9.6: American-American?

Some people reject inclusion in one of the numerous hyphenated American identities. What do people call themselves who would rather not be classified or those who think they’re being left out? What about the millions who aren’t sure what to check off on the “ethnicity” or “national origin” question? What about the people whose ancestry is mixed? The simple identity “American” is an option that a lot of white people chose on the US Census form, especially in the Appalachian South. This could be interpreted as an act of xenophobia, but for families from that region (the author included), many of whom trace their American roots back to the 1600s, the number of ethnicities, and national origins represented in the family tree is so numerous, so varied, and generally lost to time, to call oneself anything other than simply “American” defies logic. Anyone living in the United States with a complex family tree is perhaps best defined simply as “American”.

During the 2000 and 2010 census, there was an effort by small, politically-motivated groups in some southern states to make Confederate-American or Southern White as an official ethnic designation. This effort seems an outgrowth of the racially charged, anti-Federal politics still quite common in the South, but there may be a less nefarious logic to doing so as well. Groups of people who share a common identity should perhaps be allowed to label themselves as they see fit. Certainly, many of the official and unofficial strategies we use to place people in an ethnic category are illogical and unhelpful. One could argue that because many people in the American South share a unique dialect, religious beliefs, politics, and social customs that they may indeed be entitled to call themselves whatever they want.