Defining America: An Examination of Identity (original) (raw)

Defining America: An Examination of Identity 1

2014

America’s change into a Minority-Majority country has presented its citizens with the challenge of redefining their identity. As the demography of the country changes, many are left to question whether the traditional views regarding the American Identity are still valid in light of the changing population of the United States. Written from the perspectives of a Turkish citizen, a naturalized American citizen, and a native-born American citizen this work examines American identity from three different lenses. Exploring ideas from the romantic and idealistic to the conflicts of trying to reconcile the complexities surrounding the American Identity, we examine how America is changing and how its identity is being manifested given the undergoing demographic and political changes.

Defining American Identity in the Twenty-First Century: How Much " There " is There

This study examines whether the increasing ethnic diversity of the United States is changing how the normative content of American identity is defined. It relies on a wide-ranging set of norms to test the claim that an increasingly multicultural America will engender a multicreedal America. In addressing this claim, the study provides an empirical assessment of the " multiple traditions " theory and develops more accurate measures of how Americans view the content of American identity than has typically been included in public opinion research. The results confirm the multiple traditions perspective, showing that a broad range of constitutive norms define being Ameri-can. A complex and contradictory set of norms exist, and it is difficult to reduce them into a single measure of " Americanism. " The results further show that most Americans, regardless of their ethnic or immigrant background, share this complex view of the norms that constitute American identity, though there are signs of divergence to monitor.

Exploration of American Identity

The history of American identity is like no other nation. The speed in which it has grown, from floundering British offshoot — to first world superpower — is both alarming and remarkable. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to understand what can be learned from the process of the individual, rather than the nation. Most of the discussion is focused on an Early American Literature, as the period in which America was establishing itself has the biggest impact on the individual, as one must procreate the myths, force identity into being, rather than immerse oneself easily in the culture and work of previous generations. The quintessence of the dissertation is to revolve around the guidance of the past, but to consider the future. The introduction takes a look at Myth, with the aid of Nietzschean philosophy, to establish exactly why Myth is so important to human reality and identity. The first chapter takes a closer look into the Emigrant experience, and the way in which one was theoretically able to ‘become American’. The second chapter utilises the knowledge and sagacity of Melville, and his then misunderstood epic Moby-Dick, arguing the possibilities of egalitarianism and the dangerous familiarity of democracy. The last chapter considers Melville’s implication on a modern identity.

AMERICAN IDENTITY AND THE ELECTION OF OBAMA

According to G. our identity is: "A specific marker of how we define ourselves at any particular moment in life. Discovering and claiming our unique identity is a process of growth, change and renewal throughout our lifetime". Taking this statement as basis for the essay, it can be said that identity is likely to change during our lives for several times; accepting this allows us to become more mature and identify ourselves in stages during our life.

American identity in crisis, 1965-1995

Intersezioni, 2023

This article surveys the dispute on national identity in the United States beginning with the political turmoil of the 1960s, when the Protestant ethic was shaken and the culture wars began. Four sets of texts are examined. The first is the «neoconservative» journal The Public Interest until the early 1980s, including a coda on political scientist Samuel Huntington. The second set, spanning the Reagan years, concerns the free-market economists of various prestige and ability who combined their attack on statism with a re-affirmation of Americans’ independence, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship. The third set of texts addresses liberals’ search for a third way between extreme multiculturalism and outmoded, nostalgic portrayals. Finally, a sample of historiography is considered.

American Self-Identification: A Strategy of Maintenance

2009

Abstract: The tensions of historical and cultural belonging and relations to colonialism, nationalism and racism in their diverse forms, in general, help in assuming what self-concept America takes for her self- and the way she identifies –recognizes and associates- herself through foreign relations and policies to relate herself and contribute to the rest of the world, or the ‘other’- enable us to imagine what identity America represents at certain eras. Wars for America have always played a significant role in the definition, representation and negotiation of identity and can be understood as global in scope but national in design. The present article traces the qualitative transformation of America’s identity through the study of war trilogy of Civil War, World War I and World War II.

A New Look at American Identities

2007

On September 13, 2001, the Brooklyn Museum of Art opened its newly reinstalled galleries of American art to the public. For the first time, fine and decorative arts were integrated, and Native American materials were introduced. Ranging from the early Colonial period to the present, the objects were organized by themes, some based on general subjects and others based on time periods. Works by famous and anonymous artists with origins in Africa, Holland, Great Britain, Germany, Mexico, and South America were woven into an expanded version of American art history. Titled "American Identities: A New Look" the new installation was eerily timely in its reinstatement of Americanness in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack. This paper offers a reconstruction of the project's history, mission, and public reception, and it proposes a critical analysis of the exhibition design.

Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity

Perspectives on Politics, 2005

Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity (2004) is a treatise by political scientist and historian Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008). The book attempts to understand the nature of American identity and the challenges it will face in the future.

What does it mean to be American? Perceptions of national identity amongst adults and children

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2020

Across two studies we examined whether conformity (vs. not) to primordial, assimilationist, and civic constructions impacted adults' and preschoolers' conceptions of national identity. Adults (N = 151) and preschoolers (N = 42) in the U.S. viewed photos of White faces accompanied by descriptive information, including whether or not the individual was born in the U.S. (i.e., primordial construction), spoke English (i.e., assimilationist construction), and loved the U.S. (i.e., civic construction). Participants rated each target's "American-ness." Adults considered targets born in the U.S. as most American, followed by targets loving the U.S. However, interactions with assimilationist constructions qualified these effects. Speaking English bolstered the effects of being born in the U.S. or loving the U.S. Preschool aged children solely drew upon civic constructions of identity, evaluating targets loving the U.S. as more American than targets not loving the U.S. Discussion focuses on the implications of these divergent conceptualizations of national identity. What does it mean to be American?: perceptions of national identity The United States is a nation of immigrants and has considerable ethnic and racial diversity. Yet, issues of exclusion have been prevalent since its inception, and have particularly been manifested in immigration legislation that determines who is and is not a 'real' American. The last decade has seen proposed policy changes that exclude members from particular nations from becoming American (e.g., President Trump's 2017 executive order banning immigration from countries with Muslim majorities), and restrict domestic movement of immigrants, especially those of Hispanic origin. For example, Arizona SB 1070 required police officers, during routine stops and/or arrests, to interrogate a person's immigration status with 'reasonable suspicion' that the person was an unlawful resident of the U.S. Despite assertions that such measures reflect identity-neutral concern for law enforcement, there are many reasons to suspect that motivation for such forms of immigration legislation has more to do with ethnocentric exclusion than with identity-neutral concerns (