What is an American?
Updated: Oct 16, 2020
Look at the image below. Can you pick out the Americans?
JK. They are all Americans. This image borrowed from Branding.news is an ensemble of 29 living descendants of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Click the link to see the full image in which the descendants' names and the names of their ancestors are listed. This is just one illustration of the diversity that exists within American identities.
This post was originally planned to delve into the complexity of American identity formation. I've decided to save that discussion for another time, however, and more narrowly focus this on a summary of the most basic defining qualities in order to show that we are unable to distinguish between an American and a non-American based on the visible appearance, language, or religious affiliation of an individual.
In order to discuss a possible explanation for what being an "American" consists of, I need to find a working definition of the term. After comparing a few reputable dictionaries, it seems safe to start with a summary of basic definitions provided by Merriam-Webster.
Noun:
A native or inhabitant of the U.S. : a U.S. citizen
American English
A person born, raised or living in the U.S.
(I've omitted parts of the definition relating to South America or parts of North America that are not part of the United States.)
The term citizen "refers to a person's allegiance to a government in exchange for its protection at home and abroad" and is therefore associated with belonging, rights, and protections on a national scale, while the term resident is "used generally for a person who is legally living or working in a particular locality" and is associated with living and remaining on a local scale (city, town).
The 14th Amendment's Definition
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
What is a naturalized citizen? A naturalized citizen is one who was born outside of the U.S. and has met the official requirements to become a citizen.
Core Political Philosophy
The creators of the American core political philosophy were the writers of the nation's founding documents: The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. While these documents were written within a specific context, the writers created a document that clearly protected certain rights and promoted a republican (as in a republic, not the modern political party) philosophy of the roles of government while allowing for adaptability to changing circumstances and improvements by future thinkers. The contradictions between the founding ideals of freedom and equality and the simultaneous existence of slavery and patriarchal systems suggests that many early American thinkers were ahead of their time. Slavery was a contentious subject in this time as well, and while there were founders that did denounce the system, they were forced to come to terms with these contradictions and accept incremental change in the forging of these documents. This is not the only compromise that was made during the ratification process, but it may be the most obvious.
"To become an American, a person did not have to be any particular national, linguisitc, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American." (Gleason, 1980)
Americanism, in this sense, is associated with will. It can, and perhaps should, be a person's choice to be or to become an American which is why a naturalized citizen is as valid as a native citizen. This idea of agency in becoming an American was much more important during the birth of the nation, in part, because of the grievances against the King. One of those grievances, in fact, was "obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners" It seems that, in recent times, there is more emphasis on agency as an individual's right to leave the nation if they do not like what it has become.
It seems that the closest to a defining characteristic of an American is a commitment to a political philosophy that should be looked at with disregard to modern bipartisan politics.
The Role of Solidarity
Solidarity: an experience of willed affiliation. This is such a problem in the U.S. today that many citizens are reluctant even to say that they are proud to be an American. It is not because a lack of patriotism , it is because of many things that have become associated with America in recent times.
The importance of solidarity cannot be understated. In small scale societies the distribution of resources is very obviously connected to the survival (or reproductive fitness) of the group. (This statement is very general and I do not disregard the many practices of various small scale societies that result in the inhumane treatment of the elderly, differently abled, sick etc.) In larger state societies distributive justice depends almost entirely on civic solidarity. Reflect on what it takes for you to give up your resources to help someone you do not know, especially if they don't share your perspective or beliefs.
"Institutions of the welfare state serve as redistributive mechanisms that can offset the inequalities of life chances that a capitalist economy creates, and they raise the position of the worst-off members of society to a level where they are able to participate as equal citizens...If democratic activity involves not just voting, but also deliberation, then people must make an effort to listen to and understand one another. Moreover, they must be willing to moderate their claims in the hope of finding common ground on which to base political decisions. Such democratic activity cannot be realized by individuals pursuing their own interests; it requires some concern for the common good A sense of solidarity can help foster mutual sympathy and respect, which in turn support citizens' orientation toward the common good...The challenge, then, is to develop a model for civic solidarity that is 'thick' enough to motivate support for justice and democracy while also 'thin' enough to accommodate racial, ethnic, and religious diversity." (Song, 2009)
In spite of the promising start handed to us by the first Americans and 244 years of cultural evolution, we are still facing this challenge today.
Legally, determining an "American" seems pretty straightforward. Why, then, is there so much confusion and debate in the public forum? It seems that the complication has to do with the nuance, confusions with ethnic identity, sense of pride, ethnocentrism and symbolism within American identity formation. Additionally the nation's complex relationship with religion and strong, yet largely misunderstood, associations with language inform this confusion. This post was originally meant to be a long form essay; for easier consumption I have broken it down to several parts meaning that I will tackle American language, religion and identity formation at later time.
Constructive responses and corrections on factual information (with sources included) or citations are always welcome. These articles are meant to inform and inspire conversation.
Resources:
American. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/American
American definition and meaning: Collins English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2020, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/american
American: Definition of American by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of American. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/american
Gleason, Philip. "American Identity and Americanization," in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, ed. Stephan Thernstrom (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1980), 31–32, 56–57.
Song Sarah. (2009). What does it mean to be an American? Retrieved July 07, 2020, from https://www.amacad.org/publication/what-does-it-mean-be-american
Team, E. (2017, July 04). Meet the Descendants of America's Founding Fathers. Retrieved September 04, 2020, from https://www.branding.news/2017/07/04/meet-the-unexpected-descendants-of-americas-founding-fathers/
Van Tyne, C. (1913). Influence of the Clergy, and of Religious and Sectarian Forces, on the American Revolution. The American Historical Review,19, 44-64. doi:10.1086/ahr/19.1.44
WALZER, M. (1990). What Does It Mean to Be an "American"? Social Research,57(3), 591-614. Retrieved September 4, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40970605
What's the Difference Between a 'Citizen' and a 'Resident'? (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-is-the-difference-between-a-citizen-and-a-resident
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