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Subconsciously, she has always known what it’s like to be an American. Growing up in an immigrant, military family taught her that— having been swathed in its multi-colored blankets of diversity and opportunity since the day she was born. She remembers the chiding words of her mother as she taught her the Pledge of Allegiance for her second day of kindergarten. There were freedoms, she had reminded her, underlying those words— “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”— that we should never take for granted. It wasn’t until years later however, after a visit to the Philippines that she realized what her mother truly meant—as well as that something more, something deeper was a part of being American. It began with a simple question. “What are you?” her cousins asked. Their heavily-accented words, laden with curiosity, hung in the air. “Filipino? Or American?”
“Um, American?” No sooner had the answer left her lips, her cousins rebuked her— pointing out her disregard to the Filipino blood ran that through her veins. It had never occurred to her nine-year-old mind to take that into account; she had always thought that simply living under the Amendments that granted her the freedoms to live out her life defined her identity. However, a revelation struck her as their freely expressed their opinions loomed before her faltering conviction. For the first time she realized as she stared at her cousins that other countries shared those same freedoms as well. How come they were not considered an American? What made an American? That girl was me— Nicole Caiga— when I was nine years old.
Had my maternal grandfather— “Tatay” as we called him— not died five years before, he could have given me the answer I desperately sought. ...
... middle of paper ...
...f one’s birth alone doesn’t make a Korean, Filipino, American, or any other nationality for that matter. If that was the case, my parents wouldn’t be the Americans they are today. Instead it is the decision to identify oneself with whatever country one puts action behind their hopes, dreams, and future.
My ethnicity may be Filipino, but like my parents before me, I am an American.
Works Cited
Houston, Jeanne. "A Tapestry of Hope." Creating America. 4th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2005. 146-47. Print.
Kang, Younghill. "A Korean Discovers New York." Creating America. 4th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2005. 60-61. Print.
"Maryland – DP-1. Profile of General Demographics: 2000." The New York Times. 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 04 Oct. 2010. .
During the Progressive Era, our country was going through many changes and those changes have had numerous effects that are still apparent today. Theodore Roosevelt and Randolph Bourne both had very differing opinions about how citizens should be seen by themselves and their governments. The main difference between Roosevelt’s and Bourne’s theories on citizenship is the amount of domination and empowerment that was posed to the people. Roosevelt had thought that the people of American should only identify as American, even if they were born in another country. Bourne’s opinion was drastically different form Roosevelt’s by believing that the people of America should embrace their own cultures and share it with the rest of the country. Using Randolph Bourne’s “Trans-National America” and Theodore Roosevelt’s “True Americanism” this essay will show that over time Bourne’s idea of empowering the diversity of citizens has been more successful than Roosevelt’s idea of having a society that was more dominated by a the need for everyone to be the same.
As our national creation myth of George Washington and the Cherry Tree reminds us of our integrity as agents of free-will in the “land of the Free and home of the Brave”, to the anthropomorphic metaphor of Liberty that stands on Ellis Island, Americans sincerely believe that these held values and attitudes are what make us uniquely American. In fact, these virtual citizenry birthrights (historically excluding racial minorities and women arguably until the civil rights movements of the 1960s ,though the case may be made that this fight for equality is still a work in progress) are explicitly stated in the legal framework of our consti...
Many immigrant and minority narratives concentrate their efforts on the positive side of the American dream. These particular stories narrate a person's struggle and rise through the ranks of the Am6rican hierarchy focusing on the opportunities that seem to abound in this country. While these stories are well and good. they do seem to soft peddle the flip side of this country's attitude toward the immigrant and minority. America is a land of milk and honey and opportunity, but unfortunately most new officiates or unwilling participants in the American culture face an American nightmare that leaves its effects on the individuals, families and cultures for generations to come. America has its own deeply seated prejudices and stereotypes of people from outside its walI5 and these prejudices force some immigrants and minorities either to abandon former cultural ties in order to assimilate or to strap on the baldric of equality that changes their lives forever.
Roark, James L., Michael P. Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, Susan M. Hartmann. Understanding the American Promise, Volume I, Chapter 14. Bedford/ St. Martin’s.
Roark, James L., Johnson,Cohen, Stage, Lawson, Hartmann. The American Promise . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.
Following the 1890’s, the world began to undergo the first stages of globalization. Countries and peoples, who, until now, were barely connected, now found themselves neighbors in a planet vastly resembling a global village. Despite the idealized image of camaraderie and brotherhood this may seem to suggest, the reality was only discrimination and distrust. Immigration to new lands became a far more difficult affair, as emigrants from different nations came to be viewed as increasingly foreign. In the white-dominated society of the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the only way to truly count oneself as American was to become “white”. For this reason, the idea of race, a socially constructed issue with no real physical basis, has become one of the most defining factors which shape immigration and assimilation in the United States.
