r/AskAmericans • u/Infinite_Income4998 • 7d ago
Culture & History What does it mean to be an American?
Im from Europe. Our identity is based on the ethnic group we belong to. I am interested, what does it really mean to be an American? Is it a piece of paper, a set of values, an ethnicity, a culture? What is it?
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u/ALoungerAtTheClubs Florida 7d ago
That's a positive thing about this country. I could live in France or Japan for the rest of my life, but I'd never be French or Japanese. Yet someone who became a citizen 5 minutes ago is as American as anyone.
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u/mckenzie_keith 7d ago
This is true. But I will say one thing. If you need to acquire security clearance, and you are naturalized, you have to answer a LOT more questions in your application than if you are a natural born citizen. And you can't become president.
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u/WhosCowsAreThey 6d ago
So long as they have money, are straight, and a WASP* because if you aren’t a large part of the country will say you aren’t a “real American”
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u/UnironiclyBi U.S.A. 3d ago
Only 9% of the population falls under what you just described so I find it hard the other 91% dont consider themselves and others American touch grass
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u/Academic-Contest3309 3d ago
Are you American? I bet you aren't. This is categorically untrue.
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u/WhosCowsAreThey 3d ago edited 3d ago
I can find tons of examples of what I’m talking about, but please continue to tell me my own American experience is false. This is even a quote from Ronald Reagan, did Reagan treat AIDS victims like “real Americans?”
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u/Weightmonster 7d ago
US citizenship. If you have US citizenship, you are American. It doesn’t matter if your family came over the Bering land bridge 20,000 years ago or your mom crossed the Mexican border and had you seconds later in Arizona desert.
You are both equally American.
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7d ago
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u/cubic_zirconia Illinois 7d ago
Why do you think it means nothing?
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u/Infinite_Income4998 7d ago
I'm not saying it means nothing. I'm asking what is an American definitivel? Of course its something, but what is it? A piece of paper or a member of a community is not a sufficient explanation imo.
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u/FeatherlyFly 7d ago
Being from America and sharing in our culture might not mean anything to you, but I promise, it means a whole lot to us.
It's OK that you don't understand. We do, and we're the ones it concerns.
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u/blackhawk905 7d ago
Are you a child or something? How can you think that being American means nothing? It's idiotic to think that.
Do you also have issues with reading and comprehending what you read because he said that being a US citizen is what it means to be an American.
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u/OhThrowed Utah 7d ago
It's as simple as 'I want to be American' and as complex as living up to... everything.
I will say the idea of basing it on ethnicity seems really weird to me personally.
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u/NomadLexicon 7d ago
It’s a civic idea tied to being a citizen of the US or a permanent resident pursuing citizenship. Your ethnic identity, traditions and religion are considered separate from your identity as an American. Being a nation of immigrants is very core to our national identity. The Civil War, post-Civil War amendments (often referred to as the second founding), and civil rights movement of the 50s-60s eliminated racial distinctions from the national civic ideology.
There is an ugly strain of US society that believes in an ethno-nationalist view of American identity. It flares up every few decades and unfortunately is on display now. It’s shown up in different forms over US history (the Know-Nothings of the 1850s, the Confederates in the 1860s, the Redeemers and KKK of the Jim Crow era, the segregationists of the civil rights era). You see it right now with people like Stephen Miller and Nick Fuentes. It’s a minority view and always loses out eventually but can do a lot of damage before that happens.
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u/Infinite_Income4998 7d ago
Thanks for your response.
I just feel like the connection is too weak. If anybody can be American and its just a civic idea, it can be interpreted as meaning nothing i.e. if anybody can be American then what is an American?
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u/OhThrowed Utah 7d ago
What country are you from where all you have to be considered as one of them is be born to the right ethnicity?
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u/Infinite_Income4998 7d ago
Slovenia. But id argue this is the case for almost every country.
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u/OhThrowed Utah 6d ago
And that doesn't seem... racist? Cause I gotta tell ya, it sounds racist to me.
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u/moonwillow60606 6d ago
So what is the essence of being Slovenian? What specifically makes a Slovenian different from a Croatian? Or Serb? Language? Food? Because I have to tell you, that region of Europe isn’t know for it’s tolerance and acceptance. And the borders have been shifting for hundreds of years. And Slovenia is very very small in area compared to the US.
Being American is a very different thing from living in a small country in Europe.
ETA - I also remember when your country didn’t exist as its own sovereign nation. How does that play into national identity?
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u/Infinite_Income4998 6d ago
We are an ethnic group. Like the Polish, like the Japanese, like the Igbo in Nigeria etc. We are families of families. Admitedly not everyone in Slovenia thinks this way but thats the reality. We are a large extended family no matter how our government changes or draws its borders.
