Lincoln, Nebraska Journal Star

What is America?

Out of many views of America, one national identity arises.
BY ERIN ANDERSEN | GZO

July 2, 2006

Saida Dak smiles. Her eyes well with tears. “I am American,” she says, new words for this immigrant woman.

Eleven years after coming to the United States as a Sudanese refugee, raising 12 children and working two jobs as the sole supporter of her family, Dak mastered the English language, learned American history and proved herself worthy of citizenship.

On June 3 she and her 23-year-old daughter Nyajake William Nyuon were among 58 people sworn in as naturalized citizens in a ceremony in Columbus.

“I am proud to be an American citizen,” she said. “Now that I am American citizen I have all the rights Americans have. … I can get an American passport. I can vote.

“I know I have a home.”

American. That one word evokes tremendous feelings — pride, duty, responsibility from its citizens; frustration, anger and hatred from its enemies.

Americans tend to see themselves and their country as exceptionally good, divinely inspired to bring freedom to the rest of the world, said David Forsythe, professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

American exceptionalism has been a core value since the country’s founding, he said. It defines us. It directs us.

“It’s belief in the myth of manifest destiny,” Forsythe said. “It is belief in the myth that we are destined to be good.”

It was our destiny to expand from 13 colonies to 50 states. It was our destiny to be a great nation. It was our destiny to save the world from two world wars. It was our destiny to take the lead for freedom and democracy in the cold war. Today, President George Bush uses it to explain the war with Iraq.

“We are divinely inspired to bring freedom to Iraq and the rest of the world,” Forsythe said.

“This divinely blessed destiny is the core of American nationalism whether you were born in the U.S. or Mexico City,” he said.

Because this value is so deeply rooted, Americans often are genuinely shocked when others in the world see us in a negative light, Forsythe said.

Critics view it as American arrogance. We think we know what is best for the world. We believe so strongly in our own government system that we do not allow the rulings of international courts to dictate how we operate.

But for Americans it is the root of our identity as Americans — an emotional identity that is stronger in the United States than in most other countries of the world, said Jeremy Straughn, associate professor of sociology at Purdue University.

Americans are considered unusually patriotic and unusually strong in their identification with their country, Straughn said in a telephone interview from his Indiana office.

Last fall he tested that idea. Working with Purdue University’s Social Research Institute, a 120-question telephone survey asked 1,500 adult U.S. citizens what it means to be American.

Ninety-seven percent of those interviewed said they were proud to be an American.

More than 96 percent said being an American is an important part of who they are, and nearly 92 percent said they consider themselves to be “an American first and foremost.”

In other countries, pride of identification is usually in the 80 to 85 percent range, Straughn said.

In America, “American identity is almost like a religion,” he said.

And if you are an American by choice, rather than birth, your identification is even stronger, the researcher said.

What is an American?

It is a loaded question. A question with no clear right answer, and one that can elicit strong, politically fueled responses.

Perhaps that’s why when we posed this question to readers both in the Lincoln Journal Star and online, we received only two responses — and one asked to remain anonymous.

Being a true American is not directly related to being a Republican, Democrat or Independent. Nor is it tied to conservative, liberal or middle-of-the-road leanings.

It has nothing to do with those convictions — and everything to do with them.

Unlike many other countries where blood and birth define citizenship, America is a nation of immigrants — a nation of people from different cultures, different countries, speaking different languages, praying to different gods.

And so those traits cannot be used to define Americans. Instead, Americans are defined by their faithfulness to the country and its ideals.

“If you pledge allegiance to the United States, if you accept the Constitution, if you accept the Bill of Rights … you can be American,” Forsythe said.

Said Straughn, “The United States is one of the few countries where you can be an American — a genuine American — just by accepting the ideals the country is founded on and by being a citizen.”

But is that really true?

That’s what Straughn attempted to find out in his survey.

His findings?

“It depends on how you look at it,” he said.

Americans embrace the ideal that its citizens represent all ethnicities, all religions and a vast variety of ideas.

By contrast, back in the 1920s, the view of a real American included someone who was white and a Protestant Christian.

“Americans today do not see those as major factors,” Straughn said. In fact, 70 percent said it was not important to have an ancestor from Europe and 57 percent said it was not important to be Christian — a radical change from 80-90 years ago, he said.

“On the other hand, if you look at it from the point of view that this is a country where anything goes and you can be an American just by being basically present — that clearly is not the case,” Straughn said.

Today, real Americans are defined by their behaviors — embracing the culture and speaking English (90 percent).
Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed said true Americans are willing to serve in the military, and 76 percent said real Americans have good educations and training.

Americans see the country as defined by its ideals and philosophies — ideals and philosophies that can change over time.

What is America?

