Culture: How Does One Get to Be Called an American?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives three definitions of an American, the first being, "an American Indian of North or South America". The second definition given is, "a native or inhabitant of North America or South America". The third definition is, "a native or inhabitant of the U.S.: U.S. Citizen".These definitions are vague and doesn't answer the real question of what makes an "American", an "American"?
If someone were to consider the definitions given above, in order to be an American one would have to live in the United States or be a native. Today, however, there are many people living in the
United States but are not considered to be American. If these people are not considered to be
American, then how can anyone be called "American"?. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gave a definition that is general and doesn't give a true form of what or how does one get to be called an "American".
In an article published by the Washington Post, they attempted to determine what an "American" is. The article asks the same question and offers a small definition explaining that scholars call the beliefs that one has as a, "civic" approach to the term of citizenship. The article also talks about a survey made up of 8,000 Americans. The question asked was, "how important different criteria were to being an American". The results of the survey were slightly unexpected since most of the people agreed that "respecting American laws and being a citizen" made someone an American. The results be quite confusing, since there are ,again, people who are not citizens but still respect the law of the United States. While some can agree that the term "American" doesn't have a true definition, they can agree that it does have something to do with respecting United States laws and being a citizen.
The question still remains unanswered, even though surveys were made about the subject, the "answer" doesn't represent the country as a whole. In order for there to be an answer every single person in the country would have to agree on the same thing. The problem with this is that everyone has a different opinion, some beliefs contrasting with others, creating a divide on what is true and what isn't. Since nobody can agree on one definition or answer as to how can someone be called an "American", then there is no answer. Some may argue with this observation, but it will only further the point that there is no true answer.
I like your approach to this topic, and that Washington Post article is fascinating. While there is a legal definition of who gets to be an American (and often it's still "interpreted" by the courts--see the DACA issue going on right now), we all have our own understandings of what it means. Laws are not static, and neither is the Constitution--it's built to be amended over time and circumstance. What's unfortunate, I think, are those laws that limit immigration from certain countries and not others. Perhaps the insidious purpose of that is to keep America "Northern and Western European," which it's never really been.
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed reading your post. The perspective you took on the assignment was interesting and worthy of a read. You are very right that there is no true definition of the American person. The general idea of what the dictionary definition was getting at was fairly true, but I suppose not to be taken so literally. The definition of words aren't always exactly what it is interpreted as in culture, like "American" unfortunately because you'd assume that the American person would have a more respectable 'definition,' yet it's vague. The fact that there are many different ways to describe this term simply defines itself, that you cannot define it and it's too diverse of a question. If you look up a vague term like "American," then you get a vague answer.
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