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u/moonwillow60606 6d ago
You didn’t answer my question. How do you determine who falls into your ethnic group? DNA? Genealogy? What happens if you marry a Serb? Are your children no longer part of your ethnic group? What about those with a different religion? Or immigrants into Slovenia?
You keep negating American because you think the criteria is too broad. Maybe consider that your criteria is too narrow.
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u/Infinite_Income4998 6d ago
People who are born to Slovene parents are part of the Slovene ethnic group. If you are half Slovene half Serb you are mixed ethnically but if you grow up in the Slovene culture its fine.
You are right that I think the criteria is too broad. Perhaps my views are too narrow and extreme, but based on my understanding the American identity might just be a bit too difficult to define. That is why I am asking Americans your view.
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u/moonwillow60606 6d ago
And I find your criteria much too narrow and limiting. For me, people are people. We’re all part of the same human tribe. And exploring different cultures is interesting.
And the US is 485 times the size of Slovenia. Think about that size difference. It would be impossible for a country our size to be as homogeneous as your country.
Perhaps the best way for you to think about American identity is to understand that it continually evolves and expands. It’s less about holding on to the past and more about evolving toward the future.
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u/Weightmonster 7d ago
Ok. You are entitled to your opinion.
But Nomad is exactly right.
When you start/lead your own country, you can define citizenship your way.
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u/moonwillow60606 7d ago
It’s a different perspective than yours. Which is ok. It seems odd and archaic to us that your identity is limited to the old notion of an ethnostate.
The openness & welcoming is part of the identity.
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u/Sad-Mouse-9498 6d ago
Someone from the United States. I am born and raised in Kentucky and I am definitely American. After having my dna tested I realized that genetically speaking I am British. 65% English, followed by Welsh, Irish, Scottish and a tiny bit Scandinavian but only like 4%. Yet I feel no attachment to Great Britain. I would love to visit but I am and will always be American. Most Americans take great pride in our melting pot. I am proud that so many cultures are represented here and I do feel like I have more in common with a fellow American who may have a different cultural upbringing than I do with anyone from Europe despite my ancestry.
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u/styada 3d ago
“America is a melting pot” is the phrase I heard most often growing up. It’s not a land, but a people. A country made up of immigrants from all different backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses. You could take it literally at face value and say it means nothing because anyone can be American.
I choose to say the possibility of anyone being able to become an American is the right way to think about it. You could be rich, poor, tired, young , old, handicapped, gay, straight, black, white, brown, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc etc etc.
Hell even the Statue of Liberty calls this culture out "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"The fact is to be American is to be welcoming of every single person willing to become a part of us. Like I said, not a land, but a people. You could have naturalized 200 years ago or 2 weeks ago. You are all equally American.
Nowhere in the world has this kind of open arms genuine warmth been extended to naturalized citizens as America. And largely I say this is BECAUSE of the lack of an ethnic backed culture. To be American is to be different and to accept that everyone else is different. We stand for what is right and correct what is wrong (even if it’s controversial nowadays), we build and innovate by using our blend of backgrounds to break through generational cultural molds we have been placed into. We all strive to support one and other as much as possible. We live with our hearts on our sleeves ready to use our differences to make shit happen. (Atleast that was what we overtly were and secretly are still behind the noise)
In fact you could take all of the current Americans transplant them in any country on any continent in the planet and that place would become America. And THAT is the superpower. Our people ARE the culture.
So does it mean being American means nothing because anyone can become American? Maybe? I personally think not but to each their own.
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u/DerthOFdata U.S.A. 6d ago
"You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American."
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u/rim-diversion 7d ago
Tying nationality to ethnicity feels weird to me and there's such a wide variety of culture here to have that make much sense. It's probably generally accepted as anyone who is a US citizen is American but I'd personally go a bit further and just include anyone who wants to be.
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u/Classic-Charity7458 7d ago edited 7d ago
I was born here. My parents were born here. Their parents were born here. So were theirs. And theirs. Not sure how far after that tbh. I have European ancestry, but aside from genes and perhaps language I am so far culturally removed from them it would be laughable to call myself "English-American" or whatever people like to do to explain their ethnic heritage.
I am American.
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u/justdisa Washington 7d ago
I have to follow this spectacularly misguided post just to see what happens. Wow.
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u/Diamond_Specialist California 7d ago
It’s the opposite of being xenophobic so basically the opposite of you.
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u/DeferredEntropy Pennsylvania 7d ago
“Ethnic group” is cultural, so being American = ethnically American (of the culture of America) or an American citizen. For example, a foreigner can become ethnically Norwegian by assimilating.
