Over the last couple of years I've noticed a slight change in something, and I kind of don't like it. I wonder, though, if anyone else has noticed -or maybe it's just me and nothing has changed. Has anyone noticed that, in present times, news outlets and younger generations call this place we live by a slightly different name?  When I was growing up, I could swear we casually called 'The United States of America' as 'The United States'. We'd watch the news at night and the anchors would proudly announce that "The United States...." followed by whatever the government did on our behalf. It seemed like we did better stuff back then? Maybe my perception as a young person. In presentations, the presenter would say something like, "The United States ranks..." followed by pertinent researched data-y information.

More recently, when I hear journalists presenting stories on the radio (I mostly listen to NPR), or the president speaking, or anchors on TV, I hear them referring to this country as 'America'. It sounds off to my ear. It sounds lazy. It sounds pejorative. It sounds uneducated and non-descript.

The United States is a country in the Americas. There's north America, central America, and there's south America (lower cases intentional). There's the North American continent, there's Central America, which according to Google is a sub-region of North America, and there's the South American continent. 'America' is a vague area in the Americas. The United States is NOT the only 'America'. I would like people to stop using that vague, arrogant description. Quite frankly, we look like jerks.

I wondered if anyone else noticed this, and I found an article on Linked-In that addresses the same issue I'm having with this. I was quite surprised. It was dated from 2025. I'll cite it at the bottom. The author sussed out my feelings on this. It's worth a read, but long story-short, using America to describe the United States as if it's the ONLY America that's worth referencing is about imperialism, using language to control narrative, and indeed entitlement to the belief that the United States is the ONLY America. I also found other authors who have noticed the same name-switcheroo that I have. Do an online search and you will see others who are writing about this. I did read an article by someone defending this imperialist description but I'm not interested in giving it importance here. The guy who wrote it sounded like a narcissist. 

To be clear, there are 35 countries in the Americas. Above Mexico, there are two large countries. ALL in America. The United States and Canada are neighbors in North America. And Mexico is our neighbor too.  All big. All important. And I could go so much farther acknowledging our native nations residing here in the Americas. All (should be, in my opinion) on an American team. Let's be clearer. More exact. More descriptive. More respectful of our American neighbors. Citizens from the United States are American. Citizens from Canada are American, Citizens from Mexico are American. I'm just hitting the big countries here in my backyard, but for the 32 other countries, they are American, too. Yes, I realize we call U.S. citizens as American, but that's also not a great descriptor. 

I'd like to see us get back to using 'United States' when referring to our country rather than 'America'. We got the name, United States of America, on the Declaration of Independence, and according to Mother Jones, that's what George Washington used along with the 'Union.'  *Iiiiii like it!*  It also instills, again in my opinion, pride in who we are or aspire to be. Better. Stronger. Together in spite of our differences. Using unifying language can bring us together rather than alienating one state disliked by another or alienating our American neighbors.

Again, I realize that the rest of world refers to someone from the United States as an American and we may just have to live with that, but when we describe ourselves, as a country, to the rest of the world there's nothing stopping us from using the elevated 'United States.' Maybe we need a new word for someone from our united country?

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1. LinkedIn article by Yasmin Bou Karim : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-referring-united-states-america-more-than-just-bou-karim-mph-tys2f/ 

2. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/when-did-the-united-states-start-calling-itself-america-anyway/