Do Americans Need a Common Identity?
America is essentially a "melting pot" or "fruit salad" of many different cultures, peoples and backgrounds. While we all strive to be one, it's difficult to classify ourselves as a single body of traditions, races or even origins. I believe that Americans don't need a common identity because it is in our nature to be our own person, to stick to our values and to keep our heritage strong. America doesn't have something to look to in order to become one. We are always looking back on the differences, trying to fit the pieces together but never succeeding. This is how the country works - always changing and adapting to new ideas and heritages to become better and more diverse than before. With so many differences mixed together, it's nearly impossible to create a common ground.
We can't always expect everyone to conform to the ideal American way of life. Truth is, there really isn't a set way of living here. If we expect everyone to "be American" in order to achieve a common identity, I think we would end up losing so much diversity. Instead, we choose to live in harmony with those who differ from us. We "agree to respect the social manyness rather than by pledging allegiance to the 'one indivisible' republic," as stated by Michael Walzer in Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Race and Ethnicity: 8th Edition. Some people, like my parents' friends from India and Pakistan, still dress and have parties like they would if they were in their home countries. They don't want their children to lose sight of where they came from. Each person that comes to America wants to be their own person and to keep their daily values. People shouldn't have to change to be something that they're not. America is a place where you can go and still be who you were in your country of origin without feeling threatened. This helps the point of the "hyphen" that Walzer refers to...it's essentially an addition sign. You can be French-American, German-American, Australian-American, Russian-American, etc. but still be French, German, Australian or Russian. "Neither the first nor the second name is dominant; here the hyphen works more like a sign of equality." People have a choice of what they want to be when they come to America. Floating to either side of this hyphen is a choice and it is up to the people on whether or not they want to be classified as such. Walzer argues that "American citizenship is indeed anonymous, for it doesn't require a full commitment to American...nationality." This then makes tacking down the so-called "identity" of America hard because you would have to classify people who're from all different times and places and then be able to pin them to one general statement.
I think that cultures can have different identities while countries shouldn't. To me, an identity is something that you inherit when you're born. It is what you are, essentially, and it cannot be taken away from you. If you leave where you come from, you still carry it with you, for you are still the same person coming from the same place. Walzer writes "...America is not a jealous nation...it is different from most others." This is true. In America, you find so many people that carry on their lives in the same fashion they would if they were in their home country. There is no rule here to be something you're not, to fall under a certain identity. Americans ourselves don't even have a true common identity. We have, rather, a "more complicated existence."
