I'd need a giant box on an application for mine. Let's see, I'm an English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, Dutch, Native American/American.

I am not sure this is the way it happened. If you read up on the history of the way it all supposedly happened ( since none of us were around to witness this ), the people that were sold into the trade were gathered up by their fellow countrymen. I don't think any of us are proud of this occuring, but none of us had anything to do with it, so why are we still blaming things of over 400 years ago on the current population ? Let's start working on the issues facing this nation right now : continuing unemployment, a debt crisis that will eventually change the entire world ( been reading up on whats going on in Europe, anyone ? ), overtaxation, etc etc

Excuse me, the name has been changed many times just since 1960.

Erik the controversy about cinco de mayo had nothing to do with mexican flag and everything to do with the fact kids wearing American flags were ordered to take them off and sent home.

I have also not heard any other group consistently and as vociferously describe themselves as hyphenated Americans. You hear it on occasion.

I have also not heard anyone complain about how criminals are identified, usually they are just referred to as criminals unless they are trying to catch said person in which case race is usually identified to help in the apprehension whether that be white, black, asian, hispanic, etc.

The meltdown is caused by the fact that yes, we all came from different places, but our ancestors did it LEGALLY. That flag on Cinco De Mayo triggers anger at the fact that our borders aren't secure and ILLEGAL people are coming here, using our facilities and not paying their fair share. Want me to talk about going the supermarket, standing behind a family watching them use their card to purchase food and then going out and getting into a brand new 30,000. truck? When you don't pay taxes and you make nothing on paper and you get welfare and food stamps, you get to own nice things. The rest of us struggle to make our payments. I live in a state with one of those borders....so I know what I'm talking about.

Exactly, but that seems to be a point that is almost always ignored.

BTW this country didn't enslave blacks, people enslaved blacks, blacks enslaved blacks as well as whites enslaving blacks. I may be wrong but I don't remember it ever being US Government policy to use slaves or to own slaves. You also fail to notice that free blacks also owned slaves in the US in numbers disproportionate to southern whites. But you never hear of the incredible shame of blacks owning black slaves. Look up William Ellison from North Carolina Born in 1790 as a slave named April who lived to be 71 and at 26 was freed by his owner. In 1860 he was the largest black owner of slaves in NC. One of the largest sources of his income came from breeding slaves. A practice that was generally looked upon with disgust in the south.

Boy that is a stretch. Justify slavery? Really? No the point I am trying to make is that you were never a slave and I have never enslaved anyone. That is history and really is not relevant to modern America, if it was relevant we would not have a black president. If you want to continue to identify yourself as African-American I really could care less, I just think it is unfair of you to label others. It would never occur to me to label someone competing in the Olympics an Asian-American or a hispanic-American European-American or for that matter an African-American. What bothers me is that you want to define everyone with your skin color by a moniker they may not ascribe too or want. I know how divided whites are as a group and find it hard to believe that universally all blacks in the U.S. consider themselves african-Americans, they might agree they are black, but I even doubt that. What are you if your dad is African-American and your mom is European-American? Or if your dad is African-American and your mom is Asian-American? I happen to like golf and I don't recall Tiger being described by either moniker but only as one great golfer. I don't know if he was the first great black golfer, it never ocurred to me to ask, I just know he is an exceptional golfer. My point still stands if you want to self-identify as african-american then expect others to see you as african-american rather than just an american.

Really, that's why you labeled Douglas the first African-American gymnast to win a gold medal because that was what she wanted to be labeled.