Is It Wrong For Us To Call Ourselves Americans?

Memo From Mexico, By Allan Wall

"Although we realize that the term American is commonly used to refer to the U.S. population, we view American as including other North and South Americans as well. Therefore we have tried to limit the use of this term when referring to the United States."

These words of wisdom are from the introduction to Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society, a book that VDARE.COM columnist Athena Kerry has informed us was foisted upon education majors in her university.

So is it wrong for us citizens of the U.S.A. to call ourselves Americans?

Last year, there was a proposal in the Michigan Department of Education to prohibit the use of the term "Americans" from referring to U.S. citizens and Karen Todorov, the Social Studies advisor to the Michigan Department of Education, went so far as to assert that "It is ethnocentric for the United States to claim the entire hemisphere."

Mrs. Todorov’s [send her mail] point of view did not carry the day at the Michigan Department of Education—not yet anyway. After the outcry over her proposal last year, Michigan Superintendent Mike Flanagan released a statement to reassure Michiganders that:

"We are not seeking to do away with the terms ‘America’ or ‘American’ from classroom instruction, it’s not going to happen. I consider myself an American. We live in the United States of America. We are citizens of the United States of America…we’re Americans." State is not Removing "America" from Classroom Instruction in Michigan , May 24, 2006