In the United States, the termhyphenated American refers to the use of ahyphen (in some styles of writing) between the name of an ethnicity and the wordAmerican incompound nouns, e.g., as inIrish-American. Calling a person a "hyphenated American" was used as an insult alleging divided political or national loyalties, especially in times of war. It was used from 1890 to 1920 to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or ancestry and who displayed an affection for their ancestralheritage language and culture. It was most commonly used duringWorld War I against Americans fromWhite ethnic backgrounds who favored United States neutrality during the ongoing conflict or who opposed the idea of an American alliance with theUnited Kingdom and the creation of what is now called the "Special Relationship", even for purely political reasons.[1]
In this context, the term "the hyphen" was ametonymical reference to this kind of ethnicity descriptor, and "dropping the hyphen" referred to full integration into the American identity.[2] Some contemporary critics of this concept, such asRandolph Bourne in his criticism of thePreparedness Movement, accused America'sWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite of hypocrisy by showing the same divided loyalty in pushing for the "Special Relationship" that they refused to tolerate in others.[3] Other contemporaries, like BishopJohn Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti, argued eloquently that there is no contradiction betweenAmerican patriotism and loyalty to one's ancestral culture, religion, andheritage language.[4] In a 1916 letter to theMinneapolis Journal, oneMinnesota German-American suggested that his own people would willingly "abandon the hyphen", but only if "Anglo-Americans" did so first.[5]
Contemporary studies and debates refer to hyphenated American identities to discuss issues such asmulticulturalism and immigration in the U.S. political climate; however, the term "hyphen" is rarely used per the recommendation of modern style guides. In their 2018 biography ofDominican-American poetRhina Espaillat, who is known for encouraging both bilingualism and American patriotism among younger people who speakimmigrant languages, Nancy Kang and Silvio Torres-Saillant criticized how, in American political discourse for decades after Espaillat's 1938 arrival as a politicalrefugee in theUnited States, both theEnglish only movement and, "the expectation that one shouldovercome any non-British ancestral origins, still held sway as a prerequisite to entering the sphere of genuine Americanness". Both authors also singled out the role ofWoodrow Wilson and hisPueblo speech in the lengthy survival of these concepts for special criticism.[6]
The term "hyphenated American" was published by 1889,[7] and was common as a derogatory term by 1904. DuringWorld War I, the issue arose of the primary political loyalty of ethnic groups who retained close ties to their relatives in Europe,especially German Americans. In 1915, former U.S. PresidentTheodore Roosevelt in speaking to the largely Irish CatholicKnights of Columbus atCarnegie Hall on Columbus Day, asserted that,[8]
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer tonaturalized 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.
PresidentWoodrow Wilson regarded "hyphenated Americans" with suspicion, saying in hisPueblo speech: "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."[9][10][11] In the 1920s, theWall Street Journal condemned "hyphenates" who were said to be among the supporters of theProgressive Party'sRobert M. La Follette Jr..[12]
A vocal source of criticism of Roosevelt and Wilson's "anti-hyphen" ideology and particularly to their demands for "100 percent Americanism" came from the United States' enormous number ofWhite ethnic immigrants and their descendants. Criticism from these circles occasionally argued that "100 percent Americanism" really meant the complete adoption ofAnglo-American culture by white ethnics, as particularly demonstrated by Roosevelt, Wilson,John R. Rathom and other leaders of the demand to only tolerateWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture and theEnglish language in the United States.
A prime example of this criticism, which argued that there is no contradiction between preserving ancestralheritage languages andAmerican patriotism may be seen in BishopJohn Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti's September 21, 1892, "Sermon on the Mother and the Bride", which is a defence ofGerman-Americans desire to preserve their ancestral culture and to continue speaking theGerman language in the United States, against both theEnglish only movement and accusations of being Hyphenated Americans.[4]
Zardetti's argument is further supported and strengthened by the fact thatFrancis Scott Key's lyrics to the U.S.national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner", have seen multipleliterary translations intoimmigrant languages that are able to be successfully sung to the same melody. In 1861, very likely to help encourageGerman-American military service in theUnion Army and theNavy during theAmerican Civil War, the lyrics were translated into theGerman language in the United States and widely circulated in pamphlet form.[13] TheLibrary of Congress also has record of aSpanish-language version from 1919.[14] It has since been translated intoHebrew[15] andYiddish by Jewish immigrants,[16]Latin American Spanish (withone version popularized duringimmigration reform protests in 2006),[17]Louisiana French by theCajun people,[18] theIrish language,[19][20] andScottish Gaelic.[21][22]
Furthermore, in a letter published on July 16, 1916, in theMinneapolis Journal, Edward Goldbeck, a member ofMinnesota's traditionally largeGerman-American community, sarcastically announced that his people would, "abandon the hyphen", as soon as Anglo-Americans did so. Meanwhile, he argued, "Let the exodus of Anglo-Americans start at once! Let all those people go who think that America is a new England!"[23]
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Some groups recommend dropping the hyphen because it implies to some people dual nationalism and the inability to be accepted as truly American. TheJapanese American Citizens League is supportive of dropping the hyphen because the non-hyphenated form uses their ancestral origin as an adjective for "American".[24]
By contrast, other groups have embraced the hyphen, arguing that the American identity is compatible with alternative identities and that themixture of identities within the United States strengthens the nation rather than weakens it.
"European American", as opposed toWhite orCaucasian, has been coined in response to the increasing racial and ethnicdiversity of the United States, as well as to this diversity moving more into the mainstream of the society in the latter half of the twentieth century. The term distinguishes whites of European ancestry from those of other ancestries. In 1977, it was proposed that the term "European American" replace "white" as a racial label in the U.S. census, although this was not done. The term "European American" is not in common use in the United States among the general public or in the mass media, and the terms "white" or "white American" are commonly used instead.
Modern style guides, such asAP Stylebook, recommend dropping the hyphen between the two names;[25] some, includingThe Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), recommend dropping the hyphen even for the adjective form.[26] On the other hand,The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage allows compounds with name fragments (bound morphemes), such asItalian-American andJapanese-American, but not "Jewish American" or "French Canadian".[25]
The first term typically indicates a region or culture of origin paired withAmerican. Examples:
The hyphen is occasionally but not consistently employed when the compound term is used as an adjective.[27] Academic style guides (including APA, ASA, MLA, andChicago Manual) do not use a hyphen in these compounds even when they are used as adjectives.[28]
Thelinguistic construction functionally indicatesancestry, but also may connote a sense that these individuals straddle two worlds—one experience is specific to their uniqueethnicidentity, while the other is the broader multicultural amalgam that isAmericana.
Latin America includes most of theWestern Hemisphere south of the United States, includingMexico,Central America,South America, and (in some cases) theCaribbean. United States nationals with origins in Latin America are often referred to asHispanic or Latino Americans, or by their specific country of origin, e.g., Mexican Americans,Puerto Ricans, andCuban Americans.
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