Neal is a third-year history and international development
studies student.
By Christopher R. Neal
I want to know why we place so much stock in a national
identity, why it is so much more important to be American than it
is to be human.
On Sept. 11, the way I think about this country changed. Before
then, I never had to seriously think of myself as an American
because I took that designation for granted.
As a person of African descent, I understand that my ancestors
were here at least as long as Europeans, if not longer. We were and
continue to be key in building and maintaining this country. Yet, I
still cannot fully comprehend what it means to be an American.
Does claiming American identity solely deal with the place where
I was born? Is a person who is born on American soil but raised in
the United Kingdom considered American? What about someone born in
Guatemala, or Vietnam, who has spent a great part of their lives in
the United States, legally or not, and contributed to this society?
Are they American?
While I do not have answers to these questions, I can conceive
of my own personal American identity. For one, I do not privilege
it. When asked to describe myself, many other personal qualities
come to mind. Race, sexual orientation, religion (or confusion over
it), and even the neighborhood I grew up in take precedence.
There are many ways I define myself, but until Sept. 11,
American was not an important one. That does not mean that I hold
contempt for this identity. In many ways I think it is wonderful
that I am linked to the great achievements that originate from this
land mass we call America.
But I also recognize I am held responsible for many of the
atrocities carried out around the world in the name of freedom,
democracy or free market economics.
The human rights abuses that go on daily in our name, the
support we give to terrorists and take away from revolutionaries,
and our overuse of the earth’s resources show me that we do
not privilege our human identity.
If we did, we would sign the Kyoto treaty and save the planet
from global warming. Instead, we shun it ““ and the world
““ in the name of financial gain. We would support the
Palestinian cause or at least understand that we cannot negotiate
and take sides at the same time.
To be American today is to have fewer rights than you had before
Sept. 11 and for non-Americans even those rights are almost
nonexistent.
The United States is one of the most diverse countries in the
world. It is a place where many things are possible, yet so many
things are held at a distance from the non-elite. This is a place
legions around the world voice hatred for while desiring to be
educated and socialized here.
If a nation could be understood as a contradiction, the United
States would be just that: a place where opportunities exist, yet
are withheld from the masses. A place where personal freedoms and
religious tolerances are the rhetorical cornerstone, but the
imprisonment of people of color and persecution of Muslims persist
under the guise of safety.
Thomas Jefferson said, “When democracy is sacrificed in
the name of security, then both are lost.”
However I feel about it, I am an American. So, my decision is
not to understand what it means, but to make it into what I, along
with the other human beings that occupy this space and the billions
that do not, feel it should be.
The nature of this country, even if rhetorical, is one where
opportunities exist and people are allowed to express themselves,
where they can live peacefully without infringing on the lives of
others outside this space.
Our role now as Americans is to become fully functional citizens
of the world society. We must pay attention and take heed of the
needs and desires of our neighbors and know that we will not always
agree on the right solutions.
If I am to be identified as an American, I plan to make that
identity one which I hold in high esteem and am always proud
of.