Language and Identity

I caught a CNN segment called "Conversations with Black America" today. During a series of interviews with and about Black Americans, the reporter interviewed a student at a historically black college in Greensboro, NC. She stated that she identifies first and foremost as a Black American, not just an American. The reporter mentioned that this kind of statement could be off-putting to other Americans. He insinuated that some would feel as though we need to all identify as Americans first, and that to do otherwise would be an act of disunity. She disagreed, saying that it's important to identify as Black in order to show others that African Americans are not the stereotypes that they have been made out to be.

This quickly got me thinking about language and the way it reveals meaning. In a similar way, what does it mean to identify as an American Catholic rather than a Catholic American? Is it about loyalty, or preference, or responsibility to identify first as one rather than the other? Does it matter?