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American Identity | Piktochart Visual Editor

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This Ted Talk explains how citizens today are alarmed and feel for the first time that there kids wont be better off then they were as they grow up. People fear that the future citizens will try to achieve a dream that they dont even believe in. 

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This Ted Talk explains how citizens today are alarmed and feel for the first time that there kids wont be better off then they were as they grow up. People fear that the future citizens will try to achieve a dream that they dont even believe in. 

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Courtney E. Martin: The new American Dream

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For the first time in history, the majority of American parents don't think their kids will be better off than they were. This shouldn't be a cause for alarm, says journalist Courtney E. Martin. Rather, it's an opportunity to define a new approach to work and family that emphasizes community and creativity.

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The American flag means a lot to the America people, and it also has a lot of meaning behind it. The stripes represent the original 13 Colonies and the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well, red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice.

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The American flag means a lot to the America people, and it also has a lot of meaning behind it. The stripes represent the original 13 Colonies and the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well, red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice.

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This article is for people coming to the US and helping them prepare for it. It shows some of the biggest values and traditions that American people take part of. 

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This article is for people coming to the US and helping them prepare for it. It shows some of the biggest values and traditions that American people take part of. 

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For many international students, adjusting to American culture can be difficult and at times frustrating. American customs and values might be very different from those of your home country, and you might find them confusing. You will probably want to familiarize yourself with American culture before your departure, in order to make the transition as easy as possible.

Values

Independence. Americans strongly believe in the concept of individualism. They consider themselves to be separate individuals who are in control of their own lives, rather than members of a close-knit, interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or other group.

Equality. The American Declaration of Independence states that "all [people] are created equal," and this belief is deeply embedded in their cultural values. Americans believe that all people are of equal standing, and are therefore uncomfortable with overt displays of respect such as being bowed to.

Informality. This belief in equality causes Americans to be rather informal in their behavior towards other people. Don't be surprised if store clerks and waiters introduce themselves by their first names. Many people visiting the US are surprised by the informality of American speech, dress, and posture. Don't mistake this for rudeness or irreverence; it's just a part of their culture!

Directness. Americans tend to value, frankness and openness in their dealings with other people. They believe that conflicts and disagreements are best solved by means of forthright discussion among the people involved. Americans believe that if someone has a problem with someone else, they should tell the person clearly and directly in order to come up with a solution to the problem.

U.S. Holidays and Customs to Know

One fun way to learn about a culture is to participate in its traditions. Here are a few key holidays that Americans celebrate throughout the country:

Of course, the US is a large country, made up of many different cultures. Your cultural experience is bound to differ depending on where in the US you choose to study. To learn more about individual states, visit our State Guide.

Related Content:

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For many international students, adjusting to American culture can be difficult and at times frustrating. American customs and values might be very different from those of your home country, and you might find them confusing. You will probably want to familiarize yourself with American culture before your departure, in order to make the transition as easy as possible.

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This country has been at many conflicts since the presidency of Donald Trump this article suggests how some of the problems are being solved or getting worse, and the growing concerns Americans have for their safety. 

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This country has been at many conflicts since the presidency of Donald Trump this article suggests how some of the problems are being solved or getting worse, and the growing concerns Americans have for their safety. 

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Long before student activists started talking about pulling down statues of Cecil Rhodes, a cultural war was being waged in America over monuments honouring General Robert E. Lee and other leaders of the Confederacy. In 2001 there was a petition to remove some of these statues from the University of Texas on the grounds that their presence might 'lead people to believe that the university is tolerant of the Confederate ideology regarding slavery'. The arguments that started on campus then branched out beyond it. To some, the statues were a symbol of Southern heritage and pride. To others, they were a monument to racism.

In recent years this argument has intensified, gathering a momentum that few of America's political leaders fully understood. Movements like Black Lives Matter sprang up and pushed their agenda in the growing culture war. However legitimate their initial cause, such groups swiftly descended into rhetoric and activities which swapped the language of racial reconciliation for that of race-baiting. An unemployed white worker may have had all the same worries as an unemployed black worker, but the white worker also had to hear claims about being a beneficiary of 'white privilege'. The politicisation of race had started again, and too few American leaders knew how to stop it.

