What's with the Titles ?

African-American...Filipino-American....Korean-American...Japanese-American...etc., etc., etc.

I am not bashing any race here.

I just think that there is only American. Period. No ifs, no buts.
The brown man, the Filipino, for example's claim to being Filipino, is just his skin. MOST ESPECIALLY the natural born American one.

My grandson is an American. He was born here, and will be bred and raised here.

His dad, my son, is Filipino by birth, but is now an American.

My grandson cannot claim to be Filipino-American. I do not appreciate that.

Because he does NOT KNOW FILIPINO CULTURE, having been born, bred, and raised here in America.

He only knows American culture. He only speaks American English. His ways are American. His attitudes are American. His taste for food will be primarily American. He will look at American women and see their beauty and it will not be the same as the way he will see the beauty of other women of other races. His preference will be for the American who speaks his tongue, thinks his thoughts, acts his acts.

If perchance he goes to his father's birth country, he will not know what it is to eat fish paste, or use fish sauce, or eat raw fish in coconut milk or just plain soy sauce and vinegar. He will not know how to eat raw buffalo meat, or drink rice wine with it. His stomach will not take in Filipino water, he will not TRUST it, he will most likely look for bottled water.

He will not know how to walk two miles an hour in waist deep mud, or ride a water buffalo, or walk miles to the next village to sing serenades to the lasses there. Not his way.

His culture is American.

No such thing as Filipino-American.

When one becomes a naturalized American, he renounces his loyalty to his birth country, and declares his loyalty to this country. His former people are no longer his people, the Americans are his people.

If he gets caught in a bad situation in another country, his former country's military will not come and get him, the US Marines probably will.

Just thinking loud about this.

Again, I am not bashing anyone.

 

I guess this is what I am saying.
Of Filipino heritage.
Of African heritage.
Of Korean heritage.

But, American, 100%.
If not by birth, then by affiliation, or by law.

Therefore, I will push Amrica and being American in the forefront.

I respect my heritage, but they're past, not present, for me.
I hope my grandson says in the future:

I love my pa, and love my grandpa, and love my folks in the Philippines.
But I'm American, and proud of it.
I do not like being a hyphenated American.

They left their countries and came here for a better life.
Hopefully they got their better lives.
I have a better life, a great country, with a great history and tradition.

But as far as my heritage is and as far as my father's folks are back there, that's their country and those are their people, America is my country and Americans, with all their faults, and all their strengths, are my people.

I refuse to be hyphenated.

I hope that's what all my grandchildren all say.