How “American” IS America?
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICA!!
(Photo is not our photo it was found on google search engine)
In honor of the 4th, I wanted to do a special piece about the becoming of America, and as always, give you plenty of things to think about. What comes to mind when you hear, “How American is America?” That can mean a number of things really, but my first thought when I asked myself that question was the current political atmosphere and how skewed the idea of us ‘collectively’ being of mixed races, has become. When people hear about Americans abroad, they think “melting pot.” How and why has that idea changed in our own country? Politics always has a lot to do with it. I referred to America previously as a “mixed salad,” which I believe is more accurate especially given the political climate of today… Separate entities working together to make a whole “salad,” yet each specific entity being particular and unique on it’s own.
We should have a “whole” and collective America, but it seems somewhat bleak at this point with the rise of nationalist mentality and Neo-Nazis publicly running for even local office, it’s hard to see when the good will come. But it will come. Everything is a cycle as you will see within the article even the political situations going on right now have been around before. There will be better days, but for now, we need to make the best of everything and learn from the things that are happening now so history will be less likely to repeat itself.
Diversity; That’s very American in my opinion, and the fact that most Americans are proud to be American (that sentiment may change slightly with whomever is in office however), yet somewhere along the lines this idea of being proud to be American became more and more nationalist by certain peoples’ standards. I was inspired to go back and refresh my history after reading a beautiful article written about, “God Bless America.” I will include a link to the article at the end of my article for your entertainment. The skinny on the article is where it came from, and how it changed from it’s original meaning and is coerced by different political agendas and nationalists/Neo-Nazis/racists who basically boil it down to “All American means All White..”.
I’m all for being proud of your nation and your interests as a nation, but if you consider yourself a nationalist, by definition it means: Identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations…“The exclusion or detriment of interests of other nations” I am not privy to. I grew up in a very selfless environment, philanthropic, and with the tagline from my father, you are “Blessed to be a blessing” to others, he even has a facebook page called that lol.
To me this upbringing always meant to be kind to others, even those whom do you wrong, be forgiving, caring, always understanding, and it is far better to give than receive. So quite frankly, the ideals of nationalists, is the opposite of my upbringing to not care about others when we are an entire nation of “others,” and furthermore the word detriment means: Damage, Harm, or loss; and I definitely do not wish damage, harm, or loss upon others or their nations. Nationalism by definition is pretty extreme when you consider it being okay to inflict harm or damage to anyone or their interests. My mind goes to genocide, Hitler, and the post WWII’s term Neo-Nazism when I think of these extremes.
How did the previous American standards, which include diversity at it’s core, become to some, “All American, means All white…?” Or to “Make America Great Again,” means to push out diversity which the entire country Literally was built upon? It’s absurd to me for anyone to forget how America became America… But THAT my friends, IS the question…I know we all learn history in school, but how does one country and people, become that country and people? (Not meaning by battles over land, I mean it in another way). Has anyone asked themselves, “How did my country get its’ name? Who was the first to put my country on the map?” (Literally by cartography).
If you are from another country reading this, in school do they teach you in history that far back to know how your people came about as, “your people?” Not many people have an answer for that. I know we learn about our history, but that doesn’t necessarily mean back to the very beginning, because without proper records from back then, how can one really know the very beginning? I googled how did Germany become Germany, and the first records I came across started at 1815… I know other places like Italy and Greece have records that go further but still, the point of this is as they say, “History is written by the winners.” -Napoleon Bonaparte.
(Photo is not our photo it was found on google search engine)
I think it is important to brush up on your history every once in a while so when people do ask you things about your country when you travel (and they WILL), you have something intellectual to respond with. I feel absolutely compelled to educate people through language, culture, and travel, in hopes that everyone becomes better people to themselves and society, better world citizens, and knowledgeable about their own cultures and others.
By the way, out of curiosity I also googled, “How did Italy, get the name Italy,” and this was my finding from Abarim Publications…
Etymology of the name Italy
It’s not clear where the name Italia comes from, but the tribes of the southern peninsula sported emblems in the form of bulls (that would gore the wolf of Rome, according to classical writers), and the Latin word for calf, vitulus comes close enough to italia for scholars to comfortably suggest an etymologic link.
Why Augustus adopted the enemy name Italia as synonym for The Land Of Rome is another mystery, but here at Abarim Publications we surmise that that this was part of the whole death-rebirth theme with which August “resurrected” Rome from the dead, or cut the baby Empire from the womb of the dead maternal Republic (see our article on the name Caesar).