It would give too much credit to Donald Trump to say he has deep insights into contemporary public concerns. His style is to speak first and think later; cause a fuss and see what happens. But he found himself to be the only politician campaigning on the issue of American greatness, or the cultural wars in general - and enough Americans shared these concerns for him to be elected to the White House.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, had it right when he said that there can be no moral ambiguity in condemning the Nazi sympathisers who arrived with their swastikas, torches and Hitler salutes in Charlottesville.

The original cause was perfectly legitimate - to protest against the removal of the statue of General Lee. But it mutated into a far-right rally, with Ku Klux Klan members and members of various white nationalist factions armed with weapons and ready for a fight. That they were granted a fight does not exculpate them.

It is quite correct to say, as Donald Trump did, that there are good and bad people on both sides. 'Antifa' activists (self-described 'anti-fascists') in America routinely behave and talk in a way that makes them indistinguishable from any fascists they claim to oppose. But to focus on this distracts from the main point: that to see Nazism paraded in America is a sickening and deplorable spectacle. Yet again, Trump has demonstrated the extent to which he is unsuited to be President. But yet again we can also see the forces at work that led him to power.

To avert a deepening catastrophe, it is necessary to better understand its origins. A recent study of 8,000 voters in last year's presidential election judges them on two axes: economic and cultural. Hillary Clinton's supporters were to the left economically, keen for taxes on the ultra-rich and worried about rising inequality; but Donald Trump's supporters were generally uninterested in economic issues. Most of the Republican presidential nominees were reheating the Reaganite agenda of free markets, low taxes and light regulation - an agenda which left most Americans cold.

So while the likes of Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush sought to regale voters with a 59-point plan of sensible free-market ideas, Trump talked about the end of American power, 'carnage' in US society and a threat to US culture. That gave him a large audience among those who either admired or deplored what he had to say. A great number of Americans worry not only about the effects of globalisation, but about change in their society. It doesn't help to tell them that they're on the wrong side of history or demography.

There is a way of addressing such concerns without raising a battle flag. Barack Obama did not manage to find it, and neither has Donald Trump - the result being a level of radicalisation and even political violence that can easily escalate. So we see various flashpoints emerging that seem baffling and bizarre until one remembers that, for a great many Americans, the issue of flags, statues, culture and history is politics.

At the time of the American Civil War, The Spectator was the only publication in Britain to offer unequivocal support to the North over the slave-owning South. When General Lee emerged as a leader of that rebellion, we said that he had no cause that stood up to scrutiny. To have new streets named after secessionist generals, the Confederate flag flying over national buildings, and monuments to the losing side erected long afterwards can seem baffling from a distance - and even up close. But it is precisely politicians' failure to respond to the menace of identity politics that has given an opening to some of the ugliest forces in American life.

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Donald Trump and America's identity crisis | The Spectator

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Long before student activists started talking about pulling down statues of Cecil Rhodes, a cultural war was being waged in America over monuments honouring General Robert E. Lee and other leaders of the Confederacy.

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The future of America explains what it means to be an American in todays youth. 

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The future of America explains what it means to be an American in todays youth. 

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What does it mean to be an American? In a recent Gallup Youth Survey*, Gallup posed this question to U.S. teens (aged 13 to 17). Asked on an open-ended basis, the question allowed respondents to offer whatever answer came to mind. While some people might expect disinterested replies, teens' responses reveal a deep and sincere appreciation of the implications of their status as Americans.

