What is an American?
What is an American? Dictionary.com tells that one of the definitions of American is a citizen of the United States of Americaand for most people who hear the word American that is what is going to come to mind. However, historically speaking, America was a nation of immigrants and indigenous peoples coming together (not always peacefully, either) to share a common space. Yet, ultimately, perspectives can lead to different interpretations. For instance, some people may feel Americans are peaceful and practical. My definition of the term American is no different from Dictionary.coms: one who is a citizen of the United States of America. That kind of definition is broad enough to include all perspectives.
Sharing that space often proved more difficult than thought. Wars between indigenous populations and settlers/colonizers broke out. Later, when the United States of America was founded (following a war between colonists and the Crown), another war erupted between the states (north vs. south). Since then, the US has been at war all over the world. In fact, the whole of the 20th centuryfrom the Spanish American War to the wars in the Middle Eastis emblematic of Americas tendency...
…in the identify of immigrants and natives: FDRs 50th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty speech looks back on immigrants and the impact they had on shaping the US. Poor Europeans came to the US, and poor Americans worked to make the country strong. America has had its poetssuch as Walt Whitman, who wrote I hear America Singing and Langston Hughes, who wrote about the experience of a Black man in 1920s USA. Then there is I, too, sing America by Julia Alvarez, who describes the experience of a multicultural woman in modern day USA. All of these are perspectives of…
References
Abraham Lincoln. Second Inaugural Speech. https://www.nps.gov/linc/learn/historyculture/lincoln-second-inaugural.htm
Dictionary.com. “American.” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/american
FDR. Address on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. | The American Presidency Project (ucsb.edu)
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