Paityn Kappesser

UWRT 1102

January 23, 2017

Major Assignment 1: Literacy

In everyday life I communicate with people constantly. I am always texting, tweeting,

talking, or anything else that falls under the category of communication. However, I have never

really questioned how or why my communicative practices reflect my understanding of

American identity. I have never looked deeply into the way people communicate with each other

or even the way I communicate with others. After analyzing the way people communicate with

me, I gained a broad sense for what the American identity is.

To be an American, to me, is to be a citizen, whether it be from birth

or a gained citizenship. I understand that the country is full of different races,

cultures, and people, and is often referred to as a melting pot, so i thought

deeper about what it really means to be American. My overall conclusion was

that an American is really anyone who lives in the U.S.

Since the United States is such an open country, they have people from all around the

world living here. People from Asia, Africa, Ireland, Italy, and any other place you can think of. I

dont think its fair to say that these people cant qualify as Americans just because they werent

born here or havent gone through the citizenship process. When thinking of American identity, I

see that America is just a huge combination of things, people, and ideas belonging to other

countries. Most things they have are a version of someone elses initial idea. I never really

stopped to think about America as being anything more than just a country I live in, so it is never
the topic of discussion. However, I began to consider America and how Americanness affects

my life.

In my personal life, Ive gotten many questions about Americanness without even

realizing it. My maternal grandparents are both from Mexico while, my mother, was born and

raised in Texas, visiting Mexico fairly often. Her first language is Spanish so there are many

times where she will talk in Spanglish which tends to confuse the listener. My friends always ask

if shes foreign, implying that shes from a different country, which could also would imply

that she isnt American. I completely understand my mom and would never deem her as non-

American simply because Spanish is her first language, however some of society thinks

otherwise.

Even though most dont really understand my mom's speech, I think I speak like all other

Americans do even though I dont really pay much attention to the way people talk. My step

grandparents, say yins instead of you all, and theyre from Pennsylvania. I would consider

them Americans and say that they just have a different lingo than I do. Older generations also say

a lot of things that my generation doesnt even comprehend sometimes. For example, Ive heard

older Americans say spicket instead of sink and pop instead of soda. I dont think this makes

them any less American than I am, they just grew up around different people and during a

different time. I, however, am so used to the way that my family talks that when others sounds

differently, which is their normal, I am shocked. I never consider people to not be American just

because of their word choice or the way they sound.

For example, one of my good friends has a thick country accent and upon meeting her I

was fascinated by her voice. I hadnt grown up around anyone with a country accent that strong

and I never knew that people even spoke like that. I think a lot of the time people associate being
country with being more American, so she said she had been called the epitome of an American

before. I dont look at her as any different from me though on the Americanness scale. I think

shes very similar to me in our beliefs, we both love this country just the same, and we are both

natural born citizens.

I was born in Newport News, Virginia and basically grew up there, but I dont notice any

difference in myself from others because I lived there. I think that its all about the way you look

at people and I look at people as people. I never look at race or how American they are or

anything like that. When I look at others, I want to get to know them for who they are personality

wise, not necessarily where theyre from and if they consider themselves an American. People

are so much more than the labels theyre given so who am I to place more labels on them? I

dont see a point in caring about American identity or what it stands for or who falls under that

category. I figure that since were all living in America now, we all understand at least something

about this country and we know how diverse it is.

Its really difficult to depict what the American identity is when there are so many diverse

people who fall under the American category. From the outside looking in, I would hope others

would look at me as just as much of an American as they are. There arent really any specific

requirements on the way you communicate for you to be an American which is why this topic

was hard to write about.

Overall, I dont see the need for determining who has an American identity or what it

means to communicate like an American. People are unique in their own ways and have their

ways of communication and I would rather just embrace the difference than analyze it. People

should be allowed to live freely, because thats what America is all about, right? Freedom from

judgement and discrimination for something so miniscule in the big picture of things. Identity to
me is so much more about who someone is inside rather than their placement in this world. I

look deeper than just surface level and I think the Americanness of someone is simply surface

level. Anyone who wants to be considered an American and has citizenship can be American

regardless of what the sound like, how they communicate, or what others label them.