So why the hyphenated American?

So, I've always wondered..."Why do people hyphenate their ethnicity?" I know that many folks hyphenate their last names, which is fine, except that it just makes their last names longer. I suppose one day centuries from now, the hyphen will get dropped, and their last names will become one word. But that's a topic for another time.

I'm thinking about ethnicity this time around. Now, I don't believe in this whole "race" thing, I believe that there is only one race, the human race, and that we are all a part of it. Within the human race, their are different ethnicities, which most people simplify by skin color. But it's not that simple. The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines Ethnicity as "ethnic traits, background, allegiance, or association", which is supported by the anthropological definition "Ethnicity is thus a concept describing a particular way of drawing boundaries between groups ", so the amount of melanin in your skin is not the only factor you can use.

It has been shown by Genetic Anthropology that the human race came from one woman, Mitochondrial Eve. As a result, it can be expected that M. Eve carried the genetic diversity of melanin seen today. Because people migrated in groups where they had similar physical features, or ethnicity, to other parts of the African, Asian, and European continents, the separation of cultures resulted.

Why is it so important for people to identify themselves by a dual, or hyphenated, ethnicity? Do they feel they must provide an explanation to others, or is it something that comes from pride? There's not one thing wrong with being proud of you heritage, I just wonder about the reasoning for it.

I can't say that I see any advantage by going around claiming I'm a Belgian-Swedish-American, when I'm simply an American. For me, that's enough. But maybe for others, it's not.

At any rate, I've compiled a list of hyphenated ethnicities for the most prominent citizens of this country, the Presidents.

	Name	Term	Ethnicity
1	George Washington	1789 - 1797	British
2	John Adams	1797 - 1801	British
3	Thomas Jefferson	1801 - 1809	British
4	James Madison	1809 - 1817	Scottish
5	James Monroe	1817 - 1825	Scottish
6	John Quincy Adams	1825 - 1829	British
7	Andrew Jackson	1829 - 1837	Irish
8	Martin Van Buren	1837 - 1841	Dutch
9	William Henry Harrison	1841	Belgian
10	John Tyler	1841 - 1845	British
11	James Polk	1845 - 1849	Scottish
12	Zachary Taylor	1849 - 1850	British
13	Millard Fillmore	1850 - 1853	British
14	Franklin Pierce	1853 - 1857	Welsh
15	James Buchanan	1857 - 1861	Scottish
16	Abraham Lincoln	1861 - 1865	British
17	Andrew Johnson	1865 - 1869	British
18	Ulysses S. Grant	1869 - 1877	Scottish
19	Rutherford B. Hayes	1877 - 1881	Scottish
20	James Garfield	1881	British
21	Chester Arthur	1881 - 1885	Welsh
22	Grover Cleveland	1885 - 1889	British
23	Benjamin Harrison	1889 - 1893	British
24	Grover Cleveland	1893 - 1897	British
25	William McKinley	1897 - 1901	Scottish
26	Theodore Roosevelt	1901 - 1909	Dutch
27	William H. Taft	1909 - 1913	British
28	Woodrow Wilson	1913 - 1921	Scottish
29	Warren Harding	1921 - 1923	British
30	Calvin Coolidge	1923 - 1929	British
31	Herbert Hoover	1929 - 1933	British
32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	1933 - 1945	Dutch
33	Harry Truman	1945 - 1953	British
34	Dwight Eisenhower	1953 - 1961	German
35	John F. Kennedy	1961 - 1963	Irish
36	Lyndon Johnson	1963 - 1969	British
37	Richard M. Nixon	1969 - 1974	British
38	Gerald Ford	1974 - 1977	British
39	Jimmy Carter	1977 - 1981	British
40	Ronald Reagan	1981 - 1989	Irish
41	George H. W. Bush	1989 - 1993	British
42	William J. Clinton	1993 - 2001	British
43	George W. Bush	2001 - 2008	British

*Ethnicity determined by genealogy information or surname root.

25 British-American Presidents
8 Scottish-American Presidents
3 Dutch-American Presidents
1 Belgian-American President
1 German-American President
3 Irish-American Presidents
2 Welsh-American Presidents