So as you can see, not even Italy really knows for certain where that name came about, it’s all conjecture. I hypothesize that for most nations which are older than America, that they will have a similar result. It is a very valid question to ask oneself here in America, how did we become America and Americans? Because it seems the people with the most issues with other races have forgotten, because it is impossible that they never learned about our origins because we ALL learn about the beginning, we are a young enough country to do so. Perhaps racists/Neo-Nazis do not in fact remember where we came from, thus leading them to outlandish and dangerous thinking and desires. Perhaps if enough educators perpetually ingrained in our heads that we have been diverse since the beginning and reiterate the importance of that as much as they ingrained WWII in our heads, maybe some wouldn’t have the idea that “All American only means ALL white…” Or maybe is it because they ingrained WWII in our heads that the other thinkers (the opposite of the people who think it was absolutely horrific) found some reason to justify their thinking?
Maybe communication is an issue. One of the best things I’ve learned in Europe, is how to be open to speak about the things we are taught not to speak about in America. I think we can learn from them in that aspect. Europeans are very frank, and open to the taboo such as speaking about: Religion, Politics; who you voted for, what you think about current policies or other leaders around the world, etc. As Americans, many times we lack the ability to communicate in this manner, which I think hinders our ability to communicate when it comes to hard topics to speak about even among our family and friends. People get offended or upset versus be able to have a productive conversation when the subject is sensitive. It is probably because we are country which started from a bunch of people who escaped religious persecution, thus we were started in a very conservative way, so I get it. But it doesn’t help us to be quiet nowadays. The other day I saw in the Philippines a church was speaking up, and asking for forgiveness for previously judging the LGBT community, and sent messages that they are loved.. It can be a beautiful thing to speak up.
(Photo is not our photo it was found on google search engine)
This all leads me up to the first time I was brazen enough to ask sensitive questions during my first Europe trip. I was still a “baby European,” so as insignificant as it may sound, it took some cajones to get to that first step of speaking up and asking those sensitive questions. I was in an overnight train from Amsterdam to Italy and there was a German teacher in the same sleeping car as mine. We said our hellos and we were speaking for quite some time about politics and the taboo things that is not normal to Americans, so I finally gained some courage to ask him something I considered sensitive. I said, “You are a teacher, so may I ask you something about your schooling?” He replied, “Sure, go ahead.” I didn’t know how to even ask my question so I came up with something like, “How exactly do you learn about WWII? In America we talk about Hitler, the holocaust, and WWII in some form literally every single year from 6th grade to high school pretty much, so I am curious about how people in Germany learn about it? Is it something that people don’t like to hear or talk about? Does it make you feel bad or uncomfortable when you are learning about these things?”
The way you phrase your questions are important, I was 19 so I tried the best I could to be considerate, yet specific. I also offered a piece of how our schooling was so he could understand where I’m coming from, and I asked in an educational seeking type of way. He thought for a minute and in a very demure and composed way, he responded with, “Well, we speak about it of course and learn about what happened and what Hitler did. It is important to know the past so we know where we came from so history doesn’t repeat itself. We are not proud of what happened, but we are also not those German people from back then, so we don’t necessarily take on the hardship of feeling terrible about it. After all, do you personally feel responsible or feel like you had anything to do with your American people having kept and endorsed slavery back then? Does it make you feel bad to be an American?”
I said, “Wow, I never thought of it that way. That’s a good way to put it.” He said, “Exactly, we all know the faults of our fathers are not our fault. But again, we don’t want history to repeat itself, so we definitely speak about it and the horrors and we probably feel the same way you do about the subject, but we move on after we speak about it, so it’s not as you learn about it every single year.” I found this all very interesting. I feel I was learning to be a better person/American in regards to learning to be more open and frank when asking questions and to not feel afraid to ask when I am seeking to understand people. It is a GOOD thing to want to understand people, and they get that. Never be afraid to ask questions.
Knowledge has a way of opening up your mind in different ways. This is one reason I love to travel, my mind is always expanding and leads me to think about sometimes the same subject in a different way, maybe after speaking to someone, seeing something, or experiencing something. It can have a lasting affect on you and, if you will, it can bring you up to different levels of life. I don’t know how else to say it, but it’s kind of like a video game; You pass different levels of life and open up “secret levels” when you get to know other cultures, it’s like you are excelling each time and gaining new skills along the way, powering up, and upping your game. The Game Of Life was not only a board game we used to play as children, it is a real thing.
