Divided America: Make America United Again

What is America?

If one were to look in a dictionary, they might read something along the lines of: “a federal republic mainly in North America consisting of 50 states and the District of Columbia”.

But we as Americans know that this statement is hardly true and that our country is so much more.

However, we as Americans also have our own definitions of what exactly constitutes as the “true” American- and by extension, “true” Americans.

We as citizens pride ourselves on being apart of the most diverse country in the world.

The National Review Magazine, an American semi-monthly conservative editorial magazine focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs, comments that “from the thousands of different ethnicities to the hundreds of different religions and cultures, America has always been the “melting pot of the world”- a society where many different types of people blend together as one.”

However, despite our roots, since the founding of our nation, U.S. anti-immigration sentiment and discrimination against others who don’t fit the mold of a “true” American is abundantly present.

There was once a day and age where being different from the standard “American” mold (i.e. a white male of Protestant descent born in the states) was something that wasn’t prideful, but shameful and potentially dangerous.

Many white Americans of European (usually Protestant) descent, like to claim that theirs is the one true “American” culture.

The reality paints the picture of a culture that is anything but uniform.

Any historian, such as ones found in Smithsonian National Museum of American History can tell you that Native Americans lived on the land that is now the United States first, millions of Africans were brought to the America’s by force to be held in slavery, and people have been immigrating to the U.S. from all around the world, not just western Europe, for centuries.

Look back into American history: according to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, our forefathers who we idolize and take pride in were once slave owners who weren’t fighting for the equality and freedom of everyone- they were fighting for the white male property owners who wanted to protect their wealth and status.

Sentiment in those days made it so that is was believed that women and those of African American decent weren’t even considered intelligent enough to understand anything beyond their designated roles let alone be on par with men in the workplace, politics, or a station of high standing.

In fact, it took women nearly half a century for the 19th Amendment to be ratified and to be granted suffrage and rights within American society.

Even then, according to The National Women’s Party, it wasn’t until the release of “The Second Sex,” Simone de Beauvoir’s historical analysis of women’s second-class status in 1939, was the issue of equality for women forced into the public arena and actually taken seriously for the first time in American history.

Women’s rights movements can date back to the Renaissance with “The First Feminist” Christine de Pizan and her works “Book of the City of Ladies” and “The Treasure of the City of Ladies”.

But despite those few in history who advocated for women’s rights, it wasn’t until the mid to late 20th Century did the movement really gain ground and support within public opinion during the 1960s and 1970s.

So, in the modern day and age, women should have the full rights and social equality they attempted to achieve so long ago, right?

A majority of women answer this question in the negative.

In recent polls taken by the National Public Radio, 56 percent of the women polled believe that where they live, women are paid less than men for equal work.

And roughly a third said they’ve been discriminated against when applying for jobs because they are women.

Overall, 68 % of women polled by the National Public Radio believe that there is discrimination against women in America today- a number well over half of the women polled.

The numbers generated by the National Public Radio polls roughly coincides with the 41% of women report being discriminated against in equal pay and promotion opportunities, according to the The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States’ largest philanthropy.

But America is made up of more than just women.

The topic of discrimination against African Americans and other ethnic groups is one most people avoid talking about if they can, not wanting to open up the huge can of worms that is racial discrimination, despite the fact that racial discrimination can be traced back to colonization.

As stated previously, the United States of America is a nation built up entirely of immigrants- the only natives to this continent people the groups of peoples that make up the Native American population.

However, despite this clear cut fact, racial discrimination in the United States has been prevalent- and still is prevalent- within our nation since our founding.

The westward expansion movement of Manifest Destiny in the 19th Century prompted the lifetime of discriminatory actions against native peoples for times to come, as white Americans at the time sought to expand U.S. borders at the expense of the Native peoples.

It wasn’t until the ratification of the 13th Amendment at the end of the Civil War was slavery in America formally abolished, and even then, through Grandfather Clauses and other forms of discriminatory action during the Reconstruction period, African Americans were still thought of as second class citizens.

For many ethnic groups- African Americans and Native Americans being the primary sources, the fight for equal civil and social rights within American is one still being fought today.

According to InterNations, the leading network & guide for experts, although the United States has come a long way since the days of slavery, and huge steps were made towards granting equal rights on the basis of race in the 1960s, racism is still a very pressing problem in the U.S. today.

“Most African-Americans believe that discrimination is due to the attitudes of individuals that they interact with,” says Robert Blendon, the director of a poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “A smaller share believes it’s actually government or institutional policies.”

In recent polls conducted by the National Public Radio, nearly one-third (32 percent) of African-Americans polled said they have personally experienced racial discrimination when going to the doctor or a health clinic, with 22 percent avoiding care out of fear of discrimination.

Nearly half (45%) of African Americans experienced racial discrimination when trying to rent an apartment or buy a home, according to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and discriminatory policies in schools lead to the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline.”

Other majorities in many ethnic, identity and racial groups in America also believe that discrimination exists against their own group, across many areas of people’s daily lives, according to the National Public Radio.

It was only 25 years ago that the L.A. Riots broke out within the city of Los Angeles due to the acquittal of four LAPD officers who “repeatedly beat with batons and kicked Rodney G. King,” according to the L.A. Times.

Accordingly, said the L.A. Times, “The verdict stunned Los Angeles, where angry crowds gathered on street corners across the city… and sparked national debate about police brutality and racial injustice.”

Xenophobia has risen over the past years as the topic of illegal immigration has come to the forefront of American politics as President Trump’s so called “Muslim Ban” comes first to mind.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “The fact that the ban is moving forward is devastating for Muslims in the United States and abroad — and for anyone who values the fundamental constitutional principle of religious equality.”

The ban blocked immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days, suspended the entry of all refugees for at least 120 days, and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely, the ACLU reported in an article describing the ban.

Going back to a more recent and raw time in our history, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, islamophobia has also increased in the US, fueled by ignorance and the faulty belief that all Muslims are fundamentalists, according to InterNations.

Muslims, especially those who could be identified as such by their dress or practices, were frequent victims of assaults and attacks, mosques were vandalized, and they were generally made to feel unwelcome.

It abundantly clear that discrimination is a problem in our society; in fact, one may say that it is the underlying problem to many other problems.

It’s entrenched in our systems, institutions, and culture and will take tremendous effort to undo.

Discrimination in today’s world is still alive, however, we are not born with discrimination in us.

We as a country filled with people of all ethnicities, races, and backgrounds need to teach our children not to discriminate against those who are different just because they don’t fit a standard mold of what an “American” should be like.

We are all Americans, despite our differences in skin color, ethnicity, race, and gender, and we all deserve a place in this land we call home.