Reply #34: Americans had a debate over the term hyphenated Americans in the 1920s

[Quetzal]

I am a blk woman who lives in the south. There are a lot of southerners(whites) who do not like that word. Their explanation is that they do not believe in hyphens, because everyone is American. I ask these same people do they have a problem with Indians being called Native American? So why is there such a problem with blks referring themselves as African Americans?

Woordrow Wilson criticized Americans that kept ethnic and cultural ties with their native homelands. These "Hypenated-Americans" should not be tolerated in American society he felt.

Woodrow Wilson saw the eruption of war in Europe as yet another threat to the national unity he so cherished. As the conflict increasingly polarized American public opinion, he declared, "A new sort of division of feeling has sprung up amongst us." He warned the public that hyphenated Americans had bred a disloyalty that "must be absolutely crushed." To counter such disloyalty, he discouraged immigrants from clustering in ethnic enclaves. "I am always sorry," he said, "to see groups derived from particular nationalities separate themselves into little communities of their own. That is importing their own communities into America and not contributing themselves to be Americans." He insisted, furthermore, that "no man is a true American who does not realize that all the objects of our national life are common objects." National unity therefore depended on the complete assimilation of hyphenated Americans. "We must all be the same kind of Americans in order that we may do the same kind of American things."(31)

At the heart of Wilson's concern lay his belief that internal disunity threatened to undermine America's democratic mission. Forging unity out of diversity struck him as the fundamental challenge to America. America's "problem is largely a problem of union all the time--a problem of compounding out of many elements a single triumphant force." Only a united America could assume its rightful place as world leader. "Let us first heal our own divisions. Let us first see that we are a united and irresistible nation, and then let us put all that force at the service of humanity." All forms of diversity, he contended, must give way to a homogeneity of spirit: "Out of a heterogeneous nation we have got to make a unit in which no slightest line of division is visible beyond our borders."(32)

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2004/is_n3_v43/ai_20378614/pg_5

However, the revolutionary educator John Dewey did not shy away from the debate regarding hyphenated Americans and in fact reframed it.

Such terms as Irish-American or Hebrew-American or German-Americans are false terms, because they seem to assume something which is already in existence called America, to which the other factors may be hitched on. The fact is, the genuine American, the typical American, is himself a hyphenated character. It does not mean that he is part American and that some foreign ingredient is added. It means that...he is international and interracial in his make-up. He is not American plus Pole or German. But the American is himself Pole-German- English-French- Spanish-Italian-Greek-I rish-Scandinavian- Bohemian-Jew—and so on. The point is to see to it that the hyphen connects instead of separates. And this means at least that our public schools shall teach each factor to respect every other, and shall take pains to enlighten us all as to the great past contributions of every strain in our composite make-up.5

http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/Educational-Theory/Contents/43_4_Putnam.asp

It is sad, however, that he didn't include African-Americans (or Blacks - whichever one you prefer) into his educational construct. Question to those in this thread - when did the term "African-American" become a part of the American dialogue? Was it a term popularized by those involved in the Marcus Garvey "Back to Africa" movement? Did W.E.B. DuBois use the term African-American? If not, would he do so today?