Funny for at least 30 yrs I have objected to that term-
I dislike the idea of hyphenated americans
Born / Died (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt
("A hyphenated American is not an American at all." Teddy Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, ) See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenated_American
The term "hyphenated American" was published by 1889,[2] and was common as a derogatory term by 1904. During World War I the issue arose of the primary political loyalty of ethnic groups with close ties to Europe, especially German Americans and also Irish Americans. Former President Theodore Roosevelt in speaking to the largely Irish Catholic Knights of Columbus at Carnegie Hall on Columbus Day 1915, asserted that,[3]
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.
Ok, I’m old. Surely Whoopi (who is my age) knows WHY they are called African Americans! They have jerked us around so many darn times. Here’s how it went down: in the sixties they told us to call them African Americans because they weren’t wanted and respected here and they came from Africa and Africa’s a beautiful place they were stolen from, then it went to, no, call us “Black” because “Black Power” and “Black is Beautiful!” and “don’t you Whiteys try and make us ashamed of our Blackness and Afros” and all that, and we said OK and started calling them Blacks and all of a sudden it was “African American” again and we fell in line. Make up your effing minds or better yet, leave us alone.
“I dislike the idea of hyphenated americans”
Totally agree! I also dislike “black” and “white” - except when referring to the far, far, far ends of the melanin spectrum.