America: A nation-state or a multinational state?

I have been debating if America is a nation-state for a while now, especially since the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords last week. First I’ll define the words nation and state.

A nation is a group of people with similar ancestry/history that may have political objectives in mind. A state (or country) has organized territory, permanent population, a government and is recognized by other countries. So, in the United States certain ‘nations’ could include the spotted group of Indian reservations across America including 635 Indian nations recognized by the federal government. The reason I am talking about all of this will come up in a second.

In the wake of condemning the shooting of Congresswomen Giffords, her staff and others, people said that we as Americans need to come together. These people wanted us to remain a nation-state by all of us having a common ancestry of being American. Basically, some politicians are trying to say that all Americans share the same culture and customs, which is nit true. Also the whitewashing makes it seem that all people living in America are Americans ultimately insults Latinos, Indian nations recognized by the federal government and all immigrants that come into this country. These messages of not making America seem multinational and just one pure culture with statements like “We are All Americans” makes people disregard the divisions in America and the status of the existing ‘nations’ in America.

To help recognize these divisions we need to help people understand what a nation is. If you haven’t figured out what a ‘nation’ is, it is a group of people such as Latinos, that may have political objectives but do not have to have a government. If a government and defined borders are present and then it becomes a state. In conclusion, a nation does not have to be a country and a country does not have to be nation.

2 years ago  /  1 note