Noor Bagi: Land Of The Free?

The U.S has a prolonged history of discrimination. In the late 17th century, when America declared as a free country, only the white gentility had the privileged of “freedom” and African American continue their life as slaves for many decades. As the country grows, it became a dream land, a refuge for immigrations fled from their country to seek freedom and pursuit happiness. However, the gene of discriminations stuck deeply in the mind of the early founding fathers; hence their descendents also obtained the hatred toward immigrations who look differently. In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, many immigrants such as the Jews, Chinese and Japanese immigrations came to America with the hope for

The diversity between Americans has always been evident, and not just by the skin tone or religion, but also by their backgrounds, as well as how their lives are like today. Especially in African Americans and those who wanted to change the ways of religion, and the prejudice against them continues to stick, even today.

Our American belief that everyone is equal has given people hope, changed lives and helped people’s dreams come true Diana Pham was from communist Vietnam and lived as boat people trying to survive in their home country. Diana Pham her husband Vi Luu came to Chicago in 1980, the day she arrived she knew her family had endless opportunities to be whatever and whoever they wanted to be. “My daughters, like other Americans, had an equal opportunity to succeed. America has given our family the chance to become whatever we choose to become.” stated Diana Pham. America’s equality changed just one simple immigrant family from Vietnam and is changing so many other immigrants who risk their lives just to come to America and have an opportunity to be whoever and whatever they want to be.

In America, the land of the free, people believe that it’s the greatest place to be. And America would probably be what everyone believes, but it has a very serious problem that could eventually destroy the country as whole. America is built upon Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but it has a strong equality issue that has to be taken care of. Equality is a social contract in America and unfortunately it is a broken one. A social contract is an agreement amongst the members of a society, but equality is a serious issue. Equality poses the biggest problem to America simply because in any country the people make the country, and if the people can’t get along either internal conflicts occur, or people eventually leave. Throughout America everyone regardless of race, color, or sexual orientation has experienced inequality in some part of America. Words are exchanged, fists are thrown, and in serious cases lives are lost because people are racists to one another. Equality is a broken social contract in America that will eventually be its demise if not attended to.

To be an American, means to me, that you are accepting of the differences around you; however, we as Americans are not very good at accepting those who do not agree with us. In an article,a publisher for NBC News, quoted a leading crimes researcher who stated, “hate crimes in nine U.S. metropolitan areas rose more than 20 percent last year, fueled by inflamed passions during the presidential campaign and more willingness for victims to step forward.” Many believe being an American means you have freedom, but what freedom? Freedom of speech? Freedom of Religion? The other “freedoms” stated in the Bill of Rights? How true can that be if those around you are so quick to go as far as harming others just for being different. Americans often hide behind their right to freedom of speech to be demeaning, but

Our country is a good example of what diversity means. Globalization has increased rapidly, making our society a more diverse place. Where individuals from foreign places with different cultures, race, and languages all unite to become one. As one of my favorite novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald, once said, “The rich are different from you and me.” (Walter Benn Michaels 725) The problem here is that Fitzgerald failed to realize that the “rich” were the same as everyone else, except with more money. A diverse society represents a country with various people of color, socioeconomics, national origin, etc. Although we are all different yet, the same, and come from different places, race, color, gender, and socioeconomics, nobody is looked down upon nor superior to the other.

America is known for its freedom. Freedom to speak your opinion, freedom to practice any religion that you choose, and freedom to criticize the government. American’s are able to have the power or right to act, speak, or even think about almost anything they wanted to without restraint from the government or from other people. Migrants from other countries come to the United States to have a chance at freedom. To raise a family away from war torn cities or harsh governments. They come to America in hopes of getting the chance to succeed in life and express themselves without anybody critiquing them. However, America is not as free as it’s made out to be. American history has been filled with racism and discrimination against

The notion of having a nation where any religion can practice freely was one of the many reasons that which America was founded on. This belief brought people together, but today is tearing many people apart. Patel states that, “…in America, people will have their identities respected, their freedom protected and their safety secured (pg.14).” Many people in America do have the luxury of their belief being appreciated and tolerated in America, but for vast majority of people this is not the case. Specifically in this novel Patel discusses this discrimination towards Muslims in America. Though he does recognize that it is not just Muslims who experience discrimination, all religions have. It can be argued though, that Muslims have

Instead of rejecting those who come from different backgrounds and customs, we need to embrace them. I understand that society has a way of making the “unknown” (as in people from different cultures) seem like a dangerous problem, but the real problem of society is how we have let it shape our views of certain people. Some have been ignorant, and mislead to believe these lies about truly innocent people. Discrimination and persecution is real, and it is happening today. Building the wall on the southern border, for example, would physically separate ourselves from other countries. We need to do the opposite: we need to be united. We have seen Trump’s discrimination and persecution before he was elected. Now, with his election, we can expect it to be more prevalent than

There are 6.3 billion people in the world, each one of them believes and acts differently. But some of them don’t believe what the other believes and acts against them. But in America it is amazing how we open our country to all and can live with so many different people and cultures. Being an American means being able to live with different cultures without dispute.

Most Americans place their pride in being apart of a country where a man can start at the bottom and work his way to the top. We also stress the fact that we are “all created equal” with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (Jefferson 45) During the early 1900s white Americans picked and chose who they saw fit to live in America and become an American. “Those that separate the desirable from the undesirable citizen or neighbor are individual rather than race.”

If you want to know the truth, I have to say that I'm a little shame to be American now days. The only thing that comforts me is the knowledge that most part of Americans are shame as well. Since January 2017, representative of the United States does not believe in diversity but unfortunately, they believe in uniformity. Where freedom highlights the first American Amendment, being a woman, a homosexual, a Muslim or an immigrant appears to be immoral in the US today.

One of the mottos of the United States of America, “E Pluribus Unum,” hasn’t always been exemplified in the country. It means “one from many” and that everyone in America can be unified, despite the differences they may have. Frankly, there were times when America went completely against the motto. People were discriminated against by citizens and laws if they had a different skin color, race, gender, or so on. Although the U.S. betrayed this motto for some time, it has passed many amendments and acts to reverse this.

It is not only Americans that have issues accepting everyone because of race, gender, ethnicity etc., it is done everywhere in the world. Therefore, the fact that in America I am at least provided with the same rights and

We live in the country which was very big and here are the people from different race, culture, and country but we have accepted and treat everyone equal. The United States