First off, I’m not an American citizen.
I’ve lived in this country for four years as a college student. I’ve had extensive classes on American history and I’ve read the constitution and its 33 amendments. I studied U. S. politics, and in addition to that, I’ve also had a lot of exposure to many Americans, since it is the world’s third largest population (behind India and China). I may be an outsider, but I think I'm a pretty credible opinionated person.
I’ll admit I was very surprised when I experienced patriotism firsthand. The unity in this country is quite evident. In these 50 states are people of all races, religions and cultures. The American identity is, as a matter of fact, actually a political identity due to the extensive cultural quilt that makes this country so fascinating.
However, I’ve definitely had my share of ignorant, bigoted people who think that hate speech is the same as free speech. They don’t seem to be able to grasp the true definition of “America,” as seen in political rallies where people create an illusion of “us versus them,” screaming about “taking America back.”
Like what does that even mean?
America is still America, and I can give you all the facts you could ever ask for. Here are a few false claims made by few Americans who probably need a history lesson on their own country. America is and always will be great. The problem is that some of its own citizens don’t realize that it’s already great because of its multicultural identity.
Here are the top three misunderstandings about Americans that Americans themselves must also review.
1. English is not America’s official language.
There is no written evidence stating any official language in the United States. Although English is the most commonly spoken language, Spanish is America’s second most commonly spoken language with almost 40 million speakers nationwide. Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, French, German, Korean, Arabic, Russian and Italian are among the other 10 most popular languages in this country.
2. America is not a Christian nation.
OK, but seriously it’s in the First Amendment. It states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The first settlers in the United States were Puritans who fled England after feeling that their religious beliefs were being threatened. This means that they were trying to find a piece of land that would allow them to practice their religion freely. Just because a religion in America isn’t Christianity doesn’t mean it’s un-American. As a matter of fact, Muslims have been in America since 1528.
3. You’re not American if you’re not white.
Yeah, people still think this. It confuses me because we all know that America is a nation of immigrants. That means no one is actually native to this land except for the Native Americans (duh). There are people of European, Latino, African, Asian and Middle Eastern ancestry everywhere you turn. Remember when a first generation American of Indian descent won the Miss America pageant and everyone freaked out? Well, she was just as American as the rest of you are.
The pattern, in case you haven’t noticed, is that many Americans are led to believe that any majority group within a category automatically determines the American culture. However, it is pretty evident that this country has a heavy foundation of multiculturalism that no American is exactly alike in cultural identity. This is why Americans are in fact a political identity due to its deep roots with the constitution and the right to freedom.
So yeah, you can totally use your free speech to shame this article even though I'm telling nothing but the truth, or maybe you can reevaluate your views and realize that multiculturalism is the reason that this country is so great, and that there’s no actual need for America to be “made great again.” Besides social and economic reform, but that’s not what this article was about.
