American creed

There are many views, stereotypes, and stigma surrounding America, in and out of the country. They say this is the land of the free and that everyone is invited to this country. Plus there are multiple stories about America and how people came into this land for a better chance at life, not only for themselves but for their children as well. But do those words really live up to what they are, or are they false words used to make themselves feel better? In this essay, I will be talking about no matter the race, culture, ethnicity, or gender we should all work together and learn to communicate one with one another to the things that keeps us apart can bring us together. We will be following the stories of three people and their experience living in America.

Condoleezza Rice, a former United States secretary of state, talks about how America has lost sight on what it’s supposed to be. I don’t have the direct quote but she said somewhere along the lines of “We’ve lost sight of what America is supposed to be.” In her section of the film, she is talking about how America is a country of immigrants, a country for everyone to come through and to live as they wish. Condoleezza as a child couldn’t even go into restaurants because of her skin color. She’s a black person in America promised a good and fortunate life but as a child, she got the opposite because of the color of her skin. Even though America was saying that you are in control of it due to the voting system, the freedom of speech, the first amendment, and all of the other laws/ amendments, there were still incidents like I pointed out about Condoleezza that she couldn’t even go into restaurants because of the color of her skin. Even up till this day there are people of color that get refused loans for houses, live in worse communities than white people, and still get discriminated against. “They are a country of immigrants… They come to America because they can make their life better.” She continued adding that this is a country of immigrants, filled with all types of people from all around the world and if you don’t like it then, America is not the place for you, you can go somewhere else. In this line she is not wrong, I come from Los Angeles and there are a lot of communities here surrounding each other. Yes, there is the occasional person that doesn’t respect a few people here but that person should know that this city is filled with culture and people from all over the world, and at this point, discrimination should not be allowed.

Joe Maddon, an immigrant from Europe, grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. His grandfather and his father were both coal miners. He would see them every day come home covered in coal, and coughing up black dust. He didn’t want a hard life like that so as a young child he would play baseball with his father, and soon after in his adult years when he became a manager for baseball and lead his team to win the world series. But with all that positivity comes negativity. He would be surrounded by people discriminating against immigrants just for not being citizens. He would see people being discriminated against for not speaking English, the way they dress, and their skin color. I don’t have the exact words but for his view about being American, “there's a lot of misinformation that you have to fight in America. You have to fight to keep your head up and fight for what’s right in America.” He is fighting all of this negativity by bringing the children together. He would have activities for the children and would help them work and communicate with each other. “Bringing the kids together, of all cultures, and races… Making skin color, culture, race and more disappear from America so we can all be equal to one and treat one another the same.” His dream is to teach people from a young age to work together, to communicate with one another, and to learn with one another, with all kinds of races, cultures, religions, and genders, so when they grow older all of the things that keeps us apart from working with each other, those will all disappear and we could be as one group working together. “America is full of immigrants and they have to show that America is a place for everybody, not just one race and skin color.” In my experience, teaching people from a young age is the right thing because as you grow up either those mentalities could stay of they could change as a teen, but if you teach them from a young age that these people are just people like us then all of that negativity will transform into the bad decision of that one person.

Deidre Prevett works as a principal, she comes from a family of educators and is a 5th generation of educators. She is part of the Creek Indian family and her grandfather went to an Indian boarding school. Many Indians that went to boarding school completed their schooling, were led off, and just weren't able to get jobs after all that schooling. Most of them went back home just disappointed and taken away from who they really are. But for Deider's grandfather, he got a job as a teacher, and from there on the legacy of educators. For her living or being American means “We get to enjoy freedom, but with freedom comes great responsibility.” I honestly don’t really agree with her statement but I do agree with the responsibility part. As a woman in America, we do have freedom but I feel like our freedom got limited in one area of our lives, and that is when roe v wave got overturned for us. I feel like that's when our freedom and our rights got taken away. With the responsibility part, the responsibility that we have as Americans that we have is to vote and to choose who we want in our office. I think the responsibility that she talks about is to serve your community. She serves her community by educating the children, working with their families, and talking about the history of her family. She finds it very important to teach children about the Native Americans and what people did to them. I don’t have her exact words but she said something along the lines of "Making sure the children know about the Indian Americans and what happened to them.” I think she lives in a state that's mostly white she makes sure that her children are educated and know about the Native Americans. Because before that history would be erased from the history books and wouldn’t be talked about. Nowadays it’s talked about and taught in schools. She knows the value of the kids even though some are foster kids, and some kids' parents are incarcerated, she knows these kids' worth and knows that they can succeed, that’s why she wants them well-educated so they can work with people from all around the world.

In America, there are many views, stereotypes, and stigma, in and out of the country. They say this is the land of the free and that everyone is invited to this country. There are multiple stories about America and how people came to this land for a better chance at life, not only for themselves but for their children as well. Those people shared out their stories in a documentary. In this essay I talked about no matter the race, culture, ethnicity, or gender we should all work together and learn to communicate one with one another to the things that keeps us apart can bring us together. We followed the stories of three people. A white immigrant, a black former secretary, and a Native American educator. With these stories we how these people work together alongside their community to bring them all together as one big supporting community.