Ugly American Syndrome: Discovering What Makes Us American

I know we haven’t talked about this in forever, but for some reason our recent discussion of what makes an “American” an “American” brings me back to this lecture on September 17^th. This was the day where we learned about ascriptive identity, where others ascribe an identity to you. How can others look at people and assign them the identity of an “American”? What gives us away? Or what leads people to mistakenly assign this identity to non-Americans? What gives the perception of Americans for us, and others, to ascribe this identity of an “American” on others and keep it from others? One big indicator of ascriptive identity was how Americans are perceived abroad. Apparently there is an Ugly American Syndrome that many people don’t notice about Americans until they are taken out of their natural environment. There is even a wikiHow article on how to avoid being noticed as an American when travelling. Is how we travel what defines an American? What about those Americans who declare themselves travelling experts? It seemed impossible to even begin to describe the identity of an American because there are just too many people to encompass into one identity (despite our readiness to define ourselves as Americans as well as ascribe or keep the American identity from others).

http://rofls.com/Kw777c/american-tourists

My first thought was to turn to the dictionary. No matter how cliché it was, and no matter how many of my sixth grade teachers told me not to do it, I ended up starting a lot of the papers I was unsure on how to write by looking up definitions of words I had no idea how to define myself in the dictionary. So, in honor of my sixth grade teachers, I will completely defy what they have told me not to do in order to understand an “American” based on how the term is widely accepted as an adequate classification. Dictionary.com tells us that American can be either an adjective or a noun. In its adjective form, it means “of or pertaining to the United States of America or its inhabitants”. In its form as a noun it means “a citizen of the United States of America, a native or inhabitant of the Western Hemisphere, and an Indian of North or South America.” As a result, the definition (and description) rests heavily on the geographical location and legal status of an individual in order to classify them as an “American.” But is this truly what makes an American an American? A citizen? Most of us, as Americans, cannot even answer simple questions on the citizenship test. Its been predicted that 1 in 3 would fail. 

But as the ascribed identity brings up, what about the further social constructions surrounding the term? Many illegal immigrants are looked on as imposters of true Americans and cheaters of the American system, even though they fit the accepted definition of an American—as they are a native or inhabitant of the Western Hemisphere.

Our ability to define an American in the modern setting remains unclear because of its increasing complexity and the subjective nature of personally defining such a term.  The infinite variety of definitions of what makes an American an American is what I think is crucial to the identity of any country. It is this variety that encompasses the distinct differences among people that are still able to coexist and function as a whole entity—the population of the United States.

Of course, this video of Hugh Laurie (who I love) and Ellen shows the differences between cultures and brings up other questions. Is it our language or accent that makes us American? Or our reaction to being right and wrong or our general personality? I just thought it was worth including…