Even after reading that he had become an American citizen my dad's reaction was that this guy wasn't REALLY an american, and I'm still trying to understand why... maybe it's because he emigrated here rather than being born here, but isn't that what all of our ancestors did? What does it mean to be an American? Are some people more American than others? Why?
Monday, November 9, 2009
American?
Earlier this month, my dad was reading the newspaper when he came across an article about the New York marathon. The title claimed that for the first time since 1982, an American man had won the race, and immediately he had my attention. Meb Keflezighi broke the tape in 2:09:15, a personal best. Now, when my dad read this name, he stopped. If you just look at the name you may wonder, is this guy really an American? (Or, at least, that's what my dad wanted to know.) He kept reading and discovered that Keflezighi had emigrated to San Diego in 1987 from war-torn Eritrea, as one of 11 kids. He became a US citizen in 1988.
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I like this post Q, because what you have identified is as old as the country itself: WHO is an American? There have been "Old Stock" Americans who rejected the "Old" Immigrants, and Old Immigrants who have rejected the "New" Immigrants and so on, and so on, and so on.
ReplyDeleteRemind me to tell you about my own father's definition of "American"...