Teens frequently mentioned freedom, or some aspect of it, in their responses. One 17-year-old boy said being an American means having "freedom to choose what school I want to attend, what church I want to go to, study what I am interested in, travel freely throughout this country without any restrictions, listen to any radio or TV stations that I want to, and achieve my career and educational goals ... without any influence from any government or military group." A 15-year-old boy said, "Being an American means being proud of my country and defending our right to free speech and the freedom to be who we are." He ended his comments dramatically: "I will defend my right to be free to the death."
Teens Don't Have to Agree With the Government
The war in Iraq has raised many questions about the meaning of patriotism. However, some teens stressed that being American does not mean one has to agree with all the government's actions. A 16-year-old girl said, "Being an American is just caring about the good of America. It doesn't mean agreeing with everything the government does, but at the same time you have to agree with the most core values ... freedom to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, speech, etc." A 17-year-old boy said, "It means having citizenship in the United States. It doesn't matter if you burn flags or join the armed forces, if you have citizenship you are American."
Many Note Freedoms and Welcome Diversity
The United States, by virtue of its founding principles, is a nation of diverse religions, cultures, races, and ethnicities. A 16-year-old girl said that being an American means being "able to have our own ideas and beliefs, and being able to express [them], along with the freedom of being an individual who is different from everyone." A 14-year-old girl gave this response: "I think to be an American means accepting others, treating everyone equally, being open to new ideas and thoughts, understanding and appreciating your freedom, and not taking what your ancestors did for granted."
Criticism and Apathy
A few teens gave apathetic answers, and some were notably critical. But such downbeat responses were rare. "To be an American is to be blind to [the] world's problems, and to consume its resources," said one 16-year-old boy. A 16-year-old girl commented, "I am grateful to be in a country with so many freedoms. I just don't like how high-headed America is and how we may be a little more headstrong than we can handle."
An Open Door to the Future
A common theme in the replies is that being an American and having freedom opens the door to great opportunities. One 13-year-old boy said it means "having the freedom to make choices in my life -- I can be as successful or unsuccessful as I want to be." A 14-year-old girl said to be an American is "to have freedom. To be able to dream and try to be anything you want ... My parents taught me to always do my best and to always have hope, even if you get knocked down over and over. In America, you have the right to always get up!"
Bottom Line
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly in these uncertain times, teens tend to show deep appreciation of what it means to be American. While writing about freedoms, they also note citizens' obligations. Negative and cynical voices are rarely heard. One 17-year-old girl reflected: "...we are a group of people who have dreams and live in a place where we have the chance to fulfill them." Another 16-year-old simply said it means "being part of a nation that tries to be good."
*The Gallup Youth Survey is conducted via an Internet methodology provided by Knowledge Networks, using an online research panel that is designed to be representative of the entire U.S. population. The current questionnaire was completed by 517 respondents, aged 13 to 17, between Aug. 1 and Aug. 29, 2003. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±5 percentage points.

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What Being American Means to Today's Youth

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What does it mean to be an American? In a recent Gallup Youth Survey, Gallup posed this question to U.S. teens. Asked on an open-ended basis, the question allowed respondents to offer whatever answer came to mind. While some people might expect disinterested replies, teens' responses reveal a deep and sincere appreciation of the implications of their status as Americans.

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This video shows the side of people who didn't grow up as a normal american kid. It expresses how they belong to the american culture and what they really think being an American is. 

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This video shows the side of people who didn't grow up as a normal american kid. It expresses how they belong to the american culture and what they really think being an American is. 

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This article talks about what american citizens today value most about living in America. 

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This article talks about what american citizens today value most about living in America. 

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belief that each person is unique, special and a "basic unit of nature"

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This explains the steps and costs immigrants have to take to become an American Citizen. 

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This explains the steps and costs immigrants have to take to become an American Citizen. 

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Find out how to become a U.S. citizen through naturalization. See how to prove U.S. citizenship, get dual citizenship, or renounce or lose your citizenship.

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What the American Dream looks like today.

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What the American Dream looks like today.

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The American Dream is the idea that the government should protect each person's opportunity to pursue their idea of happiness.

The government protects the rights of you and every other American citizen to find their path to economic prosperity. Unlike many other countries, you are not required to follow your father's profession. Your destiny is not legally determined at birth by caste, religion, or gender. There is still discrimination, but the law protects your right to pursue a better life.

However, some wonder if the American Dream is dead or threatened. Let's examine the evidence by looking at its history.

