Do Hyphenated-Americans Belong? A Reassuring
Paper
by
Herman
Menorawitz
You wake up and pull open the door
to your teepee. You follow the trail of a deer and find it drinking
from a nearby creek, and you proceed to bash its head in with a rock
and make its skin into a blanket. After that hard work, you amble on
over to your neighbor’s property and urinate on it to claim it as your
own. Does this sound like a typical day in your life? Of course it
doesn’t. The constant influx of new and interesting culture over time
has refined the once-barbaric ways of our people. Each society, as it
deposits some of its customs and beliefs in the “tossed-salad” that is
this country, feels the desire to retain some individuality and
recognition for its contributions. The most direct way to maintain a
sort of metaphorical label for the ways of a people’s heritage is for
those people to continue to practice the cultural beliefs of their
heritage as they call themselves by a combination of their roots and
their place of dwelling. To deny these people cultural individuality,
to deny them the freedom to label themselves as they see fit, would not
only be a crime against their predeceases and their contributions, but
one against the Constitution itself.
Some prime examples of these social contributions are the cuisines and
arts of practically every culture on the planet. Also, there are
special additions that civilizations make, such as the Italians’ Mafia
and the Chinese’s firecrackers. These contributions, without the proper
documentation and labeling of their lineage via a hyphenated title,
would lose their meaning and significance to the race that they came
from. It is a race’s given right to protect the reputation and renown
that is theirs as a result of their contributions to the American
society.
The main idea of the “tossed-salad” concept is that each culture
remains its own unit within all of the culture of the country. This
accurate representation of America depicts the fact that, although we
are all Americans, we each have a heritage, which we are responsible
for continuing and respecting as distinguishable from the masses. For
example, the country as a whole is a bowl of a salad. But upon further
inspection, it is clear that the Italian-Americans are the ripe, red
tomatoes that brighten the salad with vibrant color; the
French-Canadian-Americans are the stringy jack cheese that tantalizes
the tongue; the Albanian-Americans are the crisp, toasty croutons that
litter the surface of the salad, luring even the most
vegetable-intolerant towards the bowl of plant life; the
Irish-Americans are the crunchy, juicy lettuce that supports the salad
in all its glory; the African-Americans are the dark black olives that
provide a sharp flavor, a welcome change from the mild; and the
Mexican-Americans are the rich, creamy ranch dressing on top that
provides that extra zing to win over even the pickiest of eaters. Of
course the number of wonderful countries and cultures is not limited to
the number of delicious salad items that can be tossed together in a
bowl, but the general idea is that each and every culture retains its
individuality, while simultaneously being a part of the whole salad, or
America. This being true, they should be both labeled and recognized as
such.
Another justification for the right to self-label freely that is even
more compelling than the previous is that the Constitution itself
provides the undeniable right to do so. What each culture decides to
call itself is strictly a matter of their exercising the right to speak
freely. Each and every culture has added to this Nation in one way or
another, and it is because of this that they not only have the right to
call themselves whatever they want, but they also have the duty to do
so in honor of their ancestors before them. Legally, ethnic groups may
call themselves by whatever name or category they like, and morally,
they must in order to do justice to their forefathers.
The denial of cultures’ right to choose their own label would be an
abomination against this country’s legal system, other countries’
cultural individuality, and to the idea of a country that allows its
citizens to retain the culture of their former home. There are other
ways for a race to stick out from another race, but the most practical
way to label ethnicities is a hyphenated-American style label. Other
countries’ ways are what forged this great nation out of a savage land,
and each contributor should be given personal remuneration through the
reknown of his ethnicity.
