Personal Narrative: What Does It Mean To Be An American Today?

What does it mean to be an American today? Or rather, what does being an American entail? Does that pertain to a certain individual’s perspective? Or is Americanism defined through a collective consciousness projected around the world? Over the course of time, Americans have gone through various embodiments of who they are, without loosing the essence of what they represent. In the 1800’s, America was known to be the state of slaveholders, a country represented by “whiteness” and “white elites.” In 1965, African Americans were allowed the right to vote. In 2004, the U.S State of Massachusetts allowed for same sex couples to be married. As of 2015, 43.3 million people in the United States are considered to be immigrants. Throughout the centuries,

Is it still the case today or is it more what I hear our President telling are who we are. I was born on the Upper East side and raised as as New Yorker as one can be. My parents have two distincts ethnic background. I speak many languages with peripheral cultures to mine. What does that make me. In some ways, I do not feel American as projected by loud medias and cherished pasts. My americanism is different yet very strong. It is not taken for granted by birth. It is by choice, embedded in the real values of what has defined being American through history. Those values that Americans are losing, are the values new americans are embracing. I do not feel the world owes me. I feel I owe the world and my americanism is what I can offer. Is America today divided not only politically or across states but most importantly in their identities of what is it to be an American today. Sadly I feel so, yet very hopeful in that the fundamental backbone of America as a nation has been its enormous capacity of cultivating heterogeneity. As Abraham Lincoln famously stated “ A house divided cannot stand.”. Maybe today is that time for America to revisit what it is to be