Hyphenate This

By Lee Feder

Several years ago, I met my mother’s sister for the first time. Different families raised them and they first met as adults. I knew this random woman no longer than 10 minutes when she asked me, “What are you?” No one had ever asked me that question before so I had no idea how to respond. Upon figuring out that she wanted my interpretation of my ethnic background, I was shocked. Why would someone ever ask that, let alone ask it immediately after meeting someone? The realization that this woman cared that I am a Greek-Austrian-Ukrainian-American stunned me.

By both my own admission and other people’s testimony, I carry no racial or ethnic biases. I do, however, fail to understand why anyone born and raised in the U.S. would prefer the label “Insert-Nationality-Here-American.” People who adopt these labels usually have little in common with the first half of the hyphenation. I happen to love Greek food, but I am in no way Greek, despite the fact that two of my grandparents were born there.

Obviously, the most common hyphenated heritage is “African-American.” I never understood why people without strong or recent familial ties to Africa would prefer “African-American” over “black” because I always considered “black” a physical adjective. I use it the way I use green to describe eye color and blonde to describe hair color. I never believed referring to someone as black was a racist statement, but ignoring the African history behind it may make it so for some.

If someone wanted to identify me, he would most likely say the tall guy with the long curly hair (assuming, of course, that I was not in group of tall guys with long curly hair). Why then, is it socially unacceptable to refer to someone by describing him as black?

Whenever people want to talk about an African-American, they hush their voices as if sharing a state secret, which seems more racist than plainly describing a physical attribute.

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I honestly want to know if my perspective is grossly wrong. As a white guy whose only minority qualification is his religion, I have no right to tell African-Americans that they are black if they prefer the ancestral reference. The hyphenated title, however, seems absurd as nearly every African-American has a longer history in the U.S. than my family.

I, however, have no affiliation to the myriad European countries from which my grandparents emigrated. I responded to my mother’s sister that I am “American.” The United States is my only country and always will be, even when I live and work abroad.

That said, I respect my religious and ethnic heritage as integral parts of who I am. Were I raised Catholic and Italian, perhaps my outlook on life would be vastly different.

Why do people need labels at all? I argue that “black” reduces the differentiation to a physical attribute devoid of judgment. Everyone has distinguishing physical characteristics, yet determining someone’s ethnic heritage based on appearance reeks of racism. Would we ever indicate a tall blonde girl by saying, “Hey, look at the Swedish-American?” I think not.

Thus, it is with both timidity and optimism that I propose the dehyphenation of America. Rule number one is that first generation immigrants are entitled to a hyphen; their progeny are not. People who retain strong ties to their ancestral land may use a hyphen if their daily culture strongly reflects that of their relatives.

These rules should not suffocate ethnic differences or cultural variations, but rather celebrate the truism of American diversity. Food, sports, art, music and social norms vary greatly across cultures and the U.S. features elements from all six populated continents. Why, then, do we choose to celebrate our differences, political, ethnic, religious or otherwise, so much more vigorously than our more numerous commonalities?

When you need to point out your favorite DI columnist, I prefer the hyphenation “Tall-Curly-Haired-American,” thank you very much.