The Role of ethnicity in the creation/development of the American identity in contemporary America.
The American society, in all identity facets, bears a very complex image. Indeed, more than 2 centuries after independence, it is grossly difficult to identify the aggregate American identity. Many residents living in the expansive nation have a hard time identifying with the overall societal values. Even when one is a permanent and duly registered citizen, they find themselves subscribing more to their origin ethnic sources rather than those of their home countries. Some do it by personal preference, others do it due to identity stagnation while others are forced to fall from American ideals by situational factors such as ethnic profiling, the attendant discrimination and even systematic ethnic based hostilities. Whereas the diverse populations in America should translate into productive ethnic diversity, the end results oscillate more towards differences rather than unity. Even the most fair of analyzers agree that contemporary America has a long way to go in creating an identifiable identity.
Richard Rodriguez in his text The Chinese in All of Us, presents his observations in a very uncanny but interesting manner. He, initially, admits his love for America but posits that the nation has a long ay to go in creating a common and easily identifiable America. When asked whether he considered himself an American or Hispanic, he says that he would rather see himself as a Chinese more than anything else. This is despite the globally known fact that America is home and nationality. That confession from an intellectual and a global icon opens the reality that far from public perceptions, the American identity fabric is in tatters. The writer shares that he is yet to come across an American identifying them as absolutely multi-culturalism. That reality leads to another fact: That many migrants, legal or illegal, are yet to identify with the American cultural ethos. Many people residing in America have either stuck to their primary ethnic bastions or found themselves unable to acquire an American identity.
Rodriguez supports his thoughts using a number of propositions. One, he says while he has met many Mexicans fully identifying as Irish citizens, he is yet to come across one fully identifying themselves as Americans. The reasons for this, he says, is due to the individualistic manner in which ethnic America founded itself on. Therefore, since independence, very minimal efforts have been undertaken to collectively cloth the average person living in the US as American as the other. Rodriguez gives the example of his friend, Michael saying that he opened up to him and shared his shock and confusion regarding America. In school, the teacher always referred to the friend by his name. That alone posits that even in educational institutions, efforts to foster a collective American identity were, at best, non-existent. Rodriguez wonders why it is so difficult to build an American identity when the entire country is made up of immigrants, by all technical and cultural standards. The US has a more black history than any other country on the earth. Simply, Rodriguez extends on the century old question on whether America is really serious on centering its ethnic future towards carving a common individual identity.