There are thousands of distinct tribes and ethnic groups throughout the world. Each one has a culture that distinguishes it from others, and often language is indicative of those distinctions. Those differences and similarities can help us to understand ourselves and one another. For instance, some languages have words for more than two genders; those pushing the gender boundaries can find comfort that their cause is not new (a recent discovery coming from my research of the book Black Leopard, Red Wolf).

Thinking about words in that context makes me wonder about America: how does language and culture differentiate different groups within our country? “American” is a nationality, indicating citizenship to a state, while ethnicity refers to those groups with ties that go beyond American borders and can be older than its existence. But is race an ethnicity? In other words, is being white an ethnicity? Black? Asian? Race appears to be a category that has ethnicities within it. Also, there are regional distinctions, because there is a culture in the American South that is distinct from the American West and the American Northeast—but are these cultures largely distinctions within the white Euro-American ethnicity? Are Black Americans the same in the South, West, and Midwest?

These are only a few of the many questions that can all lead to various discussions (I’ll let you decide if those conversations would be interesting or not), but I want to turn toward myself (and maybe you). I am a white male and I feel like I don’t belong to any particular ethnic group. I do not have cultural ties to any of my European ancestors, and because I have moved dozens of times and lived in a few regions of the United States and the world, I have no ties to a particular location. The closest thing I have binding me to a particular place would be my membership to a church where I connect to small and large groups with whom I share common beliefs and lifestyle. However, I’ve had to change churches a number of times in the past few years, which means I’ve lost that recently. I am disconnected from the places I graduated high school and college. I’ve lived in Colorado since 2012 and currently reside in the city of Denver, but what binds me to the culture of Denver and Colorado? I’ve been listening to the City Cast Denver podcast as a way to get closer to the Denver culture, but listening to it makes me feel like I don’t belong here. This, itself, is due to socioeconomic differences, because . . . well, I guess I’m not cultured enough to be participating in all the goings-on of the city.

Yet, I do have a tribe, and I am fortunate for it. My last name is Chinese because I’ve been adopted into my stepfather’s family, and still my mother’s and biological father’s family consider me one of theirs as well, and now my wife’s family has embraced me as one of them (and she’s almost half Cherokee); thus, I have plenty of family. That is my tribe. We all speak English (and other languages), we all live in America (scattered among many states), we share common values that don’t always align perfectly but well enough, and despite plenty of disputes and offenses, I can almost always walk into any family gathering and be welcome. But I don’t have a single location where I can connect with all or even most of this tribe because we are spread out. This is America, and many of us here can say the same or similar.

This brings me to my point. What if America were a tribe, an ethnic group? What would define it? What would distinguish it among the nations and peoples and cultures of the world while uniting all of us?! I want to suggest two things: the American Dream and “all men are created equal”. Aren’t these what make America great? Maybe this is wishful thinking, because these two ideals have not been true for large portions of Americans throughout our history, and still we are the most powerful nation in the world, with people all over the world coming here to pursue that American Dream.

I think the American identity is changing today, but not really. We’ve always been hypocritical, racist oppressors who claimed the American Dream applies to everyone here while suppressing the rights of those we secretly despise. But today, under Trump’s presidency, we’re flaunting that hypocrisy. His leadership is divisive—he makes enemies of those he’s closest to who dare disagree with him, and a significant portion of Americans do not want his ways to define us. I believe Americans need to come together around what unites us, and then build an agenda and identity around that ideal. Even with the most divisive of issues, there are things we can all agree on, and that’s where we need to start. Because the American Dream is real, and it is made possible by our governmental system and cultural ideals, even if they often fail, and America won’t give up on who we are and who we want to be. #Hope