With the new president at helm, ready to serve, I was dawned with a question that puzzled me throughout the whole campaign to this day.
“What makes me an American?”
In 1997, I was born in Seattle, an American city. I spent my childhood in Seoul and moved back here in time for school. I learned English, learned what root beer was, made some friends, and one day I found myself an “American”. I fit in even though I was a little bit different and misshaped, and even though I creaked every time the society would turn its motor on the crevices of my machinery, I was still an “American.”
My blood ran red, and I sang the national anthem. Respect I gave, to the ones that fought and to the ones that still serve. I advocated so passionately for this country, but this country didn’t passionately fight for me. I’ve never been called an immigrant, but I’ve been called by many derogatory terms. It doesn’t take my right away as an American, but it takes my right away as a human. I’ve never been called an immigrant, but I know the people that have. They are human, and yet they aren’t recognized in this nation.
Millions of people have been asked to leave this country over the past year or so because they failed to answer the question, “What makes you American?” Refugees, immigrants, it really didn't matter anymore. Green cards were meaningless, Visas are good as none, because the real “Americans” wanted them out. Hijab were no longer religious but a sign of terror, an act against patriotism. Certain groups were ostracized, dumbed down, stereotyped, and perpetrated. Biased filled these nations, sinking this ship from both ends of the political spectrum. In this divisive nation, a crumbling ship of human morality, the centralized identification of America was becoming indefinite.
There will be country no more if the world sinks beneath the ocean and the world is devoured by corporate enterprises. Pollution doesn’t grow crops, hatred will not feed a soul, and fossil fuels do nothing but burn. Can you really look at this nation in the eye and say that this is really how you want it? Will this country stand to see another president being elected? Or will it crumble into pieces before it is broken by fracking of humanity.
On election day, riots rose across United States. On inauguration day, riots rose again. People, infuriated at something, destroying everything in their sight, many of whom claimed their opposing stance against prejudice and violence.
I am frustrated and angered, weak and lost. I see no humility in the voice of our elect, the man does not stand to protect my brothers. The most powerful seat in this nation he sits, yet he contradicts the most powerful seat in the world. People are okay with that. They fight over what Americans should look like and yet they fail to recognize that there is none. It’s far too down the road to say that this is a White, Black, Blue, or Red nation. We are killing off people trying to protect our rights. We forgot to give people a second chance or even one chance. We simply throw rocks at other people claiming their struck immoralities.
So then let me ask this country a question, “What makes anyone an ‘American’?”
Strange, because for a decade I lived in the United States, I never asked myself that question. Every time I would cross a border to go to another country, I would show TSA my blue, American passport, but I never wondered why that was. Now, I feel my identity as an American is threatened. Do I have the right to call myself an American despite my Asian heritage and my imperfect pronunciations?
The truth is, I (we) fight for love. Although that sounds so oxymoronic, I stand for the people of this nation. I stand for what this nation once stood for and will develop into. Traditions are broken as people began to change. We constantly amend our rules and improve to protect and thrive. America is a land of opportunities, but not for all. Millions of minorities suffer from racial prejudice, sexual discrimination, hegemonic oppression, and so we must change. America is a land of freedom, but not all are free. Cycles of poverty and crime, mass incarcerations, standardized education, religious persecutions continue, and so we must change. America was once great and it’s not anymore, so we must change.
