What Kind of American Are You?

Ok...a little off-topic, but I thought I needed to finally write this after seeing the whole "Superman renounces US citizenship" stuff (I'll get to the Superman crap in a minute). I remember growing up, that if were speaking about race, we had whites, blacks, asians and mexicans. To have any such conversation today, we have African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Hispanic-Americans. However, white people are now known simply as "Americans." Hmmm....anyone see anything odd here?

I am married to a woman of predominately Asian heritage, who just so happened to be born in the U.S. How is it, therefore, I must term her an Asian-American? If she had come here from Asia and gotten citizenship, she would be Asian-American. To me, she's an American - plain and simple. And unless one of black friends came here from Africa, he is simply an American as well. I leave Hispanic-American alone because the many varied Hispanic cultures are proud and to call them by any other name than their country of origin (.i.e. to call a Puerto Rican a Cuban) would almost certainly incite a riot. Hispanic-American is all-encompassing without causing disgrace.

Let me offer another piece of imformation: black people from Africa aren't terribly fond of black people from America. For whatever reason, they don't recognize the African decent of black people in America. So to use the term African-American to someone born here is also an insult. And this is the perfect example of why this whole system of separate distinctions is flawed.

Culture is geographical and not racial. whites from the northern U.S. have a different way of life from those down south. Even within the south itself, different areas developed diffirent cultures. To try and lump an entire group under one label is lazy and insensitive. Well, with one exception - AMERICANS. If we live, work, play, pay taxes and die here then we are one. "Americans" denotes nothing more than a country of citizenship. It offers no definition of culture, no evidence of origin other than the United States. It is a perfect label.

And if we can all truly fit under one banner, why then can't we see past race and other issues to realize we are part of one great thing? The hatred that remains pervasive in our society has gone on for far to long.

Oh, and by the way, Indians were here before it was America. So how do you think Native-American feels?

ON TO SUPERMAN!! Yes, Superman is renouncing his U.S. citizenship and dropping his old theme of "..the American way!" Well, frankly, some GOPers are screaming how unpatriotic this is. Funny thing though: Superman was an illegal alien for a looooonnnngg time. Besides that, his super powers were for the good of mankind - not the American mankind. On top of that, with the foreign policy blunders we've had lately, I'd want to be a world hero too and not specifically American.