What Kind of American?

During the last nasty days of the 2008 campaign season, we learned that some of us are not "real" Americans. Apparently, if you live in a city, don't vote Republican, and have no idea how to field dress a moose, you are somehow less of a citizen than those good solid folks who have to drive at least ten miles to get to the nearest shopping mall. It got even more interesting when a poster to a left-leaning email group that I follow started a discussion about African Americans and European Americans. Another poster objected to the term "European American" -- the person thought it was absurd to refer to an entire continent for one's heritage when you probably knew what country your ancestors came from. African Americans, on the other hand, could claim an entire continent as their point of origin because slavery had erased all evidence of their country of origin.

This doesn't quite sit right either. Unless your family came to the US fairly recently, you probably have ancestors from a wide smattering of nations, European and otherwise, and many African Americans have a very good idea where their ancestors came from. The bigger question is -- is this really relevant anymore? I could call myself Caucasian, a term no longer restricted to people whose ancestors are from the Caucasus. I could call myself white, but I'm really kind of a pinkish beige, and parts of me get quite tan in the summer. Many of my ancestors came over here before there was a United States of America, but calling myself a Native American has misleading connotations. Why not just call myself an American and be done with it? For that matter, why not just call myself a human being? Does nationality do anything besides divide and antagonize people?