Dear Editor,
What does it truly mean to be American? Is it to associate myself with an ideology that has suppressed and depressed a race of which I am a member; I don't think I can do that.
In the letter to the editor "Nation built on diversity, 'American' Identity" it the author said he was "disappointed" to hear African-Ameri-cans call themselves as such and how it is "contributing to their own unfortunate discrimination." You have to think about the unfair situations that have plagued this country from inception, we were all here, but were we all Americans, I don't believe we were.
Over time I feel that African-Americans were hated so much that they began to love themselves. From that came the connection to our roots. The roots from which we grew actually prospered, not the ones in which we were forced to grow in with lack of nourishment and little tending to. Our roots are one of the few things that kept people going when nothing else went right.
Now you ask and almost demand that we forget our roots in an effort to make you feel more comfortable in your endeavor for diversity, I hardly think so. Maybe if you were proud of your history, which you should be, you would be calling yourself an Irish-American, Italian-American, Iceland-American, Swedish-American and so on.
Instead of committing to a format of Ameri-can, truth be told, we are all immigrants on a land of Indians, not Native-Americans, you should be adopting their ways and beliefs as you seem to have adopted these newly found "American" beliefs you now have.
Stephen Jeffers
junior
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