Hitler had nothing to do with the slavery in America, but it got presented to me in a way that made me think about my own country and culture, so it was brilliant for him to put it that way because I could relate to my own question that I asked him. Danke schön! This type of learning happens all of the time when you travel, IF you let it. You need to be a seeker of truth and information however in order for information to be presented, how else will you learn if you don’t want to ask questions?
Let’s get to whom most Americans think discovered America. I do recall learning in American History where the name “America” came from (it’s coming up don’t worry!), and whom actually discovered it, but I didn’t think about it again until now. I thought, oh that’s right! Christopher Columbus wasn’t actually the first person in North America. The Genova born Italian was the first explorer to discover Central and South America (Even though he and everyone else thought it was India or Asia). He was exploring under King Ferdinand II: King of Aragon, and Queen Isabella I: Queen of Castile and Leon (All of which eventually became Spain). They were looking for a western route to India because after the expulsion of the moors it was deemed too difficult to go through the middle east. Below is his voyage map. As you can note, Columbus did not ever actually reach North America.
(Photo is not our photo it was found on google search engine)
“In fourteen ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” We all know this rhyme in America, but it is even for this that I am perpetually confused when Neo-Nazis/racists forget about the fact that Native Americans were here first. Do they in fact forget? Or maybe is it because they identify themselves as white, and the “founders” were white, although from other nations…? This is the only reasoning I can find in a convoluted way of thinking, but that STILL doesn’t support the fact that Americans also ALL learn that there were Native Americans on North America, FIRST. Furthermore, we were actually claimed in the name of the Spanish, who are not always with white skin, neither all Italians being white in skin color, they are sun people!
Why am I highlighting this ? Because it further supports the fact that our “founding people” were not necessarily white. There is some bad language/racist comments in this next segment about Miss American 2017 so skip it if your do not wish to see it, but these are some of the reasons I feel so compelled to educate people… How can one think those ways if they are in fact educated about how America came to be? I’m not speaking about opinions, everyone has their opinions even if others don’t agree with them, but if someone talks smack to a fellow American and says they aren’t American because they aren’t white or because they have an accent, that’s where I see the ignorance lies, those people need the most help.
(Photo is not our photo it was found on google search engine)
Miss New York Nina Davuluri, was crowned Miss America in 2017. She is an Indian-American, native to Syracuse, NY, yet some decided she wasn’t “American,” and expressed their opinions immediately after her win, on twitter. Some call her Arab, and she’s not even Arabic, it just baffles me. It pains me to post these hateful and ignorant things, but to educate, one must see all sides.
@MeredithRoanell “This is Miss America… not Miss Foreign Country”
@kathrynryan50 “shes like not even american and she won miss america”
@EJRBuckeye “Well they just picked a Muslim for Miss America. That must’ve made Obama happy. Maybe he had a vote”
@Granvil_Colt “And the Arab wins Miss America. Classic.”
@Not_MissAmerica “More like Miss Terrorist #MissAmerica“
@jakeamick5 “How the fuck does a foreigner win miss America? She is a Arab! #idiots“
@sarawhitton “this is America. not India”
@savannah_dale97 “Miss New York is an Indian.. With all do respect, this is America”
@wnfraser “@ABC2020 nice slap in the face to the people of 9-11 how pathetic #missamerica“
@SHANN___Wow “Miss America right now or miss Al Qaeda?”
@JPLman95 “Miss America? You mean Miss 7-11.”
@kalebistoocute “Man our president nor our new Miss America isn’t even American I’m sorry but Miss Kansas I salute you your the real American #MissAmerica“
@JTomes84 “Miss America is brought to by their sponsors PF Changs and 7-11.”
@_AudreyAnn “Miss America is a terrorist. Whatever. It’s fine.”
@Blayne_MkItRain “Congratulations Al-Qaeda. Our Miss America is one of you.”
@anthonytkr “#MissAmerica ummm wtf?! Have we forgotten 9/11?”
@LukeBrasili “9/11 was 4 days ago and she gets miss America?”
@ColtonSEvans “Egypt dancing? This is America. #MissAmerica“
@NateBerard “Asian or indian are you kiddin this is america omg”
@JAyres15 “I swear I’m not racist but this is America.”
My hopeful heart thinks that at least Some of those people could come to the understanding with patience and education, that she was in fact born in America and IS as American as any other white-descended American. To convince someone of anything like that however, it takes much effort, skill, patience, and understanding to understand WHY they think as they do… Only when you are able to understand why they think the way they do, can you present information to them in a way they can relate to. If you can’t understand their thinking, then nothing will get through. I’m smart enough to know an endless twitter or social media battle is not the way to get through to anyone, so don’t waste your time in that aspect. If you want to get through to someone, it will most likely be a face-to-face convo.
