What is American Identity?

Since our nations founding in 1776 immigrants who moved to the United States have always sought to fit in and become “Americanized”. What exactly is the American identity and who exactly gets to decide what really is American or not? Even though many Americans probably think they have a good understanding of race, many of their ideas are vastly different from one another and many confuse it with ethnicity or nationality as well as cultural differences (Bensheoff & Griffin 47)(1). I would argue that there has been a long standing view that “American” is white and middle class but this view has been mostly made up by the white middle class. A great example of this is from photographs of non-whites who are trying to fit in to the white American culture because they believe that is what is truly American.

A photograph that is really evident of this kind of thinking is History and Memory (Rea Tajiri 1991). The photograph shows a man and women of Asian decent (most likely Japanese) standing in front of the American Flag. The Photograph appears to be from the 1940s-1950s given clothing as well as being in black and white. We know at this time in American history Asian-American were viewed as enemies to America given the fact that World War II was occurring or had taken place as well as the Korean War that took place in the 1950s. It’s clearly evident that the individuals in this photograph are trying to look like they are part of the white suburban middle class (even though they most likely aren’t) due to the their average American attire rather than Asian inspired garb. This along with the American Flag proudly standing erect in the background reinforces this. Many Americans themselves were trying achieve the American dream during the period of the 1940s-1950s because that’s what many people thought was the ideal reality during this period.

The second photograph The Ohio Project (Nikki S. Lee 1999) depicts another side of the American culture then the one depicted in History and Memory. The woman still appears to be trying to live the American dream with her bleach blond hair and her white husband. The comfortably dressed couple in the photograph proudly sit in their home next to what they feel is the American flag. Instead of being properly and strictly placed in front the flag they slouch next to it and are flanked with their mountain dew, potato chips and embracing a shot gun. Honestly, what is more modern American than this picture? This is the America of today, this what many see as living the American dream. Even though this picture may be a staged photograph when it’s introduced to us we most often preserve it as “incontrovertible proof that this event took place in a particular way and in a particular place” there for speaking the truth in a direct way to us (Sturken & Cartwright 17)(2). Just to be in America is enough for many immigrants (as well as many natural born Americans for that matter); they feel it is more than their mother country can give them. This is in stark comparison to what was the American dream was of the past.

The American dream of the past was a cookie cutter home on a suburban street with a dog in the backyard and two children in the home with an apron-clad wife cooking dinner in the kitchen. Today’s American dream is to live comfortably, eat well, and to have a roof over your head and for many just get by. But who really decides what image of America is more American?

Works Cited
1) Benshoff, Harry M. and Sean Griffin. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality at the Movies. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

2) Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009