Makedde, is a black person born in Australia refered to as a "African Australian"?

Why can't you respect other people and their pride in their culture. You're proud to be American. What's wrong with retaining one's heritage? They can tell people whatever they want. They don't hate America. Nothing bad has ever come of it. What's the problem?

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Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
-Dr. Carl Sagan

Here's my take on the issue.

America is not similar to some other countries such as those in most of Europe, Africa, and Asia where the country was formed around a singular ethnicity. America is and will always be known as a melting pot where people of every color and eye shape speak the same language in the same accent with similar cultural views.

As we are a melting pot or perhaps because we are a melting pot, each part desires to feel like a unique and important piece in the tapestry of diversity that is America. Germans want to remember their German heritage and so have silly festivals that give us another excuse to drink plenty of German beer and ogle our beautiful German women. Africans and Mexicans do the same. I have no problem with that. I have no problem with places like Chinatown because of the rich culture that is a part of America which has been established and portrayed there.

Here's where I start to have an issue. When a person speaks of what they are, it's a defining glimpse into how that person sees and described themself. If someone says they are simply American, they identify with America as a whole regardless of their own personal ancestry. They acknowledge that America is a composite of many cultures, one of which is their own. They acknowledge that the freedoms and liberties that America provides is what enables them to remember and celebrate their ancestry.

However, as I've said previously, I think there is a deliberate cognitive distancing that takes place when a person feels the need to place an ethnic modifier prior to 'American.' That emphasizes in a subtle but negative way that there exists more to divide that person from the rest of Americans than there exists to unite them.

An 'African American' and a 'Mexican American' have far less in common than an American of African descent and an American of Mexican descent. Is this simply quibbling over semantics? I don't think so. I think how you perceive yourself and strongly put forth how you want to be labeled says a great deal about you, including whether you see yourself more as an American than a minority American. America is not about being a majority, it's about being a composite of minorities. The freedoms, opportunities, and rights that we all enjoy which allow us to celebrate our differences should do far more than that in terms of uniting us.

That's just my thoughts on the issue.

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"When we consider that women have been treated as property it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Elizabeth Cady Stanton

- A perfect example of why I'm a paranoid parent.

I think ethnicities are better seen as subcultures than cultures.
My wife's second-generation Asian (Indian to be exact). She has a lot of shared experiences with people who were raised in Asian or Middle Eastern households that I did not share.
I have certain experiences from my "midwest suburban American" family that are different from hers.
Then there is all the shared culture of growing up in America and the common ground between our subcultures that give us more of a shared identity than either one of us with, say, someone in Paris Hilton's family or from a rural evangelical background.

A lot of it is inconsequential in some senses, but there are different shared experiences... and sometimes those experiences can be relevant to the political arena.
What people call their subcultures is largely irrelevant... but when a national origin is applicable, it's convenient (look at how many words I had to use to describe my heritage and still not really say much... yet the terms "Asian" and "Indian" will at least give other Asians raised in America a pretty good idea of what I mean [like understanding the terms FOB and ABCD]).

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"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

I think ofthe melting pot as more of a stew, myself. You can still recognize the bits of carrots and potatos, but you call the whole thing a meal. I see no reason why people can't retain SOME identity, for it would be a very dull place were there no Italian Americans or Irish Americans etc., (or are we are just rejecting some of those darker ethnicities here, hmmm?).

The melting pot approach has served this country well since its inception, but that approach doesn't mean everybody has to be a carbon copy of one another. It just means that people assimilate to become Americans and this generally takes a generation or three. Now, this is a different kettle of fish than the multiculturalist approach which favors preserving completely distinct identities and does not emphasize assimilation at all.

As with many issues, it isn't a case of either/or, but of how much. I'm quite happy to enjoy the culture people bring with them (and especially the food!), as they gradually become more Americanized. I can think of no better example of the American way than this.

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I've had a perfectly wonderful evening......... but this wasn't it. -- Marx