These next series of twitter photos contain vulgar language and racist comments, again if you wish not to read those types of things, you don’t have to, thus you have been warned. However, I advise that you educate yourselves on what is being said around our nation, so you have something productive to say to these people if you come across these things.
In 2013 there was an article titled, “Baseball Fans SUPER ANGRY Hispanic American Superstar Sang ‘God Bless America’ at All-Star Game.” Who came out to sing it?
(Photo is not our photo it was found on google search engine)
Marc Anthony! A Puerto Rican-American born in New York City, New York. He is 100% American born and raised. These racist and ignorant comments make me wonder why they didn’t care to actually google where he was from… Also maybe the lack of travel makes people not understand that not all Hispanics are from Mexico…
LOL! SIDE COMMENT: This guy made a point about Americas’ game having most players of a diverse ethnicity …Well Hello, if it’s “America’s game” and it is Known to be diverse…Doesn’t that tell you Something about America being Diverse!? Oy vey…
I could reach and make the argument that we were claimed first by Spain… so Technically we could all be Spanish right now if you want to think about the real “founding fathers” LOL
At least some commenting people had sense to say something productive. I don’t get into the battles online as I said, but I’m happy to see that some people at least mentioned he is from New York.
So now, I have two MAJOR points to make: The Discovery of North America and The Origins of “God Bless America.”
(Photo is not our photo it was found on google search engine)
I’m pleased to introduce you to another Italian born Spanish-explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. He was born in Florence of a wealthy family and actually worked for the most important family at the time, the Medicis. The Medici’s sent him to Cadiz, Spain, as a confidential agent to look into the Medici branch office whose managers and dealings were under suspicion. By 1495 the Crown of Castile broke their monopoly with Cristofo Colombo (Columbus’ name in Italian) thus making way for Vespucci’s voyages to the Americas.
(Photo is not our photo property it was found on google search engine)
In 1507, the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, along with another German cartographer, Matthias Ringmann, produced the first world map in which Waldseemüller named the new continent “America” after the feminine Latin version of Vespucci’s first name, which is Americus.
(Photo is not our photo property it was found on google search engine)
On your next trip to Washington, D.C., take a look at the original Waldseemüller Map at the Library of Congress! 🙂
Vespucci was credited as the first person to recognize North and South America as distinct continents. Prior to Vespucci’s discovery, explorers, including Columbus, had assumed that the New World was part of Asia.
(Photo is not our photo property it was found on google search engine)
The second MAJOR point I am compelled to make after all of those racial slurs about Marc Anthony after singing “God Bless America,” is the fact that GOD BLESS AMERICA WAS WRITTEN BY A RUSSIAN who immigrated to America! What would all of those haters think about that?! LOL! Albiet it was written after 25 years of living in America.
This article I found called: ‘God Bless America’: 100 Years of an Immigrant’s Anthems, is incredibly thorough and a great read. I will include a link to the article as I think it deserves a read, so you can find more interesting details about the origins of “God Bless America,” but for now I will do the best in summarizing what I believe are the main points in relation to my article. Thanks Sheryl Kaskowitz for that informative, and interesting article!
(Photo is not our photo property it was found on google search engine)
A 5 year old Israel Beilin, who later became Irving Berlin, immigrated to America with his family in 1893 after escaping religious persecution in Russia. After his desire to serve his adopted country during WWI, he was naturalized as an American citizen in February of 1918. He served as a private at Camp Upton in Yaphank, N.Y., by this time he was already a successful songwriter and was asked to write a soldier show as a fund-raiser. “God Bless America” was originally written as the finale for the revue, “Yip, Yip, Yaphank,” but Berlin decided not to include it, thus it was forgotten for 20 years until he rediscovered the song and provided a revised version to the radio star, Kate Smith.
Below is the original recording of “God Bless America” when it was first aired live on November 10, 1938. Berlin revised the song weekly up until the current version that is sang today.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=b1rKQReqJZg%3Fautoplay%3D0%26mute%3D0%26controls%3D1%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.atasteoflanguage.com%26playsinline%3D1%26showinfo%3D0%26rel%3D0%26iv_load_policy%3D3%26modestbranding%3D1%26enablejsapi%3D1%26widgetid%3D1
(Photo is not my photo it was found on google search engine)
Here are important excerpts written by Kaskowitz, relating to my article and you will see how it is relevant to today, even 100 years after it was written. Happy Birthday!