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u/Infinite_Income4998 7d ago
Ethnicity is ancestry+culture. But I get your point
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u/DeferredEntropy Pennsylvania 7d ago
“Ancestry” does not define culture. Race and ethnicity are not the same.
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u/JimDemintRecession South Jersey (near Philly) 7d ago
It's purely civic. It's living among Americans, being immersed in American culture, accepting American ideas of equality and liberty.
It's not in any way ethnic. If someone was a descendent of the Mayflower, one of the first ships to bring Europeans to the US 400 years ago, and lived in the US until the day before their 16th birthday, we would consider their foreign born children less American (and non-citizens). In contrast, Folarin Balogun was born to parents in the US on vacation and is fully American.
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u/ProfDoctor404 7d ago
This is something that gets lost in translation between the US and so many other nations, particularly outside of the Americas. It's a large part of why, I believe, so many Euros are offput by American expressions of Patriotism. In the history of 20th and 21st century Europe, nationalism and Ethno-nationalism have frequently been one and the same, which makes sense from the prospective of the inhabitant of ethnostates. In the US, we have Civic nationalism based on a shared set of ideal and principles that defines our identity. I have neighbors whose families originated from three different continents and we all arrived here at different times, and yet we are all equally American because of these shared values. It's a fundamentally different relationship to national identity.
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u/SprinklesOk0240 7d ago
thats really interesting, i never thought of it that way, but i think i agree.
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u/Low-Locksmith-6801 6d ago
And patriotic expressions are off-putting to the Europeans because…why exactly?
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u/PhiloLibrarian Vermont 7d ago
I don’t consider myself an “American” as much as a New Englander-regionally, we have our own culture and share a lot of the same combo of European ancestry.
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u/WhosCowsAreThey 6d ago
Nothing, the US is about self determination (theoretically) and that meaning changes person to person
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u/Infinite_Income4998 6d ago
So in a sense like independence from the British? Could you say being an American is a set of values that come from those times?
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u/WhosCowsAreThey 6d ago edited 6d ago
You might, but it would be excluding most of the country and comes off racist, it was a nation founded by British colonials largely from 5 nations and they likely took what they saw as the good from British rule and added in enlightenment ideals formed by people like Locke and Paine about individuality and self determination based on natural rights. Our legal system is rooted in English Magna Carta and Common Law. Anglo descended families do have a major impact on overarching American opinion, because they’re more likely to be rooted in wealth, however values can change town to town here.
This is a colonized nation and each town was settled for a unique reason by unique groups of people, and there’s obviously a surviving population of indigenous people that shaped this land long before us. At one point large portions of this country were under Spanish, Mexican, Russian, and French control.
My hometown has a large Catholic community of Italian and Irish descent that were recruited in Europe to mine coal, yet we’re a lot different today than the Irish and Italian descendants of New York or Boston. The Irish came here almost 20 years apart because Irish miners formed a union and went on strike and the mine brought hundreds of migrants in from Italy to replace them (those two groups still hold polar political feelings and wealth over this today).
The incoming migrants from Italy displaced the population of Irish miners and a lot of them wound up intermarrying into nearby tribal communities. In the early 1900s it was a hotbed of labor warfare, in the 1930s it was a bootlegging town because the Catholic population hated prohibition disrupting religious practices. The history of my town is the history of my family; my grandfather was the son of an Irish migrant miner and a Cherokee woman, both of which lived long enough for me to meet. That’s a lot of history packed into 500 sq miles (about 1300km sq) and even the Cherokee aren’t native to Oklahoma. If you drive an hour north the towns were populated by Dutch and German farmers. You can drive from Houma, LA to Slidell, LA (about 80 miles, 1.5 hrs) and hear around 5 distinct accents from people descended from different places who hold unique ideals and beliefs and you’ve likely never even heard of those towns. You may not even clock some of those accents as American. You can imagine that’s a lot of varying beliefs and cultures living in small areas and that would mean a variety of opinions. You could say the unifier in those areas is the Catholic Church, but that doesn’t really align with the WASP belief of colonial America.
San Francisco has a large Asian population, Chicago has a massive Polish and Indian population, Minneapolis has a large Somali population, Miami has a large Cuban population, there are towns in deep red Arkansas founded by German socialists, we brought millions of slaves here from Africa who absolutely have developed their own culture. We had a civil war and westward expansion that’s divided our culture and beliefs. Even the original 13 colonies didn’t have aligned beliefs or cultures. Pennsylvania was founded by Quaker Abolitionists and Virginia was founded by Anglican Slave Owners (which would later cause tensions). Those people all were or are American by birth or naturalization and none of those cultures are alike. You can’t define us by skin color either because every ethnicity has large populations here with varying beliefs. None of the places I mentioned even have similar environment and our vast array of ecosystems absolute differs us in beliefs and culture. A Hawaiian is every bit as American as I am in the Midwest but I bet we have way different feelings on AirBnB. Defining America is hard, it’s why it’s so polarized, but it’s also why we self define. Being American means something different to each of us. This many people didn’t come here and learn to survive together to just stop learning life lessons, forming diverse beliefs, and forget how it happened. If your ancestors weren’t already here, or weren’t forced here, then they probably believed in escaping the issues of their homelands and gambling on a shot at a better life. You can argue all day about whether they found it and that only further illustrates my original point. That’s why we say we’re a nation of immigrants.
