Why do SOME whites ask about terms like asian-american, african-american, etc.?

"americans" never accepted ANYONE into this country with open arms. the irish were treated like dirt. the jewish, the germans. EVERYONE has an ethnic slur of some type. none of us belong here anyway. we are all uninvited guests of the tribes who lived here before. i think we add "hyphen american" as a way to include everyone as we are all different yet the same. we might be asian-american or italian-american but we share the same suffix and are united in our differences and sameness.