American identity: concepts, history, and cultural foundations

American Identity

The idea of an American identity suggests that there is some combination of factors that can be used to define what it means to be an American. Groups seeking to promote such a definition often do so by defining an American as most like themselves while excluding those not like themselves. Being an American, however, means specifically not doing anything of the sort. In legal terms, an American is any person born within the borders of the United States or any person naturalized by the legal process created for that purpose. Underlying these facts, though, is a culture that has developed, beginning with the essentials set forth in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the Constitution.

As Jefferson writes in the Declaration of Independence, writing as an American,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The two essential beliefs in this passage are that all men are created equal and that any government derives its power from the people. These two ideas are the essence of what it means to be an American.

Certainly, much of American history tests the first premise, for to state it is one thing, while to live it is another. When the United States was formed, some were clearly more equal than others in spite of the rhetoric. Still, a belief in equality has been and remains a central belief in the American identity, even if the reality sometimes fails to match the ideal. As can be seen with reference to the second basic tenet, Americans from the first have also distrusted the power of government and do so even if they believe in that power to effect beneficial change. One can see distrust of government throughout the political spectrum in America.

The belief in equality, as noted, often fails in practice, but the nation has been tending toward a more equal and more tolerant structure from the first. The American identity is not at all a racial identity, nor is it centered on any given social class, ethnicity, or gender. In erms of percentages of the population, of course, a typical American would show these characteristics, but American identity cannot be defined in statistical terms. The American identity is in fact not a single identity at all but a varied one applicable to people for different backgrounds and different cultures, even without considering the naturalized population. America is a large country, and it has long been noted for regional differences, and with numerous divisions even within those identifiable regions. The American of the Northeast differs from the American of the South and the American of the Far West, yet there remains a belief system based on equality, fairness, optimism, the rule of law, and a sense of self-reliance that connects all of these groups. The addition of certain populations with a very different culture based on immigration from literally everywhere else in the world only brings in more elements that can be adapted to these basic beliefs.

Language might be cited as a unifying force, and often political leaders raise the question and try to legislate that English will be the official language for the nation. This usually meets a good deal of opposition as well and has not been adopted widely as yet. Many other languages are indeed spoken in America, making language less of a required element in a definition than some might like. The widespread use of Spanish in the southwest is usually cited as a problem, but Chinese is common in large cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, and waves of immigrants form different parts of the world add to the number who speak a second language either as their only language or as their primary language. Vietnamese became a more common language after a large number of refugees from the war in Vietnam came to the United States in the 1970s, and as for other immigrant populations, the second generation in particular has adopted English as their primary language.

Amy Tan represents the second generation in the Chinese community and writes about the differences between herself and her mother and her mother's generation. Tan has a different cultural background than most Americans, but she also shares much about American culture and shows in her writings how much even her mother has adopted of American ideas and practices. Amy Tan herself was born in 1952 in Oakland, and she is herself a member of the culture she describes in her writings. The fact that many of her characters retain ties to China and to Chinese ways does not lessen their American identity, for accepting such differences is, as noted, a key part of the American identity.

The American identity also involves a belief in freedom, which in practical terms means freedom to develop an individual identity and to do so in whatever ways the individual chooses, so long as no one else is harmed. This idea has at times produced such a libertarian streak that it has created a backlash, as is hinted at by Laura Vanderkam when she writes about the new concept of "hooking up" as part of the aftermath of the sexual revolution. She refers to the current generation of young people as Organization Kid culture and finds that the practice of "hooking up" now "pervades college culture." To much of the world, stories about this sort of behavior mark the American identity as libertine, hedonistic, and immoral. In truth, this is only one manifestation of American identity, but so is Christian fundamentalism and the more repressive social structure that that can spawn. Freedom to make personal choices is the real key to the American identity, and this is only another aspect of the increasing tolerance that marks the American experience and that is part of the American identity.