The American Dream's Origins

The Declaration of Independence states the principles that underlie the American Dream: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."﻿﻿

The Founding Fathers based the U.S. Constitution-the highest law in the land-on these rights. Each person's desire to pursue happiness was not just self-indulgence, but also drove ambition and creativity. By legally protecting these values, the Founding Fathers created an attractive society for those aspiring to a better life.﻿﻿

The Declaration continues: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." For the drafters of the Declaration and later the Constitution, the American Dream could only thrive if it were not hindered by taxation without representation.﻿﻿

The people should have the right to elect officials to represent them. These leaders must abide by the laws themselves and not create new legislation without oversight. Legal disputes must be settled by a jury rather than by the whim of the leader.

How U.S. Presidents Shaped the American Dream

At first, the Founding Fathers only extended the Dream to white property owners.﻿﻿﻿ But the idea of inalienable rights was so powerful that laws were added to extend these rights to formerly enslaved people, women, and non-property owners. In this way, the American Dream changed the course of America itself.

For example, President Abraham Lincoln extended the American dream to formerly enslaved people with the Emancipation Proclamation, and President Woodrow Wilson supported women's voting rights, which led to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in June 1919.

More presidential changes:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Roosevelt outlined an Economic Bill of Rights in his 1944 State of the Union address, defining the pursuit of happiness as decent housing, a good job, education, and health care.

President Harry S. Truman: Truman's "post-war social contract" included the GI Bill, providing government-funded college degrees for returning veterans. Truman's Fair Deal expanded the dream to include entitlement: If you worked hard and played by the rules, the government should guarantee financial security, education, health care, and a home.﻿﻿

President Lyndon B. Johnson: Johnson promoted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending segregation in the schools and protecting workers from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton supported the Dream of homeownership. President Barack Obama supported the legal benefits of the marriage contract regardless of sexual orientation. Obama furthered FDR's idea that everyone should have access to affordable health care. He softened the recession's blow for many by extending unemployment benefits and increasing government assistance for student loans.

The American Dream and Success

As we can see, throughout U.S. history, the definition of "happiness" has changed. In the Roaring 20s, the Founders' dream of protecting opportunities receded in favor of acquiring material things. In the novel "The Great Gatsby," author F. Scott Fitzgerald both defined the aspirations of the age and warned of its consequences.

Happiness based upon greed was not attainable because someone else always had more, he pointed out.﻿﻿ The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression proved him right.

After the 1920s, many presidents supported the Gatsby Dream.

The American Dream's prosperity has also been a compelling vision for other nations, along with the idea that protecting citizens' rights to improve their lives is the best way to ensure national economic growth.﻿﻿

But the U.S has long had a setting conducive to prosperity, peace, and opportunity. For example, the United States has a large landmass under one government, benign neighbors, and abundant natural resources. These include oil and minerals, rainfall, and plenty of rivers. Long shorelines and a flat terrain ease transportation.

These conditions fostered a populace united by language, political system, and values, which allowed a diverse population to possess a competitive advantage. U.S. companies use that advantage to become more innovative, with a large, diverse, and easily accessible test market for new and niche products.

Today, this approach extends to private enterprise and a free-market economy in the U.S., which depends on the free flow of information. It also supports free trade agreements and foreign direct investment.

The American Dream: Is it Dead?

Several factors are challenging the American Dream's continued viability. Including:

Low mobility: The United States has lower rates of income mobility than other developed countries. America scores lower than France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway, and Denmark.﻿﻿

Government debt: The U.S. has $27 trillion in federal debt and $4 trillion in consumer debt. Combined, that's much more than the U.S. gross domestic product of $21 trillion.﻿﻿

Climate change: Some people feel their vision of the American dream is threatened by solutions like the Green New Deal. But if nothing is done, global warming will slow growth. Between 2007 and 2017, extreme weather, health risks, sea-level rise, and food inflation, have cost the U.S. government $350 billion.﻿﻿

Some point to social trends as proof that the American Dream has died, including epidemics of obesity, child abuse, and drug addiction.

A "New" American Dream?

Global economic conditions have indeed changed. But the Founding Fathers never intended the American Dream to provide world dominance and the guarantee of a good life. The Declaration of Independence says nothing about a particular lifestyle and doesn't define how happiness should look.

Our Founding Fathers' vision sought to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to pursue their vision of happiness. It also promotes faith in private free enterprise as a way to pursue that happiness. All people have an equal and inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of their happiness. Federal law protects this right.

