I believe that American is an idea, not an ethnicity as some people like to use it. My own blood is half Colombian and half Italian. Both cultures feel equally alien even though I speak spanish and have travelled to colombia and spent much of my childhood with my italian grandmother. I choose to be whatever I like.
I don't use labels for a couple reasons. I think people should be identified as a person first and then as a person of certain origin, not the other way around. Secondly, I'm not aware of a label that accurately describes what I consider myself. Personally, I'd prefer just to be nothing. I just don't care.
When filling out some sort of application I always choose 'other' when they ask about ethnicity. This is again because I have no clue what else to put down. Checking the hispanic box would be equally inaccurate as checking the european box since I am half of each. To be technical, I have more european blood in me than indigenous colombian blood since there is a good deal of spaniard blood a few generations back... but do you see what I'm saying here?
I'm just a person. I choose what groups I want to mix and fit in with and the country or ethnicity is of no concearn. I understand american culture from growing up here but I dont fit into it, or the cultures of my heritage by any means. It is for the most part all equally alien.
In the end I'd rather just be a person and I think that is the idea behind being american, but it seems this has gotten lost along the way somewhere amongts the endless cornfields and warm apple pie. American means too many things right now for people to wholely subscribe to the idea. Either way, in my opinion it should just mean "people." Nothing more, nothing less.
I have to agree with the bit about people immigrating here and then not assimilating. This is something I really hate, since to me these people come here and reap the benefits of the assimilation of other before them but refuse to give anything back to the whole system by themselves assimilating into the culture. I realize cultural mixing is difficult for many people, but honestly when you immigrate to another country the last thing you should expect it to be is easy. Either way, for the people who make it here from third world countries this is understandably the very last thing on their minds. Consider Maslow's Triangle. My colombian grandmother has lived here for at least 30 years and doesn't speak a bit of english. She first lived in New York and now Miami. She lives only in the parts of town that are run by other hispanic or southamerican people. This has always irked me to no limit.
This is also the reason I dislike mecha on college campuses alot. For those who don't know its a student organization for chicano people, aka mexican american. I realize they can provide service and support but most of all it just becomes a mexican social club that works very strongly against the integration and assimilation of these people into mainstream society. I hate any organization that impedes the assimiliation of cultures here, because as it was stated before, different kinds of people living in close proximity equals problems. No point in making an arguement about it since its been proven historically time and again.
Many people will take a country that has a largely homogeneous population and compare its lack of grave societal problems to the united states' abundance of issues. Its a wholely unfair comparison since many of our societal quagmires have risen from the fact that people of different cultures and heritages do have difficulty coming together and working cooperatively and are forced to do so here. This is the reason I feel so strongly about assimilation as a positive process, not a negative one. When we can truly become one great homogeneous neo-ethnicity, I believe things will improve. Yes, older cultures will be dissolved and fade away, but such is the way of things. All things seem to come and go, and only because we have the knowledge and foresight of these things at work doesn't mean we should move to stop them.
On a lighter note, I love visiting different parts of LA where I cant read at least 85% of the signs on the street. Even though these are obviously centers of non assimilation I can't deny that the little anthropologist in me is giggling with glee to be here and there in these places. Touche with the little chinese bistros or that great ramen shop in little tokyo
Sorry for the length, but this is something I've thought of alot. Thanks for reading. Great subject btw
edited coz i am incapable of proofreading my own stuff.