Philadelphia, July 4, 1776. Maybe the place and date mean nothing to you, but they represent a big mark on the  history’s records.

That was when and where the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America was issued.

With a sentence that was called “one of the best-known sentences in the English language,” Thomas Jefferson, the author, spoke of the rights of the American citizens as follows,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Then and there, America witnessed its first birthday!

Since that time, communities have been built, societies fashioned, generations born, and others vanished — since then, the waves of social change have never stopped, at least not all the way.

From those golden times up till now, America has been viewed in other ways by foreign nations — surprisingly, it even looks different to its own citizens and residents.

Between two extremes, America is either seen by some as the green land of freedom, human rights, civilization, and business, while others curse it as being, in their eyes, the root of the world’s conflicts, the country that is used to ruling and giving orders. To outsiders — like me — America is mostly seen as one entity, one big thing. It is very rare to notice its fragmented communities or to recognize the disparity between its people from afar.

Lost in Between

As the life journey takes me, I found myself on the way to the US early in February 2010. Based in the central capital, Washington DC, I anticipate what my experience will be. Since my very first day, once I stepped on the American soil after 13 hours of flight, I felt that the one thing, one entity image that I previously had about America turned out to be false.

Faces, tongues, traditions, views, and expressions have stricken me with surprise. The Melting Pot vs. Salad Bowel metaphors are so present and can be spotted at once.

This was not because of the diverse ethnicities that settled in America a long time ago, but basically it is the outcome of a huge societal evolution. It is far from wrong to describe America as a country with one society, not because it is a multicultural country — it does not look like this to me at all — but because of the accumulation of old and new systems that — willingly or unwillingly — frame its societies, in some ways, in separation.

Definitely, those diverse ethnicities coexist, intermingle, and interact together in the same pot, but each likes, wants, or works to keep its social set of values privately in separation from the other.

When asking some friends in DC about life in the other states, they replied that each state is unlike the other, each one has its own different atmosphere, not because of the different cultures, politics, or lifestyles, but because of the social changes. Some of them were kidding when they said each state is a country within a country!

The concept of unity of society can be seen at a microlevel of ethnicity. The one uniting force is lifestyle — the factor that holds ultimate power between American societies.

Despite differences in religion, language, color, and origin, all blend together in the life routine enforced by the overall system.

Americans of all kinds, spend most of their week working and shopping. The burdens of life leave people with a tight plan for communal or individual change. Go to work, pay the rent, feed and educate your kids, get the health insurance, and — recently —find a job. These are the top priories of whoever settles in this land.

It took me by surprise when I interviewed some Arabs who immigrated to the States about how they spend their time. As they elaborated, they realize that they sometimes forget the date of their immigration because they have no time to remember or think about other things amid their daily routine. They have accustomed quickly to programming their lives to follow the nonstop pace of life here. Some of them note that this may have happened beyond their control. It is at this level that American societies have a unified, common ground. However, at the end of a long day of work, shopping is the routine.

On Which Basis Do Societies Build?

With this primary thought, I have been very keen to figure out this hard equation: Despite the Americanized lifestyle, why do communities still look different?

It was obvious to me that there are still two major factors that hold the American grassroots communities, namely race and religion.

Paradoxically, they are the same two things that are not mentioned in official documents, for it is rude to ask somebody about their religion or to refer to their race or color. It is history that holds a high position in America — nobody can forget easily the old days.And so is the race issue strongly and powerfully coded within communities. By race I do not mean here discrimination, as that is another story, but I just mean the origin.

Sometimes, the race issue is hidden due to the daily schedule of life, but it is always there — a sense that Americans are different. This occurred to me while I was interviewed by some Americans, when I noticed that some of them liked to introduce themselves — after mentioning their positions, educational degrees, and political parties — as whites. They liked to insert their race, white Americans, as part of their identity. This might not be normal, but it is the reality.

On the same day, it happened I was in an event celebrating the Afro-American Black History Month. The same impression I caught: The nationalistic sense of Afro-Americans toward their race and history was by far clear.

The same was true with Hispanics, who were very serious in sticking to their language and traditions. Sometimes, all of them become very willing to contribute to the big American pot — especially when it comes to political changes or to a serious national crisis — but in the end, they return closer to their society roots. This sophisticated social scheme confuses many, who end up with an identity crisis. They are torn between their race-based society and their American nationality.

All Ears, All Eyes

Liberty. Equality. Happiness. With these key words of Jefferson, America had been born. With these words, we, observers of this New World — as it was called in its early days — should open our eyes to see it differently.

Nations are used to be judged based on their political agendas — or their religions as portrayed and propagandized, as is the case with Muslims. And because of that, peoples’ real societal changes remain in the dark.

First published: February 2011