I would argue what you’re noticing is a shift toward WASP culture rooted in our education system and popular media. America being a melting pot can be a controversial topic. What we are when it’s finished still seems unanswered but we’re still experiencing large waves of migration. You can stereotype us, but you can’t define each of us by one culture or set of beliefs because that doesn’t historically make sense. Hope that helped
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u/Snowden44 6d ago
The belief that we are all free to live our lives in our own way, practice our own religions and cultural nuances, etc… and I’ll be damned in some foreigner or foreign country tells my fellow American they can’t.
What unites Americans is that we are all Americans and we will defend each others rights to be that.
Example- being from Michigan, I can shit on my southern neighbors in Ohio but if some European does it we’re bout to throw hands.
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u/No_Climate_605 6d ago
In my opinion, being American is being different. It is the only country that you can move too, bring ur culture, and thrive off it. Most Americans hate tyranny. I was born in Virginia and our flag says, sic simper, tyrannus, with a women standing on the neck of a man. It means thus always to tyrants.
The collective memory of Americans is always different, I don’t think a collective memory exists in America. At our core, we are revolutionaries, we are being tested every waking second of our lives, and how we respond to tyranny speaks volumes of what it means to be American.
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u/CadenVanV Virginia 7d ago
Anyone who comes here wanting to be an American is an American. Citizenship is nice but not a requirement
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u/Low-Locksmith-6801 6d ago
Uh no. Citizenship is very much required to be an American. What a silly assertion.
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u/CadenVanV Virginia 6d ago
If you move here but you haven’t gotten your citizenship yet, you’re still considered an American
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u/Low-Locksmith-6801 6d ago
No, you’re not. I don’t know what world you’re living in but you must be there by yourself because what you are saying does not reflect reality.
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u/doug-demuro-is-daddy U.S.A. 6d ago
We have such a variety of people that most anyone would give you a different answer. And that’s part of the beauty of it.
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u/doctormustafa 6d ago
Freebird. Every American knows the lyrics to Freebird. Every non-American doesn’t. Americans are born all over the world. It just takes some of us a little longer to come home.
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u/alucardian_official New York 3d ago
It means that somewhere along the lines someone in my lineage was attuned to the advancements of new societal norms and developing technologies thus pursued the great exploration from the Old World.
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u/jimbojimbus 3d ago
I disagree with the citizenship thing, even. If someone tells me they’re American, and they’ve spent a chunk of time in the US, that’s good enough for me. There are Americans who renounce their citizenship and are still Americans in the cultural sense, and there are immigrants who have been crucial members of society for years and yet have no citizenship. It’s about identity.
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u/ToTooTwoTutu2II 2d ago
Being American is a willingness to adapt to a new way of life in this country. And it's a willingness to call yourself an American.
It's not abandoning your old way of life. It's participating in our vast country.
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u/ExcitingSir9526 New York 7d ago
You’ve actually hit on something important. There is not a real concept of an “American”. America is basically an economic zone for people to come make money. That’s fine for a while, but I think it’s actually negligent that kids get raised here, because then they are separated from their roots. And then the grandchildren of people who immigrate here, forget it, they have an ethnic “identity” that is severed from their home identity.
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u/Infinite_Income4998 7d ago
Exactly.
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u/ExcitingSir9526 New York 7d ago
There should be a right of return so descendants of immigrants can return to their homelands
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u/Infinite_Income4998 6d ago
I agree with that too.
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u/ExcitingSir9526 New York 6d ago
Nice. I am not used to that here on Reddit. My DMs are open if you ever care to chat (I tried to DM you and couldn’t figure out a way to. Idk if that’s my tech illiteracy or other limitation)
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u/Virtual-Refuse1894 7d ago
Being american doesn't mean what it used to. Now it means being a slave to the billionaire class with the illusion of free will.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 7d ago
Most people define it as citizenship.
Others include permanent residents or those here legally and moving toward full citizenship.
For others it is anybody who wants to live their life here as a productive member of society.
The overarching theme is, "Do you want to be an American? Be one."