People who hyphenate their nationalities should not be recognized. Any country which one claims to be their home, they should pay full allegiance to. If someone labels him or herself in reference to where their ancestors came from, then they should leave out "American." There are no such places as Africa-America, Asia-America, etc. America is America, and anyone who chooses America to be their home should refer to themselves as American. No hyphens!

So often when people are referred to by ethnic background, the one referring to them has no idea of their heritage. For instance, consider how often someone such as Tiger Woods is referred to as being "African-American." However, Tiger Woods is only one-fourth African. He is also one-fourth Chinese and one-fourth Thai. So, he is actually more Asian than African. Imagine how many people are labeled African-American just because of the color of their skin.

The United States has become the "Super Power" by people who learned to assimilate, find common ground, and work together toward goals. Hyphenating America simply adds to segregation of the races, turning back the clock. Rather than assimilating and joining the melting pot, too many people choose to form racial cliques, disuniting the United States and leading to the loss of a common American culture.

Hyphenating one's heritage is like a mental crutch. It is used by those who are unwilling to take initiative and stand up for themselves as an individual. No one should ever be proud or ashamed of things which they've had no choice in nor control of. True pride is making something of oneself and standing up for it. Not something our ancestors did or where they were from.

In 1775, Americans fought the Revolutionary War so that we could become our own country, seperate from Great Britain. We chose to call ourselves Americans. Not English-Americans, but Americans. Because of the increasing number of people in America using hyphens in demanding recognition of their heritage and/or nationality, there is a declining number of people who consider themselves to be American first and foremost. To what extent can Americans hyphenate their Ethnicity without hyphenating their loyalties?

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. ... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. ... There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."

 -- Theodore Roosevelt, October 12, 1915