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                 Gail Jarvis

Hyphenated Americanism

5/21/2023

3 Comments

 
Picture

In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed; “I stand for straight Americanism unconditioned and unqualified, and I stand against every form of hyphenated Americanism.”
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America was originally settled by light skinned European Caucasians in the late 1700s. They brought their existing values and customs with them and adapted to their new environment. Ethnicities immigrating into this new land assimilated its customs and blended into the majority Caucasian population. Newly arrived immigrants were “Proud to be American.” Voluntary assimilation helped create an America that became the envy of other nations.

America’s survival was tested by an armed conflict between the country’s Northern and Southern regions. It survived and lingering aspects of this regional conflict have not lessened America’s overall pride. It continues to thrive after two World Wars and the societal upheavals of the tumultuous decade of the 1960s.

Our country’s cohesiveness is being tested by has various groupings of hyphenated Americans. African Americans are our principal hyphenated group. Although only 13 % of our population, they receive the overwhelming majority of media attention.

The Leftist establishment’s promotion of diversity conflicts with the tribal nature of human beings. But the Left and its media assume they can force diversity on a resistant public. Essentially the public is already rejecting diversity. Consider the example of Freedom, Georgia, a newly established town about two hours South of Atlanta. Freedom is an all Black town created by blacks supposedly to get away from White racism. But this voluntary re-segregation by blacks involves much more than moving away from Whites.

I maintain it is the beginning of a trend by blacks to develop their own towns. Blacks and whites both prefer living with and associating with their own ethnic group. We’ve already experienced separate black and white neighborhoods within the same city. This all-Black town of Freedom, Georgia, simply takes separate neighborhoods to the next level.

The United States is already characterized by diversity in its current population as well as its ethnic and racial ancestry. Continual immigration, from the 1800s onward, formed groupings of foreign-born persons unmatched by any other nation. Many were driven, seeking escape from political or economic hardship, while others were drawn by a demand for work. Until fairly recently, most assimilated American values and customs.

The overly indulgent immigration policies of the Biden administration encourages immigration without assimilation and has greatly increased the number of hyphenated Americans. But although this group enjoys the perquisites of citizenship, they don’t feel pride for our country. Indeed, a recent opinion poll indicated that if America was attacked 38 % would leave.
3 Comments
Bill Hill
5/22/2023 02:12:22 pm

Refusal to take up your hyphen is nothing more than unilateral disarmament. It would be safer for us to give up our guns than to give up our hyphens. That's why I am a Dixian-American. I can drop the -American whenever the time comes.

Reply
Perrin Lovett
5/23/2023 06:44:11 pm

"I am a Dixian-American. I can drop the -American whenever the time comes."

Bill Hill, I may have to borrow that one!

Reply
Bill Hill
5/26/2023 03:24:59 pm

Please do!




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    Author

    Gail Jarvis is a Georgia-based free-lance writer. He attended the University of Alabama and has a degree from Birmingham Southern College. His writing is influenced by years of witnessing how versions of news and history were distorted for political reasons. Mr. Jarvis is a member of the Society of Independent Southern Historians and his articles have appeared on various websites, magazines, and publications for several organizations. He lives in Coastal Georgia.

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