American Identity and Volunteerism

   Volunteerism can be regarded as a tool to create American identity and unite the heterogeneous people with different ethnicity, religion, race and gender into unified and uniformed people, but during passage of time this tool has become a part of American identity and culture. In fact volunteerism is an aspect of American identity, subsequently American culture.

   Volunteerism has a long history in the US; actually it goes back to the Founding Fathers and their efforts to build a nation for its people, equally. Their efforts are considered as altruistic acts and a kind of sacrifice. It has continued since then, during the 19th century, the 20th century and the current century but during these centuries it has functioned differently. While most volunteers of the 18th and 19th centuries found their assignments through their church or another private sector, the 20th century is where mainstream volunteer organizations began to increase.

   Volunteerism has promoted by the US government since 1930s and drag on to present time but during time its forms and aims have been different since1930s governmental volunteerism seek to bring relief to the society. But in 1990s governmental volunteerism seeked to build American identity in purest form to revive American tradition in a conservative sense. Although revived by the conservatives, American volunteerism has been continued by the democrats and then again by Bush the son as a neoconservative.

   On the whole American volunteerism has been used to build the nation then its people identify with each other and share a common culture. After fulfillment of this phase American volunteerism tries to, or better to say it is used to promote the American culture around the world. Like JFK's plan, Peace Corps of 1960s which has covered 139 countries around the world. Today American volunteerism has two function, first, to help to reshape the American identity in the passage of time, second, to promote the American culture around the world.

American Identity

Noam Chamsky talks about the American Identity. Watch it.
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   Identity is self-description and self-understanding. Each person takes an identity as a whole, unintentionally, to be a person and to live in the society appropriately. Identity is something we create and it is not a situation of being it is a process of becoming. Actually each person has an identity which is consists of multiple, shifting, changing, fragmented and fractured identities.

   Generally it is believed that the American identity is according to common ideas, not ethnic, religious or racial values. Americans differ from many other peoples both in how they define themselves and in the kinds of lives they choose to lead. This communal American identity embraces a pluralism that covers racial, religious, and ethnic divisions. As a result of the mingling of many ethnicities, America may be evolving from a multicultural nation to a nation of multicultural people that is, the U.S. is turning from a country with different culture to a country that its people bear different cultures. A Pole marries a Latino while their parents also are from different races but they strongly consider themselves American.

   But all Americans do not practice the American identification; actually they reject the American identity and try to acquire their favorable identity. Here we come across a resistance to the dominate culture which is a key aspect in the process of American identification.

   Afro-Americans are the most important group which have resisted against the dominate culture, challenged the American identity and try to acquire their own culture subsequently identity. The resistance is not something new; it has started since the early times, when the first slaves, mostly Muslim, had been brought to the America, culminated during Civil Right Movement of 1960s, drag on to present time. At the early time they had been forced to convert to their masters’ religion, Islam to Christianity. So religion that is, Islam, is one of the main forces to resist against dominant culture, the culture that tries to unify a heterogeneous multitude of people. The black people have used conversion to Islam as a kind of cultural resistance. Dealing with African American Muslims history, cultural resistance was practiced through Islamic services. During the slavery era, the slaves' knowledge of Arabic and of the religion of Islam was key factors in their identification as African Muslims. The blacks have used different kind of resistances, form of clothing, shaving or having beard, wearing hijab for women Muslims, saying prayer in public , Arabic names, writing in Arabic are different forms of Cultural resistance within the movements. They have shown their resistance in two ways; first, manifested resistance like demonstrations second, concealed resistance like using literature, music and even sport to resist against dominant culture to acquire their expected identity. On the whole the blacks take Islam as a tool to resist and the tool may provide more some important answers to African American economic, political, and cultural questions, leading them to a better position.