The period from 1905 to 1924 is characterized by quite a different group of Korean Immigrants. One part of this group was made up of Koreans who were running from their government and students who were studying in the US. Syngman Rhee, who would become the leader of South Korea during the Korean War, was earning his Ph.D. at Princeton University during this time. About 500 students and political refugees arrived in America (...
Fukuoka, Yasunori “Koreans in Japan: Past and Present,” Saitama University Review, vol. 31, no.1, 1996.
She self-identifies as Chinese-American because she “feels Chinese inside” even though she considers herself to be very assimilated into the American culture. This coincides with one of the four types of ethnic self-labels for second generation immigrants that Portes and Rumbaut analyze: national origin, hyphenated, plain American and pan-ethnic. These identifies arise from reactions to specific external events, internalization of racialized categories or life experiences (Feliciano Lec. 1/25/2016). The reason she still identifies as Chinese is because she was raised to think that way; she grew up in a Chinese dominated community both at home and in school. She also believes that because she is not of a mixed ethnicity, it is easy for her to self-identify as Chinese-American. When asked what makes her American, she responded that it is because she lives in America and she follows many American social norms. She does not believe that citizenship has anything to do with being American, it is just a form that acknowledges that you can receive certain benefits that non-citizens do not have the privilege
Immigrants come to America, the revered City upon a Hill, with wide eyes and high hopes, eager to have their every dream and wild reverie fulfilled. Rarely, if ever, is this actually the case. A select few do achieve the stereotypical ‘rags to riches’ transformation – thus perpetuating the myth. The Garcia family from Julia Alvarez’s book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, fall prey to this fairytale. They start off the tale well enough: the girls are treated like royalty, princesses of their Island home, but remained locked in their tower, also known as the walls of their family compound. The family is forced to flee their Dominican Republic paradise – which they affectionately refer to as simply, the Island – trading it instead for the cold, mean streets of American suburbs. After a brief acclimation period, during which the girls realize how much freedom is now available to them, they enthusiastically try to shed their Island roots and become true “American girls.” They throw themselves into the American lifestyle, but there is one slight snag in their plan: they, as a group, are unable to forget their Island heritage and upbringing, despite how hard they try to do so. The story of the Garcia girls is not a fairytale – not of the Disney variety anyway; it is the story of immigrants who do not make the miraculous transition from rags to riches, but from stifling social conventions to unabridged freedom too quickly, leaving them with nothing but confusion and unresolved questions of identity.
Divine, Robert A. America past and Present. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Longman, 2013. 245. Print.
The United States as a country has always been an entity unique amongst the world’s myriad of nations: a conglomeration of cultures, ethnic groups and religious backgrounds from around the planet, all fused together to yield something entirely new. Since its very inception, those who dwell within its borders have attempted to ascertain the makeup of the American identity, in order to pin down how exactly one can come to be considered as an American themselves. This is inherently quite a subjective issue, but the conversation primarily boils down to three core factors that make the American people who they are: a dedication to preserving the natural rights of every human being, a belief in the importance of the individual in deciding their own
Nationalism is extreme loyalty and devotion to one particular nation, and many Americans are nationalistic about their country. But even though they are loyal to America, defining what it means to be a true American is tricky. Being American is one complex thing, but the concept of being American can not be fully grasped. What it means to be American may in fact be one of the biggest mysteries of all time. Indeed, discovering what it means to be a true American could possibly take an entire lifetime. One thing, however about all true Americans is certain: we are all alike in that each one of us is different from the Americans in important ways. We are diverse in our backgrounds, races, and religions. Nevertheless, we are exactly identical in the we feel toward our country, even though we express our pride in a million different ways.
Before I was five, I thought I was Chinese. However, I wondered why I couldn’t understand the Chinese patrons of Chinatown restaurants. Upon learning my true ethnicity, I pulled out a mammoth atlas we had under the bed. My father pointed to an “S”-shaped country bordering the ocean, below China. It was then that I learned my parents were refugees from Vietnam. “Boat people,” my mother, still struggling to grasp English back then, would hear kids whispering when she walked through the halls of her high school. Like many refugees, although my parents and their families weren’t wealthy when they came to America, they were willing to work hard, and like many Vietnamese parents, mine would tell me, “We want you to be success.”
Born and bred in Indonesia and growing up with people from all over the globe have always made me question my real ethnicity. I went to a British international school since pre-kindergarten. Nevertheless, I always thought we were all alike. As I thought, I discovered when I was in the second grade that I was a bit different than most of my friends. I was born on Indonesian soil and I am obviously a national citizen. But all these facts doesn’t make me Indonesian. My paternal grandfather was Chinese-American while my paternal grandmother was from Beijing. My maternal grandparents, however, are very different. My maternal grandfather was Chinese-Japanese whereas my grandmother was Dutch.