Pros And Cons Of Being An American

To me, being an American means having a white complexion, not being a victim issues like racism and Islamophobia, being able to exercise all of your rights without the authority questioning you or threatening to take them away, and not knowing the struggle of being a minority in America. In the media there is a bad connotation with calling yourself American. A big reason for this has to do with all the current events going on in our country such as the reasons for the Black Lives Matter movement, the outcome of the presidential election, and other things that devalue minority groups. Being an American means not having to be a victim of these issues, but standing up to them when they are an issue. To begin with, being American means not having the fear of being different because you know you will get treated the same as everyone else. The people that I consider to be American do not have to fear telling people what they believe in because no one will judge
Patriotism is shown in many ways, from putting your hand over your heart and singing the National Anthem to not standing for the National Anthem as a way of boycotting. It also means not getting backlash when you decide to boycott things such as the National Anthem like Kaepernick did, when he had a perfectly valid reason to do what he did. Being American means being able to post videos of yourself tearing or burning Kaepernick’s jersey because you think that what he did was betrayal to our country or wrong in some way. I will stand up and challenge authorities when they are in the wrong as a sign of patriotism. It is patriotism because I am exercising my first amendment rights for the better of this country and its people. What Kaepernick did was not wrong at all, he stood up and challenged the millions of people who watched what he did. He brought attention to his cause, Black Lives Matter, which has been a growing issue in this