Monday, December 3, 2018

Siobhan Crummey- What Makes a "Real" American?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/03/politics/real-american-poll/index.html

In a recent poll take by Grinnell College, they asked Americans what they think to believe the traits of a "true" American. As expected, people of different races and political affiliations answered differently. After being offered a list of traits, people responded with which traits were most important. The top 3 most important across the board were that 90 percent said that treating people equally was important, 88 percent said that taking responsibility for ones actions was important, and 81 percent said that accepting people of different racial backgrounds was important. The bottom 3 were 55 percent of people said that being Christian was important, 49 percent of people said that being born in America was important, and 45 percent having lived in the United States most of their lives. When it came to how different political parties polled, it wasn't necessarily surprising. People who were polled that were republican said that it was very important to speak English, with 62 percent. The democrats who were asked the same question, 29 percent said it was important.

The relates to history because it talk about how different these political parties are and what it means to be a "true" American. The audience are Americans that might agree or disagree, and who might have completely different opinions of their own. The purpose is to inform people what many Americans believe to be a "true" American. This is important because of the conflicting views of Americans, but also because 10 percent of Americas still believe that its not important to treat people equally, as this is the 21st century and the fact that there are still racists and misogynists is sad and honestly horrible.

4 comments:

  1. It is important to bottle, especially with this article, that the definition of an American has evolved to a point where a typical American is nearly indistinguishable from an American in the 1700s. Thus, our definitions are consistently shifting, to where every American is recognized as truly an equal part in this country as another.

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  2. Over time being American has changed drastically. This article was beautifully written!

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  3. I like the comparison to what it means to be a "true" American. Very well written!
    Mary Kate Madden

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