American National Identity

Introduction

Individuals have multiple "social identities" because the way of feeling, thinking and acting have been rooted in social contexts. People who are the part of social groups differentiate other as compared to themselves with the concepts and ideas of their own identity. Distinction and differentiation of a particular group from others makes the term "we" (Huntington, p. 98). Gender, age, subculture, religion, ethnicity, social class, nation and etc. can create notion of social individuality. Identity and character plays an important role in forming the nation of America. The several respects which make American national identity different from people in other countries are religion, race, ideas etc. One most important respect of its identity is Language (Bellah, pp 1).

Discussion

America shapes a unified people instead of various ethnic groups and different cultures and subcultures; citizen should not identify themselves as African-Americans, Asian-Americans or disabled Americans; they are Americans, pure Americans, just Americans (Tsai, p. 257). It is not important that where you are from or where you are born. Being an American totally is different with being a citizen; all people with various nationalities could be American with the sense of American national identity. The reason behind this patriotism and national cohesion is language of America which unified them and creates a bond in such diverse environment.

People share their commonalities through languages which can be words, arts, behaviors or any other means to communicate. As long as the commonalities are there people feel relaxed being together and the process of developing the culture continues (Schlesinger, pp 212). Basically, any structure is based on a foundation and it needs some columns to be solid and strong. Language is one of the columns for any identity to be distinguished from the others.

Many believe that bilingualism is distorting the process of rearing children if ...