The Struggle to be Wholly American

Is it possible to be wholly American? This is a topic that seems to have come up time and again in late night conversations with friends at a bar or over a cup of tea. One of the most fascinating things about America is that no one wholly claims to be "American". We always refer our identity back to some ancestral home. Everything from how well we can drink, to the color of hair, to perhaps an argumentative nature is often attributed to the country/culture of our families supposed origin. Or rather, as far back as most of us can trace. It is rare, that any of us claim to be completely American.
The big joke of course at least in my circle of friends is, "well who would want to be?". I am of course partially guilty of this. I have aspirations of living for lengthy periods of time in my life abroad. I have a strong affinity to most things European. And while I would definitely not categorize myself as being what one would think of as a "typical American", it cannot be denied that no matter how much I would like to contribute myself to my European ancestors, the reality is...I'm just an American. not Scottish-German, not French-English...I am American.

Having unfortunately come to that conclusion, the question arises of what exactly that entails. Strangely, being an American is extremely hard to define or even generalize into a stupid-cliche because of the fact that so many of us still do identify with our cultural heritage that goes beyond the states.
There are obviously other reasons for this. (We are big country and Americans vary vastly depending what part of the states you are in, etc.) Nevertheless, it seems to mainly because of our big, ole "melting pot" mentality that causes it to be so difficult to completely identify or correctly describe what it exactly means to be American. (sounds like some essay question for junior high students to win some money and trip to D.C. or something right?)
Many may immediately interject at my utilization of describing America as having a "melting pot mentality". And they would be correct to say that there definitely has been numerous incidents of intolerance, skepticism and downright violent acts against other cultures in our nation's history. Recent events haven't proven otherwise in lieu of the building of a wall on our Mexican border and a general sentiment from conservatives that Mexicans are stealing our jobs and social welfare. However, an irony exists in all of that which is apparent to most of us and defends my usage of "melting pot mentality"; those people may not want them to be in our country but damned if we are gonna stop eating their food, watching their sports players, listening to their music, reading their translated books, etc etc.
The truth is that in America, we are constantly effected by other cultures. This is becoming a symptom of the entire world with the onslaught of a globalization. However, in America we have the privilege to experience many different cultures on various different levels. We are a nation built off of immigration, its in our backyard. How can we not be constantly affected by other cultures?

Unfortunately, our tendency to co-opt these other cultures and integrate them into our american society can sometimes have negative affects on that specific culture. We seem to have a skill at turning them often times into some sort of bastardized, westernized version of what it was originally. This causes misinterpretations and often lessens it into nothing more but consumerist trends. Essentially, this can often take away from that culture. Our co-opt of that culture can over time (usually from well-intentioned but overly liberal tendencies) can blend the differences between us and the culture. Overtime, this in turn seems develops a negative stigma when our differences are openly identified. ( i.e. describing a white kid who "dresses black" isn't me perpetuating a generalization about black people but accurately identifying that gee whiz...maybe there is a large contingency of black people in this country who have a very distinct fashion sense that is different from the way the average white suburbanite dresses. Who are you to take that away from them? Why is that negative again? How did everyone forget where rock n roll came from? No one seems to freak out when an asshole wearing a beret is described as looking 'french') Basically, there is nothing wrong with identifying differences. In fact, they are good to identify as long as they are respected. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be often realized or thought that white kids sporting dreads and listening to bob marley may be a subversive way of contributing to the transformation of jamaican rastafarian culture from something spiritual and sincere to a trendy american fad.

I hypothesize that much of this may have to do with the problem that exist within the original question of this blog, what does it mean to be American? It seems as though we are constantly in a state of identity crisis and thus are constantly searching for any connection we have to other cultures, countries, etc. While strange to say, it seems that the one defining characteristic of our country is to take other cultures, integrate it and have it become apart of us. Or maybe... like us until we can say they are 'us'? (Foucault and the body? Maybe...have to ask Grant about that one.)

This can also of course be applied to our current war in Iraq carried out under the guise of "bringing democracy and freedom to the Iraqi people". What makes us think that our western ideas of democracy and freedom are the perfect solution for everyone else. Is democracy and freedom the ONLY way to solidly identify ourselves as Americans?
I like to think not. In fact, I know from having the fortunate experience of growing up in a very culturally-mixed area of the country that there are a lot of good/interesting and unique things that are wholly and only american. Its just a bit more convoluted and confusing and not always entirely identifiable.

2- I read an interesting article about the life of Thomas Bernhard in a recent issue of The Believer. (yes, I am bring up Bernhard again). It basically described how Bernhard had a clear distaste for the customs of his country-Austria. However, on the other hand, he refused to ever learn another language because he wanted his novels to be wholly Austrian and unaffected by other cultures. Obviously, this is partially impossible. And yes, it sounds slightly nationalistic. However, anyone who has read Bernhard knows that this isn't the case. He merely wanted to be as in touch with where he came from as possible. This in turn, Bernhard hoped, would be revealed within his writings.
Reading this, once again lead me to the question of how could I write and be wholly, truely American in style. Thinking of American literature, who comes to mind? Hemingway? Funny how all his novels take place in Europe and that he spent most of his time NOT in America. Carl Sandberg poetry? -Staunch Socialist. Faulkner? Perhaps. Even then, Faulkner is such a perfect representation of American literature from a certain, specific area in America. One which I cannot identify with at all. It is almost like I am reading a foreign novel. Nevertheless, it brought up an interesting point of discussion which I feel like can be expanded and stretched in a variety of different ways.
In conclusion, being American to me still kind of is annoying and gross. The eagle and the red, white and blue, and cowboy hats and all that. It makes me want to barf. But then look at what it is to be American through who you are, and who your friends are, and it suddenly becomes a bit easier to swallow. I don't think I realized this until I traveled abroad. It didn't really make me 'home sick' but it made me realize that it isn't all that bad back home.
nevertheless, i still want to live in europe.
i'll catch my baseball games via internet...hahahaha...
(p.s. this post was inspired mostly by some recent posts from a couple of my friends...sorry if i stole)