Who Are We — American People Essay, Research Paper

Who Are We The American People?

America has been called a melting pot a term used to describe a country whose people come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. This, indeed, is true, and along with this ethnic diversity come prejudice, greed, and numerous forms of religion. America is a country full of politicians, millionaires, athletes, and underprivileged minorities. It is a country, some say, on the highway to hell, where religious values give way to lust, greed, and power. Even the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, has indulged in such sins! The American people feel they make-up the most powerful country in the world and have imposed their resources and ideas where they were not wanted. Overall, Americans are a diverse people, driven by greed, and full of arrogance, yet still possessing a sense of goodness.

Most people who live in America are not native; in fact, less than 1% of the population is Native American. The majority of Americans are Caucasian, many of whom are considered WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Although the Italian-born Columbus discovered the New World, the British originally settled America. The British settlers oppressed and massacred the Native Americans (whom they truly thought were Indians), claiming the American soil as their own. In fact, the Native Americans should have been respected, for they reaped more from the land than the British settlers could ever dream of harvesting on their own. Soon, African slaves were introduced to help harvest the land and serve the rich. Eventually, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Norwegians, Asians, and many more ethnicities found their way to America. The Native Americans were forced off the land and herded onto reservations. Thus is the present set-up foreign peoples migrating to the Americans, oppressing the native peoples, taking control of their land, implementing a Democratic, capitalist society/government, and allowing those among them to starve. A prerequisite to become president is that the candidate be American-born ; this does not mean that he/she has to be of Native American decent.

The predominately-white, capitalistic culture of America is telling citizens to move forward on the social ladder, towards power and money. Yet, the values that Christian doctrine teaches are ones stating God s followers must move backward and be compassionate toward their less-fortunate brethren. His call has mostly been disregard so far, and has become increasingly lost in this technological age, where Matthew Lasky is seen stating how he shows thousands of ways the government can give you money to start a business on cable television. Yet, is the government giving much needed money to the homeless for programs or shelters to get them off the street? No, the homeless are unproductive members of society and, according to Social Darwinism, not fit enough to survive in America. Athletes are seen signing multi-year, hundred-million-dollar contracts to play a game, while there are those that cannot even scrape together enough money for dinner. The rich are arrogant and greedy, while the poor are generally good-hearted and thankful for what little they have.

A feeling of arrogance has tarnished America since the moment British settlers arrived. The American people have shown this arrogance by owning slaves and servants (refusing to harvest or plow land themselves), involving themselves in wars where their help was not requested (Vietnam comes to mind), and by removing their country from the Olympic games (1980 Olympic games in Moscow, USSR where numerous athletes were robbed of their only chance to compete/win a medal). Yet, when America fails, its people do not want to be reminded of their failures protestors at Kent University in 1970 were shot by the National Guard, just because they were openly stating that the war in Vietnam was futile and costly. America is a proud country and does not like to ask others for help. Its leaders like to be asked for help, whether it be financially, educationally, technologically, or militarily; it is a matter of pride being able to state that America is still the best. Yet, while Americans are helping the less fortunate in Somalia, Kosovo, or Bosnia, there are those in their own country that are not receiving that kind of attention. Maybe America should achieve internal pride, peace, and prosperity before trying to help others with theirs.

Throughout America s vast history, its people have been ethnically diverse, inherently greedy, and particularly arrogant. They possess these characteristics because the population is made-up of people from all over the globe, their capitalistic society tells them to strive for money and power, and the majority populations have persecuted most minorities in which they have come in contact. Yet, Americans do possess a sense of decency they are willing to help their fellow man, have welfare programs, and are democratic. However, the American people must correct their extreme poor qualities before they snowball worse than Calculus can.

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