Synthesis Essay: What Makes America A Diverse Nation?

900 Words2 Pages

(16924) JONES, SHELLANDRIELLE J. America is a nation built on the struggles and perseverance of multiple cultures over the course of years. From the Civil Rights Movement to the vast immigration of Hispanics over the southwest border, these cultures have come together to make America as diverse as it is today. While some people believe that this diversity makes the nation un-unified, it can be argued that the differences are what makes it whole. In America, the people often try to define themselves under one description. They say the words "I am American" and are sure that the meaning behind that sentence can be applied to all that are citizens in this country. However, to be American is different for everyone. In the excerpt from …show more content…

All of the people come from various backgrounds. They come from different cultures, and come together under a single identity. The author mentions that what it means to be American is found in the spirit and in the blood. This blood is a reference to the past generations that passed on traits to an individual. These traits may include traditions, physical appearance, and many other distinctive qualities. By uniting, the traits from from other cultures join and add to each other as well. As time moves forward, each generation progresses to be even more diverse than the previous one. It is never the same. Yet, each generation is filled with people who identify themselves as Americans. There is no definition, no standard, and no set quality of a true American. In the excerpt "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood," the author writes, "The biolingualists insist that a student should be reminded of his difference from other in mass society, his heritage. But they equate mere separateness with individuality...full individuality is achieved, paradoxically, by those who are able to consider themselves members of the crowd." The author believes that people that are truly individual are capable of …show more content…

America is known for the liberties and rights that it allows. There are opportunities in America that are not available in many other countries. If so many cultures and ethnicities have recognized that over the decades, then how could one's differences make them any less American than another's? In the excerpt from the essay "Notes of a Native Speaker, " the author states, "Alongside the pain of immigration, then, and the possibility, there is this truth: America is white no longer, and it will never be white again." The author refers to the fact that America was once made up of a predominantly white population. It is not that way anymore. As immigrants were brought in, some more voluntarily than others, the country became more diverse. It stands by the motto "liberty and justice for all." As long as an individual lives in America and believes in that same motto, then they are just as American as the white man who believes in the same thing. Or the black man. Or the coffee-colored man. This belief in equality despite differences is what has taken America as far as it has come. In the late 1900s, African Americans took this belief and marched for their rights and equalities that were guaranteed to them as Americans. Not as black people, but as Americans. This shows that individuality only proves to further the nation as a whole. The movement of black people was

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