[RexBeach]

Why doesn't Kathleen refer to the three lacrosse players as "European-Americans"?

[rhombus]

Why doesn't Kathleen refer to the three lacrosse players as "European-Americans"?

I used to use that term to protest being called "white" by the race counters.

[w1andsodidwe]

I think that is an excellent point. I have started answering other and writing in European-American whenever I am confronted with a form where the choice begin White, African American.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I had a good friend (caucasian) who was from South Africa, a permanent US citizen. When filling out questionnaires or employment forms, he would inevitably fill in "African-American". He had reams of stories about the s**t he caught for doing that.

[uscabjd]

Do you want to be associated with europe?

[Major_Risktaker]

Why doesn't Kathleen refer to the three lacrosse players as "European-Americans"?

Why I'm Not Saying “African-American” Anymore Posted on March 30, 2006

Retaining the label “African-American” perpetuates past attempts to suggest that blacks are less than full Americans. If anything, it is pejorative—it is insulting—it says “you are still different from real Americans.” So I won’t say “African-American” anymore.

My wife is a great example of how absurd hyphenating can get. Is she Hungarian-American? Her mother’s ancestors came from Hungary early in the Twentieth Century. And her father’s ancestors complicate matters even more. They came from the Russian section of partitioned Poland, also early in the Twentieth Century.

Does that make his people Russian-American or Polish-American? Did I mention both of my wife’s parents were born Jewish? So is she Hungarian-Polish-Russian-Jewish-American? She gets impatient with all this. She considers herself an American. Period. She doesn’t want any hyphens.

How long does an American have to be here to lose the hyphen?