Question for Americans about ethnic identity

[LochnarITB]

The "hyphenated American" (e.g Italian-American, German-American, African-American), denotes the sense of retaining one's former culture and background, but I suspect many in your country would be criticial of Americans showing their heritage on Independence Day... Am I right in that assumption?

I react in exactly the opposite manner. "Hyphenated American" irritates me precisely because it does imply "one's former culture". If a person has chosen to leave their country to move to another, then adopting to the mores and manners of the country of choice should be mandatory. If the person prefers the country of origin, let them go back.

OTOH, pride in origin is natural. I refuse to consider myself as anything other than a citizen of the USA. An 'American', if you will, though I don't like that usage. However, I am proud of my birth and heritage as an Italian and make no attempt to keep it secret (indeed, quite the opposite).

That used to grate on me. The way I've made peace with it is to view it as a simple adjective. The hyphenated ethnicity only serves to provide some pre-conceived description of the person and "American" is the important noun that identifies them as a citizen of the USA (per common usage, even though it actually applies to any citizen of any North or South American country). On the other hand, if a person has obtained citizenship, but still insists on being referred to simply as German or Kenyan or whatever, I'd ask why they bothered and wave as they left to go "home".