To What Extent Race has Challenged the Concept of Americanness

Running head: American History
American History

American History 1
To what extent race has challenged the concept of “Americanness”?
More than two centuries of struggle to realize the principles of its universal equality have passed
but the United States is still confronting the issues of inequalities relating to gender, races and
class. In a society which claims individualism, freedom and limitless mobility, the existence of
proliferating inequality across the attributive lines of gender and race seems to be a paradox. But
is it in reality? The two major structures through which the inequality in the race have been
shaped in the United States are citizenship and labor (Heiskanen, 2009, 1-15).
While citizenship has been used to draw limits amongst the people included as the members of
society and is entitled to protection, respect and rights, on the other hand, those who are barred
and thus cannot claim for their rights or recognition. Labor puts the people in the economic order
thereby creating an impact on their accessibility for services and goods, their standard of living
and level of autonomy and quality of life. Both aspects constitute the ways which prioritize white
men and empower them as compared to women and radicalized minorities (James, 2014, 1-100).
Here Americanness can be defined as the characteristic of being an American .Americanness
comes from sense of belonging to American culture. So, this essay debates on what extent have
the race challenged the concept of Americanness. It shall reveal the similarities and differences
in the context of African, American and Hispanic movements. The various literatures would be
critically analyzed in this regard. Their historical importance would influence the arguments of
the text along with comparing them in various contexts.
Frederick Douglass in his speech on the Independence Day celebration on July 5th, 1852 asked
the audience ‘What to the slave is the fourth of July? ‘(Booker, 2015). He had acknowledged the
founding fathers of the United States of America for committing their life to liberty and creating

American History 2
happiness. He mentioned that while the founders of the nation were great men but on the other
hand he contradicts this fact by stating that there was hypocrisy in their ideas. It is because of the
existence of slaves on the land of U.S.
He had further asked that if the great principles of natural justice and freedom encompassed in
the Declaration of Independence extended to the blacks. It was the time when slavery was yet to
be abolished from the U.S. The blacks were demotivated from participating in the Fourth of July
celebrations even in the free states. For example , he addressed the dissimilarities amongst the
white men and the Negros over the land of U.S. While on the other hand in the year 2009,
Gloria E. Anzaldua in her essay ‘The New Mestiza Nation: A Multicultural Movement
‘expresses her anger and grief towards the increase of hate groups, the KKK, white supremacy
groups along with the neo-nazis as the society are heading to the twenty-first century.
It has been claimed by these groups that the racial groups, the working class and ‘the people of
color ‘are taking over the territory of the whites. They further say that these groups use
affirmative actions for driving the whites out of the job. For example, the affirmative action’s
comprise of the use of racial quotas by the blacks to get jobs in U.S. The white supremacists
along with the so-called advocates of family values and elitists of academics accuse the
multiculturalists of weakening the national identity and the literary canon. They are giving
people of color, gay men, the lesbians and working class people a dominating control over the
society of U.S. (Power-Greene, 2014, 1-20).
While Douglass expressed his sorrow towards the discrimination faced by African Americans in
the nineteenth century, Anzaldúa raised the issue of the regressive state of the nation inside and
outside the field of education. She has even discussed the extended definition of her theory 'new

American History 3
mestiza ‘. She explains that the term ‘mestiza’ has many forms and it can be used beyond the
racial identity and biological categories Mestiza is a woman of mixed racial and ethnic ancestry
specially of mixed Indian American or European descent . It, therefore, includes spiritual,
asthenic and intellectual aspects as well.
She clarifies that multiculturalism in a true sense destroys the fantasy which has dominated the
official version of the U.S. in its history. It poses a threat to the authority of white males and
makes them feel ashamed of their culture through the representation of perceptions and histories
of the ethnic groups. The multiculturalists have torn the fantasy of a monocultural country and
examined the history of external and internal colonialism by the government of the U.S. They
have opposed the wars of the U.S. with the third world countries. Thus the women of color, gay
people and the working class have denied from letting out their past or stories to be made
invisible or turned against them(Hunter, 2018,1-37).
In this context, both the texts show that mid ninetieth and rise of the twentieth century saw
various movements which revealed the struggle of African American and Hispanics to become
‘Americans'. The Chicano Movement in the year 1960 was a civil rights movement which was an
extended version of Mexican –American civil rights movement. It stated the goal of
accomplishing the empowerment of Mexican Americans. The term Chicano was used as a
disrespectful label for the children of the migrants of Mexico. This new generation of Mexican
Americans was excluded by people from both sides.
These people were of the opinion that these children were neither Americans nor Mexicans.
Later on, Chicano was accepted as a mark of ethnic pride and self-determination. This movement
comprised of many issues like rights of workers in the farms, restoration of land grants, voting,