What It Means To Be An American

What does it mean to be an American today? Or rather, what does being an American entail? Does that pertain to a certain individual’s perspective? Or is Americanism defined through a collective consciousness projected around the world? Over the course of time, Americans have gone through various embodiments of who they are, without loosing the essence of what they represent. In the 1800’s, America was known to be the state of slaveholders, a country represented by “whiteness” and “white elites.” In 1965, African Americans were allowed the right to vote. In 2004, the U.S State of Massachusetts allowed for same sex couples to be married. As of 2015, 43.3 million people in the United States are considered to be immigrants. Throughout the centuries,

First of all, an American is someone who serves our country. For example, In the essay, “Veteran’s Day: Never Forget Your Duty” by John McCain he defines America by talking about being prisoner of war and serving our country. To McCain to be an American is “Duty, honor, country …. Never forget those thousands of Americans who, with their courage, with their sacrifice and with their lives, made those words live for all of

How to be a good American means following the laws. By doing that it makes you an good citizen. You have to give back what you get for example; giving out your opinion and being able to have freedom. Being an good American means being able to speak your mind or anything really and being able in a way be a leader for people or even for yourselves. Just being a good citizen, being helpful around and be kind to people in need of help. Giving back or just give someone who needs our help when they need it the most.

What it means to be an American is that you have the freedom to vote freedom of speech. You have the liberty to be what you want in America no one chooses for you. Also have the liberty to work wherever you want not be someone 's slave. Being American means you don 't have to hide your religion, the color of your skin or your sex. You have the ability to speak what you want. There are so many good things about being American but there are some downsigns.

Being an American means a few things. Freedom, protecting the weak, loving your country, and being active in political affairs. The most important and also the most defining is freedom. Americans are free in both mind and body; able to think freely and, for the most part, act accordingly. Being an American means that almost anyone can run for government positions. Being an American means that if you don’t like the laws, you work to change them through politics. Being an American means dreaming bigger than reason, and working to fulfill that dream. Being an American also means that while you are free to disagree with America’s government and political figures, you realize that America is trying it’s best, and you respect that.

When you ask a non American “What does America mean to you?”, they will more often than not answer with hamburgers, obesity, NFL and Reality TV. That is okay because who doesn 't love hamburgers and football filled Sundays, who doesn 't love watching silly reality TV shows and who doesn 't love a cheat day every once in awhile? Those people are judging a book by its cover and fortunately for me… well my thoughts about America are quite different. When an individual asks me “What does America mean to you?”, I immediately think of three words, freedom, love and family. The most important right someone can have in this world is freedom and luckily for americans we have the luxury of freedom all the time. America has the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition, the freedoms I just listed are only a few that America are known for. Sadly for other countries, most of them do

In some of the pieces of literature like “I, Too, Sing America,” “America and I,” “The Bill of Rights,” and “Veterans Day: Never Forget Their Duty” the authors have different ideas of what it means to be American. They also express their ideas using different strategies: negation, classification, and function. With these ideas and strategies a more complex definition on what it means to be American was developed. Being an American means being patriotic, having freedoms, and believing in a dream of something amazing.

What is America all about? What is America defined as? America is more than just its geographical boundaries. To everyone in the world, America stands for something. People believe in America. America is the place that seems to give opportunities and equal changes to all. They have more freedom than others (but not total freedom). America is a united people working together. I believe America is a place where all people have a chance to succeed in life. I also believe that in America people have the freedom to stand up for their beliefs and fight for them.

Being an American is simply having equal rights, equal opportunities, freedom, and a safer, better life. There are countries that are so strict that if you are seen doing something you are not supposed to, you will be arrested and killed. That’s why we are so privileged to live in a country that allows us to do what we want to.

To be an American to me is not about your ethnicity, religion, or language you speak. It’s about your beliefs and what you add to this country. Americanism can be shown through many things throughout our community, and an important trait to an American citizen is that we respect everyone no matter their appearance. One of America’s traits is being a very

When a person hears or sees the word America, what do they think? America is a country that almost everyone in the world knows about because there are certain words and phrases that can be used to describe it. Some common terms are sports, equality, the melting pot, powerful, freedom, hard working, and some more. All of these words make up what is known as the American Identity. This American Identity has been built up over time by people’s actions and thoughts. Many advertisements, TV shows, pictures, movies that use the American Identity to draw attention. One such advertisement comes from Nike and is called the equality ad. This advertisement uses some of these identities to express their point and connect it to a larger Identity. The Nike Equality advertisement portrays the American Identity of equality by using famous figures, battling stereotypes, and connecting to the Declaration of Independence.

The actual definition of American is relating to, or characteristic of the United States or its inhabitants. Being proud of who you are and the place you live. Americans have defined themselves not by their racial, religious, and ethnic identity but by their common values and belief in individual freedom. An American says the Pledge of Allegiance and understands that voting is important to Democracy, individually Americans value freedom and are proud citizens, and the freedom of human right.

I believe that a good American should have integrity and authenticity and remain true to themselves. They should have self control and common sense so they can properly obey the law. Strength and bravery are essential in American because we need to work for our freedom. A good American should always put their best foot forward and show great effort in all they do. Love, Kindness, and tolerance are important qualities because we need peace among the nation. Selflessness and compassion are vital because they help improve the peace of the nation and help us bridge the gap between groups.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution assured that people born in The United States are American citizens and individual states cannot deprive them of their constitutional rights. It also assured that all citizens in all states enjoyed not only rights on the federal level, but on the state level, too. In 1866, when the 14th Amendment was ratified, the U.S. was in the midst of Reconstruction, particularly in the south. Because all African-American people freed from slavery, they needed land, housing, jobs, etc, and the Republicans wanted equality to be protected by the Constitution itself, which is where the 14th Amendment came into play. People were unhappy with the fact that President Johnson vetoed the proposal of the 14th Amendment at first. His argument was that federal protection of civil rights would lead to “centralization” of the government. He was also against giving African-Americans full citizenship. The 14th

What I think it means to American is that we are diverse and different than any other countries. Unlike other countries, this country is made up of a lot of races including; African American, White, Mexican,Hawaiian, asian, etc. alot of people are immigrants come Here illegal but married to stay in America and get Americanize or got a green card to be a U.S citzen. Many of them had low paying jobs in their home countries and worked their way up in society because they came to America to live the American dream.. In America, it is a democracy, not a dictatorship nor do we have have an overpowering government. Anyone can pick what job they want and how hard they want to work. a lot of white people say that immigrants are taking their jobs in