What does it mean to be an American? I’ve sat and pondered the definition for quite some time, but the only legitimate definition I could conceive was: “An American is a person who was born in or immigrated to the United States.” That’s it. We all have unique ways of being an American, combining modern traditions with those of our ancestors who came from all over the world. Besides Native Americans, none of us can claim purely American ancestry.
So, what happens when we try to define “American” as anything more than simply being born in the United States?
Racism. Blunt, racist comments that we think we have moved past as a country but as the most recent Miss America pageant demonstrated, we have not. Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, is the first woman of Indian ancestry to be crowned Miss America. Unfortunately, people’s misconstrued ideas of what it means to be American did not align with who Davuluri is. Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, was named “America’s Choice” during the pageant and many felt she is a “real American.” She’s blonde, white, thin, a member of the Kansas Army National Guard, bared her tattoos during the competition, and loves to hunt. According to Facebook and Twitter, Americans believed her to be the “most American.” As Fox News commentator, Todd Starnes, tweeted of her, “The liberal Miss America judges won’t say this — but Miss Kansas lost because she actually represented American values.”
What?
How does Davuluri, a 24 year-old aspiring medical student, not represent American values while Vail does? Evidently, many Americans are unwilling to relinquish their views of a “typical” American: a blonde, thin, white female with a girl-next-door look. Theresa Vail is no more American than Nina Davuluri is. Both were born in the United States. However, many Americans are unable to accept that Davuluri represents someone worthy of being crowned Miss America.
Aside from Todd Starnes, many others turned to Twitter to express their views on Davuluri winning. Some of the more alarming tweets were the following:
“@JPLMan95: Miss America? You mean Miss 7-11.”
“@kalebistoocute: Man our president nor our new Miss America isn’t even American I’m sorry but Miss Kansas I salute you your the real American #MissAmerica”
“@Blayne_MkItRain: Congratulations Al-Qaeda. Our Miss America is one of you.”
Besides the improper grammar of these tweets, their blatant ignorance of political correctness is shocking. But, unfortunately, these tweets are an accurate representation of much of America. And these tweets serve as evidence that America has not moved past racism, at all.
By 2020, it is projected that between 39 and 43 million Americans will be Spanish speakers and by 2050, the minorities will become the majority. We are a country consisting of outsiders, the religiously persecuted, the refugees, and the discriminated. Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us are in America because our ancestors’ lives were so unbearable in whichever country they were from that moving to the United States was the only solution for a better life. So, who is to say Davuluri is less American than anyone else?