In actual fact, we had nothing to do with this. It's all on you. After you guys split from us and shacked up with the pool boy known as "freedom," Noah Webster -- of Merriam-Webster fame -- decided that your language needed to reflect your newfound independence. Through his three-part series -- The First Part of the Grammatical Institute Of The English Language, The American Spelling Book, and The Elementary Spelling Book, all of which become de rigeur in schools -- he redefined American English into the form that you know and I marginally endure. If the English language is a beautifully crafted orchestral piece, Webster's American English is a mixtape consisting solely of "Independent Women" by Destiny's Child and TLC's "No Scrubs."
Universal/Columbia
This is also a metaphor for something.
As a starting point for Extreme Makeover: Linguistic Edition, Webster sought to redefine the spellings of words according to how they sounded when said aloud. Words like "theatre" and "centre" became "theater" and "center," whilst superfluous letters were excised from words like "plough" ("plow"), "axe" ("ax"), and "catalogue" ("catalog"). The letter "u," meanwhile, was drop-kicked into an open grave and buried alive. It's also really hard not to take this thing personally when you learn that Webster refused to redefine the spelling of "glamour" because it was a Scottish word, not an English one, the bloody ingrate.