Hyphenated American

Hyphenated Americans are Americans who are referred to with a first word indicating an origin or ancestry in a foreign country and a second term (separated from the first with a hyphen) being "American" (e.g., Japanese-American, African-American). The construction is meant to suggest that these individuals straddle two worlds—one experience is specific to their unique ethnic identity, while the other is the broader multicultural amalgam that is Americana.

Opposition to Hyphenated American Identities

In 1915, President Theodore Roosevelt denounced so-called "hyphenated Americans" who did not join mainstream America. Since then, many minority groups in the United States, such as the Japanese American Citizens' League, have shunned the hyphen. They argue that the hyphen denotes dual nationalism (and implies inability to be accepted as truly American) while the non-hyphenated form uses their ancestral origin as an adjective for "American."

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. This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. 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.
For an American citizen to vote as a German-American, an Irish-American, or an English-American, is to be a traitor to American institutions; and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic. (Theodore Roosevelt, 1915)

Opposition to Hyphenated Identities Outside the U.S.

Some Canadian newspaper writers have attempted to promote "dehyphenated Canadianism" in the 1990s. The trend of Canadian English in this aspect follows that of the American English in general.