De-Hyphenating America

Hyphenated-America is as outdated as the horse and buggy, and not nearly as quaint. The time has come for Americans to let go of the politically incorrect “sacred hyphen” our politicians and media have been desperately clinging to as a divider and let us get on with being equal partners in solving the problems of Our Land as one people.

The hyphen in our social lexicon is a throwback to the 1960’s when people were trying to define themselves, which I’m sure, is a heartwarming reminiscence for a lot of Baby Boomers, but it is demeaning to all the People who have contributed to the tapestry of American society. The dirty little secret about the hyphen is it’s also a throwback to the original wording of the Constitution where Americans were counted as “Three-Fifths” of a person. That same pesky hyphen in the Constitution had the same diminishing effect then as now – it denied our People full equality.

We have had several stories with “hyphens” in them lately. Pakistani-American is a recent hyphenated label that has worked into the news cycle thanks to a lunatic trying to kill hundreds of Americans in Times Square, but we’ve seen the hyphen in African-American, Irish-American, Mexican-American, Native-American, Canadian-American and an endless list of countries, ethnic groups, territories, geographical areas, religions and continents that can be used to label Americans by their ancestors. The hyphen serves as a form of shorthand making it easier to manipulate groups by the media and those with political agendas without having to look at them as individuals with individual needs.

There is only one appropriate application of the hyphen in American society: First-generation Americans who have been naturalized. They actually are of another land and are joining the American experience. From the children of those naturalized first-generation Americans’ on there should be no need for a hyphen. Americans are Americans are Americans… are Americans. They came here to be Americans and should be allowed to be part of the culture.

There is no such thing as African-French or Chinese-British in distinguishing people of those countries. What about French-Germans or Turkish-Italians? Of course not… Their African-ness or German-ness or whatever-ness is obviously not part of their identity once they are part of their new country. They are never referred to as anything other than French or Brits or Germans or whatever land they live in once they become part of that society. The same should apply to Americans.

Forcing Americans into hyphenated groups is stereotypical labeling that borders on racism and bigotry. It allows politicians and their related anger-mongers to propagate grievances, widen separations, create anger, break down justices and ultimately build manufactured stereotypical hatreds the destroy the shared similarities of our people. Politicians and the media love hyphens – it makes their jobs easier. The hyphen allows them to put us into cubbyholes for them to label us as groups with needs particular to a specific group. Politicians can then throw themselves up as some kind of champion of causes for one group or another and pander to that group for their votes – rather than as leaders for all the people. Hyphenating allows “haters” to use the differences between groups to drive wedges between us rather than fixing actual problems of society and in the process they are weakening the Republic and the Dream that is America.

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were ratified to remove the hyphen the “Three-Fifths” created. Here we are some 140 years after the passage of those amendments and some in our society – the bottom-feeding Political Class and the Media Underclass – are still trying to force the hyphen back into our names and separate our People in the name of ‘political correctness’ – a phrase that has become synonymous with undermining America. This is the Land of Opportunity for all of our People. Those wishing to diminish that creed need to step aside and allow people of vision to take over.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream that all our people would be equal, that we would all be able to walk down the streets together and see the American Dream the same way. He did not dream of equality of outcomes – he was a realist and understood each of us will achieve what we can in our own ways – only that everyone have the same chance to take part in the American Experience as Americans. We are still being denied that Right by the leaders forcing “hyphens” down our throats.

Our political leaders and the media need to learn from Dr. King and the echo in America that we are ALL the American People and want Washington to lead as Americans rather than pander as Dividers – that’s what We The People demand of our future leaders.