“America is a nation of ideas,” said Clayton Naff, executive director of the Lincoln Literacy Council. “We are not a tribe. We are not ‘folk.’ We are people who form a nation because we agree on common principles.”

It is a nation where “government derives its legitimacy through the people,” he said.

“Most other leaders claim it, but in America the principle is they lead with the consent of the people.

“It’s a brilliant idea. And it is still the fundamental idea that makes us a nation,” he said. “Today, most of us abbreviate that idea to one word: freedom.”

America is “open,” “full of opportunities,” and “diverse,” said Zainab Al-Baaj, an Iraqi refugee who became a naturalized citizen in 2001.

“(It’s) a land of freedom,” she said. “You are free to go from state to state and nobody will ask for your papers. You can be friends with police and the government.”

You can dress how you wish. Say what you think. Do what you want (within the law) and not fear for your life, not fear that someone will report you, not fear you will disappear, she said.

Fear — it’s what Saida Dak fled after 13 years in a Kenyan refugee camp.

Her husband, William Nyuon Bany, was a leader in the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement.

In late 1995, Dak, her 11 children and her young nephew came to the United States and lived in San Diego. Bany was scheduled to join them a few months later, but weeks before his scheduled departure he was shot and killed by Sudanese military forces.

Dak learned of his death while watching CNN.

She and the children lived in a two-bedroom apartment in San Diego for two years. Then they moved to Minnesota, where Dak landed an $11 an hour job at IBM. Four years later, layoffs brought her to Omaha, where she held two jobs to support her family.

As much as she wanted to learn English and become a citizen, her work and raising 12 children took all of her time. In 2004, she moved to Lincoln and turned to the Lincoln Literacy Council for classes to become a citizen.

She learned the language. Each night she would study the 100 possible questions for her citizenship exam. She listened to educational tapes and had Nyajake quiz her.

“It is so hard to be refugee,” Dak said. She lived with constant fear that she would be sent back.

“If you are American citizen you have the right to vote, get a good job, be an American,” Dak said.

With citizenship comes responsibility to your country and people — whether you always agree with them or not.

In his American identity survey, Straughn found nearly 88 percent of adults said Americans have a duty to pay their taxes in full, even if they disagree with how the money is used. Eighty-nine percent believe their vote does make a difference. And nearly 84 percent believe Americans have a duty to criticize their country when it doesn’t live up to its democratic ideals.

“America is the ultimate destination,” said Cathy Wilken in an e-mail to the Lincoln Journal Star.

Her grandmother came to America from Odessa, Russia, in 1902.

“America to them meant safety, freedom and a new way of life, free from oppression,” Wilken said.

Today, America holds that same promise, she said.

“People die horrific deaths trying to reach our border. Barbed wire and walls will not keep them out,” she wrote.

While immigration must be controlled and measures taken to ensure those coming to America are friend and not foe, Wilken said the U.S. “should never entertain the idea that we should stop them completely.”

Straughn’s survey indicates Wilken’s feelings are in line with those of the majority of Americans. Eighty-six percent of those surveyed said immigrants make the United States more open to new ideas and cultures, and 85 percent said it is better for this country if different racial and ethnic groups adapt and blend into the larger society.

Of those surveyed, 75 percent said immigrants are generally good for the U.S. economy — although nearly 47 percent said immigrants take jobs away from people who were born here.

“Living in the United States means there’s room enough for everyone to stretch out, grow and soar,” Wilken said. “But there is not room for selfishness, ignorance or hatred.

“In the America I love, all are free to be who they are, to love and marry who they choose regardless of sex, race or religion. In my America, freedoms are not trod upon under the guise of ‘protection from terrorism.’ In my America, the sick and dying are cared for, the innocent are protected, the homeless are sheltered, the hungry are fed and hopeless are given hope,” Wilken wrote in her e-mail.

The United States is a nation bound together by basic principles of freedom, responsibility, duty and patriotism.

“For me, the civic responsibilities and civil liberties that we enjoy as Americans are the most precious aspect of being an American,” Naff said.

“Freedom of expression and freedom of conscience are such precious liberties that I try to defend them as well as exercise them,” he said.

“It troubles me these days that when the nation is under threat people are willing to trade those liberties as if they only apply in peace time. I don’t think that is what America is about. I don’t think it is about part-time liberty or part-time justice. I think it is plenty strong enough to come through any sort of threat with all of its principles intact.”

Forsythe and Straughn agreed. Regardless of current debates over immigration, official languages and countering terrorism, much of the divide is political, and not fundamental, Straughn said.

Debates like those going on today have occurred in the past.

“It’s perfectly normal and always there in American history,” Forsythe said.

But ultimately, America’s fundamental principles remain, they said.