Many are turning to a new definition of the American dream that better reflects the country's values for which it was named. In her book The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream, Courtney E. Martin writes that Americans should "return to some of the most basic ... questions: What is enough money? How do we want to spend our finite energy and attention? What makes us feel accountable and witnessed?" She suggests you should aspire to create "a life you can be genuinely proud of, an 'examined life' (in the words of dead Greek guys), a life that you are challenged by, a life that makes you giddy, that sometimes surprises you, a life that you love."﻿﻿

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How Our Founding Fathers Protected the American Dream

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The American Dream is the idea that the government should protect each person's opportunity to pursue their idea of happiness. The government protects the rights of you and every other American citizen to find their path to economic prosperity. Unlike many other countries, you are not required to follow your father's profession.

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What Does It Mean to "Be American" article 

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What Does It Mean to "Be American" article 

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In 2014, New York Times reporter Damien Cave traveled the length of highway I-35, which runs south to north through the middle of the United States, for his "The Way North" project. Along the way, he asked 35 people, "What does it mean to be American?" These are some of their answers.

Becoming American means following the rules. It means respecting your neighbors, in your own neighborhood. -Francine Sharp, 73, retired teacher in Kansas (born in Kansas)

If you work hard, you get good things in life. -José, college student/roofer; immigrant without legal status in Tulsa, Oklahoma (born in Mexico)

Being American is making a change, and making good changes. Being American is being welcoming, being caring about other people, being proud of the country. And it's forgiveness. It's not holding grudges on anything-I mean, where's that going to get you? -Natalie Villafranca, 14, in Texas (born in Dallas)

Being American means protection by the law. Anyone can say whatever they want and, even if I don't agree with them, they're still protected by the law it's my job to enforce. That's their freedom. That's their right. -Sean Larkin, 40, sergeant with Tulsa Police Department's gang unit in Tulsa, Oklahoma (born in Virginia)

Being American is red, white and blue and being free. It doesn't matter what language you speak; if you're born in America, you're still American. No matter what you look like, no matter what. -Sebastien de la Cruz, 12, student who gained attention, and backlash, when he sang the national anthem during the 2013 NBA finals in a mariachi outfit (born and lives in San Antonio)

I want all girls, especially girls of color, to know that they can be a part of science. And more than that, they can be leaders in science. I want them to know that, because I know that I am America. That I am science. I'm just the part that people refuse to recognize. -Taylor R., 13, speaking about her ambitions at the March for Science in April 2017

The following excerpts are from other Americans discussing what they think it means to "be American." Among these voices are historians and writers who think about this topic a lot, as well as individuals from other walks of life who participated in a discussion for the documentary film A More Perfect Union.

Precisely because we are not a people held together by blood, no one knows who an American is except by what they believe. It's important that we do know our history, because our history is the source of our Americanness. -Historian Gordon Wood

When people wrote "All men are created equal," they really meant men; but they didn't mean any other men except white men who owned land. That's what they meant. But because the ideas are powerful, there's no way that they could get away with holding to that. It's not possible when you have an idea that's as powerful and as revolutionary as a country founded on the idea that just because you're in the world, just because you're here, you have a right to certain things that are common to all humanity. That's really what we say in those documents. The idea that we begin the Constitution with, "We, the People" . . . even though they didn't mean me! They had no idea I'd ever want to make a claim on that. And they'd have been horrified if they'd known that any of us would. But you can't let that powerful an idea out into the world without consequences. -Writer Rosemary Bray

The American Dream has no meaning for me. What it was founded on, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in many ways I feel are used as billy clubs against minorities and cultural minorities, whether they be gay, or different in any way from the norm in this country. I, for example, don't think I'd like to go to California because of what I look like. I could be pulled over and carded, and I would have to prove my ancestry. And look how long my family has been in northern New Mexico. Ten to twelve generations! -Vicente Martinez

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In 2014, New York Times reporter Damien Cave traveled the length of highway I-35, which runs south to north through the middle of the United States, for his "The Way North" project. Along the way, he asked 35 people, "What does it mean to be American?" These are some of their answers.