The American Identity

It is both unrealistic and undesirable to hope for immigrants to shed their culture and assimilate into one homogeneous "American" identity. Furthermore, given the United States' history, I would find it impossible to conform to any one single national identity. The notion of cultural pluralists, mentioned by Du Bois, is one of the great and unique aspects of America - to try and gather, synthesize, and enforce a universal identity would be both futile and extremely backwards.

Du Bois mentions the great things both American and Africa offer which begs the need for a harmony between the two cultures. The same is true for the other diverse cultures represented in America. Although I personally am predominantly Irish I don't necessarily identify myself as an Irish-American. However, this culture and heritage greatly affects my life. It hasn't caused specific conflicts with American identity but has added to it. To be asked to forfeit this history, or for African-Americans to be asked to surrender either their American-ness or their African-ness creates a culture that is inevitably blind to the rest of the world, new experiences, different possibilities, and, ultimately the consensus that race is in fact constructed. What we do all share is the experience of the human condition, history and all, rather than what soil our ancestors happened to be born on.