Sarah Song What Does It Mean to Be an American?

Sarah Song What does it mean to be an American? It is often said that being an American sions has undercut the universalist means sharing a commitment to a set stance; for being an American has also of values and ideals.1 Writing about the meant sharing a national culture, one relationship of ethnicity and American largely de½ned in racial, ethnic, and identity, the historian Philip Gleason put religious terms. And while solidarity it this way: can be understood as “an experience of willed af½liation,” some forms of To be or to become an American, a person American solidarity have been less in- did not have to be any particular national, clusive than others, demanding much linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. more than simply the desire to af½liate.3 All he had to do was to commit himself to In this essay, I explore different ideals the political ideology centered on the ab- of civic solidarity with an eye toward stract ideals of liberty, equality, and repub- what they imply for newcomers who licanism. Thus the universalist ideological wish to become American citizens. character of American nationality meant Why does civic solidarity matter? that it was open to anyone who willed to First, it is integral to the pursuit of become an American.2 distributive justice. The institutions To take the motto of the Great Seal of the welfare state serve as redistrib- of the United States, E pluribus unum– utive mechanisms that can offset the “From many, one”–in this context sug- inequalities of life chances that a capi- gests not that manyness should be melt- talist economy creates, and they raise ed down into one, as in Israel Zangwill’s the position of the worst-off members image of the melting pot, but that, as of society to a level where they are able the Great Seal’s sheaf of arrows suggests, to participate as equal citizens. While there should be a coexistence of many- self-interest alone may motivate people in-one under a uni½ed citizenship based to support social insurance schemes that on shared ideals. protect them against unpredictable cir- Of course, the story is not so simple, as cumstances, solidarity is understood to Gleason himself went on to note. Amer- be required to support redistribution ica’s history of racial and ethnic exclu- from the rich to aid the poor, including housing subsidies, income supplements, © 2009 by the American Academy of Arts and long-term unemployment bene½ts.4 & Sciences The underlying idea is that people are Dædalus Spring 2009 31 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed.2009.138.2.31 by guest on 29 September 2021 Sarah more likely to support redistributive political life.6 The challenge, then, is to Song schemes when they trust one another, develop a model of civic solidarity that is and they are more likely to trust one “thick” enough to motivate support for another when they regard others as like justice and democracy while also “thin” themselves in some meaningful sense. enough to accommodate racial, ethnic, Second, genuine democracy demands and religious diversity. solidarity. If democratic activity in- volves not just voting, but also deliber- We might look ½rst to Habermas’s ation, then people must make an effort idea of constitutional patriotism (Ver- to listen to and understand one another. fassungspatriotismus). The idea emerged Moreover, they must be willing to mod- from a particular national history, to de- erate their claims in the hope of ½nding note attachment to the liberal democrat- common ground on which to base politi- ic institutions of the postwar Federal Re- cal decisions. Such democratic activity public of Germany, but Habermas and cannot be realized by individuals pursu- others have taken it to be a generalizable ing their own interests; it requires some vision for liberal democratic societies, concern for the common good. A sense as well as for supranational communi- of solidarity can help foster mutual sym- ties such as the European Union. On pathy and respect, which in turn support this view, what binds citizens together citizens’ orientation toward the com- is their common allegiance to the ideals mon good. embodied in a shared political culture. Third, civic solidarity offers more in- The only “common denominator for a clusive alternatives to chauvinist models constitutional patriotism” is that “every that often prevail in political life around citizen be socialized into a common po- the world. For example, the alternative litical culture.”7 to the Nehru-Gandhi secular de½nition Habermas points to the United States of Indian national identity is the Hindu as a leading example of a multicultural chauvinism of the Bharatiya Janata Par- society where constitutional principles ty, not a cosmopolitan model of belong- have taken root in a political culture ing. “And what in the end can defeat without depending on “all citizens’ shar- this chauvinism,” asks Charles Taylor, ing the same language or the same eth- “but some reinvention of India as a secu- nic and cultural origins.”8 The basis of lar republic with which people can iden- American solidarity is not any particular tify?”5 It is not enough to articulate ac- racial or ethnic identity or religious be- counts of solidarity and belonging only liefs, but universal moral ideals embod- at the subnational or transnational levels ied in American political culture and set while ignoring senses of belonging to the forth in such seminal texts as the Decla- political community. One might believe ration of Independence, the U.S. Con- that people have a deep need for belong- stitution and Bill of Rights, Abraham ing in communities, perhaps grounded Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and Mar- in even deeper human needs for recog- tin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” nition and freedom, but even those skep- speech. Based on a minimal commonal- tical of such claims might recognize the ity of shared ideals, constitutional patri- importance of articulating more inclu- otism is attractive for the agnosticism sive models of political community as toward particular moral and religious an alternative to the racial, ethnic, or re- outlooks and ethnocultural identities ligious narratives that have permeated to which it aspires. 32 Dædalus Spring 2009 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed.2009.138.2.31 by guest on 29 September 2021 What does constitutional patriotism not that they necessarily embrace the What does suggest for the sort of reception immi- majority’s ethical-cultural forms. it mean to be an grants should receive? There has been Yet language is a key aspect of “ethi- American? a general shift in Western Europe and cal-cultural” forms of life, shaping peo- North America in the standards govern- ple’s worldviews and experiences. It is ing access to citizenship from cultural through language that individuals be- markers to values, and this is a develop- come who they are. Since a political ment that constitutional patriots would community must conduct its affairs in applaud. In the United States those seek- at least one language, the ethical-cultur- ing to become citizens must demon- al and political cannot be completely strate basic knowledge of U.S. govern- “uncoupled.” As theorists of multicul- ment and history. A newly revised U.S. turalism have stressed, complete sepa- citizenship test was instituted in Octo- ration of state and particularistic iden- ber 2008 with the hope that it will serve, tities is impossible; government deci- in the words of the chief of the Of½ce sions about the language of public insti- of Citizenship, Alfonso Aguilar, as “an tutions, public holidays, and state sym- instrument to promote civic learning bols unavoidably involve recognizing and patriotism.”9 The revised test at- and supporting particular ethnic and re- tempts to move away from civics trivia ligious groups over others.12 In the Unit- to emphasize political ideas and con- ed States, English language ability has cepts. (There is still a fair amount of been a statutory quali½cation for natu- trivia: “How many amendments does ralization since 1906, originally as a re- the Constitution have?” “What is the quirement of oral ability and later as a capital of your state?”) The new test requirement of English literacy. Indeed, asks more open-ended questions about support for the principles of the Consti- government powers and political con- tution has been interpreted as requiring cepts: “What does the judicial branch English literacy.13 The language require- do?” “What stops one branch of gov- ment might be justi½ed as a practical ernment from becoming too power- matter (we need some language to be ful?” “What is freedom of religion?” the common language of schools, gov- “What is the ‘rule of law’?”10 ernment, and the workplace, so why not Constitutional patriots would endorse the language of the majority?), but for this focus on values and principles. In a great many citizens, the language re- Habermas’s view, legal principles are an- quirement is also viewed as a key marker chored in the “political culture,” which of national identity. The continuing cen- he suggests is separable from “ethical- trality of language in naturalization pol- cultural” forms of life. Acknowledging icy prevents us from saying that what it that in many countries the “ethical-cul- means to be an American is purely a tural” form of life of the majority is matter of shared values. “fused” with the “political culture,” he Another misconception about consti- argues that the “level of the shared po- tutional patriotism is that it is necessar- litical culture must be uncoupled from ily more inclusive of newcomers than the level of subcultures and their pre- cultural nationalist models of solidar- political identities.”11 All that should ity.

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