and connect them to other people. When someone uses the hyphen, they are identifying themselves or others as part of a larger group. The hyphen makes someone a part of something greater than just one nationality, but it makes them a part of their family's history, and culture. Not every African-American or Italian-American is actually from Africa or Italy, but people identify themselves this way out of pride for their culture, and their history
I agree with everyone that said the hyphen connects and separates. As we hinted at in class on Friday, the hyphen can be used to separate people into something and then American. This in a way is a good thing because it allows them to identify themselves with where they are from, but also be able to identify themselves with Americans. I also think that it is connecting in a way because it brings the two cultures together in the case of _____-American. It allows people to combine ideas of both places into unique lifestyles. This I think is useful for Americans because it helps reiterate the "Melting Pot" America idea that Clark talked about.
I think that the hyphen has a mixed message. in many ways it is better to just look at every individual as an individual regardless of their race or religion. when the hyphen is used to describe someone an an "Italian-American" ect. it is putting a label on them that they might not enjoy. the positive spin on it is it helps people remember their past cultures and where they came from. and Charlie u r the man and i agree with what u said about calling someone African-American or black is still much worse than calling someone by their name
geeze you guys said all the good stuff!
i agree with all of you- and i particularly enjoyed the quote/ simile, clayton..
i really enjoyed class on friday.. the whole lesson with the hyphen and its various meanings really interested me. i might have said this in class, or someone else might have said it, i dont really remember- but, like many of you said, the hyphen is connective, as well as separative.. however, i dont think we should focus on it as being a separating agent in identifying ones' ethnicity and identity- for that matter.. in america, we're all american.. that's the one universal thing that every single person- in america-has in common. and the greatest part of all, is that we are all americans, yet none of us look the same..it's the first word of our identity- the word before the "-american" - that reveals a piece of who we are..
see you guys tomorrow!
Well said Clark, I completely agree with your statement about calling oneself American while still allowing them to retain their heritage by keeping their initial nationality whilst describing them self. However I do agree with Charlie, that these hyphenated nationalities also build stereotypes, which is a bad thing. They separates Americans into sub-categories. I would be classified as a Jewish - American, which puts me into a group with others like myself. There are African -Americans, Italian -Americans, Mexican -Americans etc. I think that the hyphen is positive for keeping ones heritage but negative in that it categorizes people, which leads to prejudice and stereotypes.
like most of you said, the hyphen both connects and separates, but i think that it connects and is a good thing. as gil mentioned, the hyphen is there for people to connect themselves to their heritage, but i think the best thing about it is that it's optional. in the end i think we all really classify ourselves as american and the fact that we can add our racial backgrounds with the hyphen connects us because we're all different.
I think the hyphen can be either a good or bad thing, depending on the context. Especially in America, where differences are celebrated, it is usually pretty awesome to boast one's uniqueness. However, in many other places, being different can get people killed. Hyphens can be good because they allow people to merge different religions, nationalities, and ideals together to form a representation of a person's unique identity. On the flipside, they can be bad because they put people in boxes. There will never be enough hyphens for a person to fully describe him/herself, so i feel that identifying as only one or two things causes people to have inaccurate expectations of you. There is just so much gray when it comes to identity.
I agree with the "connects and separates" discussion that has been going on, but I think you really have to be careful when making the distinction between defining someone's heritage as racist and... well... just defining someone's heritage. Yes, it may "set them apart," but some people are really proud of where they come from. It forms groups to connect people both WITHIN and TO their country. Actually, I think the effects of the hyphen can be taken very literally as compared with its use in literature. Hyphens stick words together. Similarly, hyphens are (oooh and just look at this nice metaphor...) krazy glue that cements cultures together. It makes a person different, yes, but it is also very inclusive because it always names them as American.
Post a Comment