“Berlin said he first heard the title phrase from his mother, who frequently spoke the words with an emotion he later said “was almost exaltation,” despite their poverty. His daughter Mary Ellin Barrett later wrote that Berlin meant every word: “It was the land he loved. It was his home sweet home. He, the immigrant who had made good, was saying thank you.”
“Berlin’s immigrant success story connected the song, in the period just after its premiere, to a burgeoning public appeal for tolerance in the face of the rise of Nazism in Europe. The first reference to the song in The New York Times describes a performance at a dinner sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, where religious leaders repudiated the “doctrine of race and hate” in totalitarian Europe and urged Americans not to let it happen within their own communities. Three months later, Berlin led a crowd in “God Bless America” after a speech against bigotry by Eleanor Roosevelt, in which she warned, ‘Fear arising from intolerance and injustice constitutes the chief danger to our country.’ “
It is crazy how the same kind of thing is happening but in America and not in Europe. It’s apparent to me how many people don’t actually know the origins of this piece since all of those racists said what they said..Wouldn’t it have been great and productive if someone tweeted in all of those comments, a link to Kaskowitz’s news article? What could they say after that? Zilch!
“The song also inspired anti-Semitic and xenophobic rhetoric aimed at Berlin, a Jew who dared to ask God to bless America. At a joint rally of the Ku Klux Klan and the pro-Nazi German American Bund in 1940, leaders called for a boycott of the song. A week later, an article mockingly titled “G-A-W-D Bless A-M-E-R-I-K-E-R!” appeared in the Bund’s newspaper; the author derided the song as reflecting the “attitude of the refugee horde.” (Berlin faced fire on the left, as well: Woody Guthrie’s “God Blessed America For Me” was an angry protest against the complacency he found in Berlin’s lyrics. Guthrie soon changed the chorus to “This Land Is Your Land.”
There have been conflicting views depending on which party wanted to manipulate the meaning from the start, when it was meant as a message to express connection with a new home, love and gratitude to a new land, and the beauty of tolerance for those whom were persecuted, THAT is the notion of what America was built upon, even down to the first settlers fleeing British religious persecution. To the others it is a song representing a warning to those challenging the status quo, just as Woody Guthrie had felt and all of the xenophobes.
“In the late ’60s the segregationist politician Lester Maddox claimed the song as a personal anthem, and in the ’70s it was used by right-wing activists opposed to school integration and public housing.”
Just as easily as the stock market swings, the song made a comeback to a national feeling of solidarity and unity on September 11, 2001. We all know what happened that day. Followed by another visible “down swing” in 2013 when Marc Anthony sang it at a baseball game. It seems it is used as a “political blanket” for politicians, racists, separatists, and xenophobes. Some will always try to take advantage of something and manipulate it how ever they please. That’s not how we should operate, but some are innately that selfish and/or insecure. But as Berlin showed, it isn’t what happens to us that matters, it is what we Do with what happens to us. He kept on keeping on the good fight!
Thus, I stick to my comment that I think we are able to help some of these people who have lost the original meaning of being an American in America, but America is very American in the fact that we can and will overcome! Our beauty IS our diversity and our resiliency is our strength. They must be reminded that America was commandeered from Native Americans that were here first. We created a constitution many years later and in that “framework” there are amendments. The 14th Amendment defines citizenship this way: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
There are so many rebuttals here that you can present to people when they present to you this close minded thinking. You just have to remember some of these facts and present them in an understanding way when trying to open the minds of the opposition. Just try to not sound like you are judging or become too emotionally involved to get your point across and of course not sound condescending. That is the tough part. You do not want to insult the people you are trying to reach.
My dad always says, “It’s not what you mean to say to someone, it’s how they perceive it,” that is what matters when communicating.
I urge everyone to work on being an effective communicator so you can connect better with people in your own culture and of other cultures. The more you travel, the more you are thrown into the unknown, and the more it helps your communication skills. 🙂
Have a beautiful 4th of July my fellow Americans, and a great day to my friends from around the world! Spread the seeds of peace, love, tolerance, kindness, and forgiveness for a happier and healthier life, and remember any positive impact is a impact no matter how big nor small, there is no such thing as “small” good deed! 🙂
(Photo is not our property it was found on google search engine)
Some of the Information from the above article has been expanded upon from the original authors post, at the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/arts/music/irving-berlin-god-bless-america.html
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