What does it mean to be American in 2021?

This month’s blog is a quick, but important read. To begin, I’d like to ask you; are you proud to be an American?

Following the outrageous year 2020 had in store for the nation, this question has become more challenging than not. For the prideful American I’ve grown to be, I personally struggled with this question for quite some time throughout the year, as reflecting on 2020 had left me and many others with a rather bitter taste of the United States. It was a year thrown off track not just by the novel coronavirus, but by the pain-stakingly evident display of America’s worst in action. From the social outrage incited by the indisputably wrongful killing of numerous African Americans at the hands of extremely unqualified police officers to the striking social divide exacerbated by an apathetic, self-interested president, 2020 put some of America’s worst qualities in the spotlight to wither.

“Isn’t the United States like, super racist?”, my colleagues from the UK asked.

“Well not really, but it’s complicated” I replied, as we began a long conversation of how America’s brutal history with race evolved into its current political/social make-up today.

For many people in my generation, as we’re moving through college and becoming more educated on the nation’s past transgressions domestically and internationally, having pride in the United States can be a very difficult conversation. It’s difficult to stomach the irrefutably evil acts this nation has committed, and the damage this country has done in the pursuit of its interests throughout its upbringing. How do we justify the genocide of the natives whos ancestral lands were stripped from them at the hands of a brutal colonizers? How do we accept the damage our country has done to Latin America, a continent bitterly under-developed and now plagued with corruption and failed economies? How do we smile at the sheer and utter destruction of the Middle East, done by leaders who miscalculated their efforts in an extremely delicate and socially complicated region? How do we take pride in our nation’s founding principles of equality and opportunity, but it simply could not view people with darker skin equally for almost 200 years, and that’s still hardly the truth?

As we close out a challenging year and begin a new one with the US capitol building raided by a group of individuals whose disregard for the sanctity of our democracy further damns our image, it’s hard to blame those who don’t take pride in our flag, and who continue to lose faith in the American promise.

So, what does it mean to be an American in 2021?

Despite all of our transgressions, despite the many hypocrisies of the United States and the tragic misalignment of our actions with our founding virtues, I believe that this question merits an important discussion on context. When our founders structured our constitutional republic, they designed the nation to be equitable for its citizens, prescribing a list of inalienable rights to guarantee certain freedoms and a due process of law. This system of governance created the groundwork of which a powerful country would be born, but most importantly, where individuals are able to create a meaningful life through the pursuit of their happiness. A country where true freedom takes precedence over everything.

But, of course, given the social constraints of their time, this wasn’t the immediate story of the United States. Race quickly became the center of our nation’s politics, and we grappled with intense racial issues for centuries. But the most important point to acknowledge is that progress happened. Progress happened because our country was built to progress.

I believe that what it means to be American in 2021 can be best captured in one word: persist. It is to acknowledge the progress we’ve made thus far, and ever more conscious of the progress we have yet to make. It’s to keep faith in the vision of America as a truly equitable society and to persist towards this vision relentlessly. The challenges we still face today as a nation are many and evolving, but the most important thing for us as the next generation of the United States to remember is the fact that we are the country’s future. We are the ones who will be responsible for whether or not the nation continues to progress, and who will ultimately decide what direction the nation goes in. Nothing will ever justify the cruelty of our past, but nothing can justify inaction from discouragement.

The United States was designed specifically to progress. As we come closer towards embracing the power that comes from our melting pot, our generation has important work to do in being the next step in this nation’s history towards becoming a truly equitable society for all. From healing social divisions in race to correcting centuries of systemic inequality, let our generation be another chapter in the healing of this nation, and as Amanda Gorman beautifully put it at President Biden’s inauguration,

Let love become our legacy.