American unhyphenated

**Disclaimer: This post contains sweeping generalizations. This post is written from my perspective, which is the only one I have, and it isn't always the best Perspective. The good news is my Perspective always likes to meet new Perspectives and get to know them.  

A couple of weeks ago I attended a performance of cultural dances from all over Latin and Central America and the Pacific Islands. And I loved it--the performers were awesome, the costumes were beautiful, and it was really terrific of them to share their cultural heritage. Because even though they were Americans, they also had this tie to their heritage--Latin American, Native American (from either North or South America), or Maori, or Hawaiian, etc. Which I think is incredibly cool.

But I admit, it also made me a little sad, because I don't have a cool cultural heritage like that. I'm an American, unhyphenated, and we don't have a dance. I sometimes feel a little lost as to what that means. I mean, what is an American? This whole concept is a bit nebulous for me. What are the arts and foods and traditions and customs that have been handed down for generations that make us an identifiable group?

It got me thinking historically, of course, because that's what I do. So, in the beginning of white people in America, we were a lot of different nationalities, and identified with our country of origin. And at some point, we ended up as part of the British empire, and that was our national identity. British. And probably not everyone felt a part of that--I doubt if there is any nation where everyone living in it identifies with that particular national heritage. Especially nowadays. And then the people over here decided they wanted to be their own nation, and it was bye-bye to the British identity and this new idea of American happened, but what was an American? And it seems like for a long time--up to the Civil War--people identified more with their state than as part of a nation.* And I imagine--I have no data to back this up--that there was kind of a push to disconnect from the British heritage. Which makes sense, I get it. It just seems like unhyphenated Americans are really culturally boring. Some days, I feel like my cultural 'American' heritage is 1) always find something new, none of this tradition stuff, and 2) try to get the rest of the world to do the same thing. Spread the tech, spread democracy, make mini-Americas everywhere you go. How boring! How ugly! Ick!

But Hyphenated-Americans (or Adjectival Americans, since we don't use the hyphens so much anymore). Well, I imagine that has its ups and downs too. Along with cultural heritage--any cultural heritage--comes some hard history. It is part of what being human is--we have great capacity for good and for evil, and we (sweeping generalization alert) have all at one time or another done both. But hyphenated Americans seem to me to have a much richer culture to draw on.**

And it's not like ethnic or national heritage is the only source of culture. You can get a cultural identity from lots of places, and I'm thinking most of us do have multiple sources. And maybe it's just me who feels a little deprived because I don't really have a hyphenated American heritage in my life. It's not that I couldn't--after all, plain Americans came from somewhere, and my somewheres include England, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Scotland, at least. But is English-American a thing? Can it be? And while Irish-American is DEFINITELY a thing, it's not a thing I've been raised in. And I don't really feel like I'm an out and out American, either (For example, I don't own a gun or want to, I don't think we're the most superior place on the globe, and I like people from other countries.) I do have an identity, which I wouldn't trade for all the hyphens you've got.

I'm just saying, sometimes it would be nice to have a dance.

*Of course, that still happens today. I think in some ways, identity is relative. If I'm talking to other Americans, I identify myself with my state. If I'm talking to fellow citizens of my state, I identify by my city. If I'm talking to an international audience, yeah, I'm probably going to call myself American.
**Though this has nothing to do with the paragraph it is linked to above, here's as good as anywhere to insert it. It is possible that this is an insider/outsider thing, and they perceive me the same way I perceive them. And I should also note, it's possible that this happens with Germans and Ugandans and Australians, so I'm not in any way saying unhyphenated Americans have a monopoly. I am just not Ugandan, so I don't know.