Being an American is always staying open-minded and welcoming to others. America is filled with so many different people and different beliefs. So, it’s super important to have those two traits. Another definition would be that being an American means you have many rights other citizens in other countries might not have. According to the 2018 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the United States admitted a total of 44.8 million legal immigrants. The main reason why so many immigrants came to America was that it was perceived as the land of the free.
American Culture consists of many other cultures. They’re all equal and many Americans celebrate different cultures. According to Western Illinois University. A characteristic of American Culture is equality. Everyone gets treated equally. An example of equality would be waiting in a school lunch line. No matter how different you are, everyone gets treated and served equally.
Some key American values would be Liberty and Self Government. According to Working Scholars. The definition of Liberty is “The freedom of people’s speech”(Troolin para 3), as an American, we have the right to call things out that might not be right and not have any disciplinary actions taken upon us. As stated in Working Scholars. The definition of Self Government is that “Citizens control how their government is run.”(Smith para 6), such as voting for a president. This is a very important value because the government controls the people and the people can inform the government what their key interests are and what actions need to be changed.
A very important American Creed would be Egalitarianism. As reported by Merriam Webster. The definition of Egalitarianism is “A social philosophy advocating the removal of inequalities among people.” Which means everyone should have an equal opportunity. This is very important because everyone deserves an equal opportunity. Opportunities wouldn’t be fair if everyone didn’t have an equal opportunity.
All of these online sources that I have mentioned above. Show that being an American can mean many different things. They all have different definitions of what being an American is. Yet, they all tie together to make one big answer to the key question. What does it mean to be an American? That question has many answers and there isn’t just one right answer but, as I stated in the previous paragraphs, being an American means you have Freedom, Liberty, and Equality. Being an American comes with many benefits and challenges. But there are so many more benefits than challenges.
Works Cited
“America’s Core Values: Liberty, Equality & Self-GovernmentStudy.com, study.com/academy/lesson/americas-core-values-liberty-equality-self-government.html.
“Egalitarianism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/egalitarianism. Accessed 22 Sep. 2020.
“Western Illinois University.” Basics of American Culture – Western Illinois University, 2016, www.wiu.edu/global_education/activities/americanculture.php.
“Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.” Department of Homeland Security, 6 Jan. 2020, www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook.
Dear Ismael:
I am intrigued by your post, “What Does it Mean to be American?” because from the title alone I was able to instantly process different answers. It was intriguing to know what you were going to discuss and as I began reading I found that we shared the idea that America has a lot of diversity.
One sentence you wrote that stands out to me is: “being an American means you have Freedom, Liberty, and Equality.” I think this is debatable because yes, this is the big idea presented as the definition of an American but there have been many situations and instances within our nation, and throughout the years, where this definition has not been executed or proven to be true. However, I believe that we should continue fighting for this to be completely true and seen in every direction of our nation.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because I liked that you presented your thoughts in a clear and straightforward matter. Your text also included definitions and statistics that helped me visualize and understand your ideas further.
Rebecca
I agree with many things said here, however the paragraph about our culture being equality, though i see how it can be, It may not work out as it is said to be, Because even today we still have equality issues. Very good post overall.
I agree with you on that Freedom, Liberty, and Equality are all the desired American values however, it would be interesting if you could expand on how these American values are demonstrated today within politics and social society. Also, it would be interesting to see on a study with a large scale of American citizens with different diverse backgrounds to see how many of them believe they live with these desired American values.