Some unkind people would say 'American History' is an oxymoron; there's no such thing as history in the US of A, because of the castles. You see, they haven't got any over there. Well, obviously there was plenty of American history, just the problem was the settlers murdered most of the natives, managing to annihilate it.

But while America's past acts of genocide were indisputably evil, in a way this, in combination with the constitution, gave the descendants of settlers and slaves alike a clean slate. The idea of the United States was to remove the prejudices of Europe, and create a society which was equal. Thus an African was no longer an African, but a citizen. Equally an Irishman was no longer an Irishman, but a citizen too, and the same and equal. Okay, maybe it took a while to get there, but at least in theory in the USA all races and cultures are equal.

America's greatest gift is this lack of context; a black man could be anything, and would not be defined by his skin colour. Everyone would have the same chances, and not be held back by cultural prejudices and assumption about the life they would lead. While in the United Kingdom (or 'England' as Americans refer to it) there's no actual constitution which states that everyone should be judged without prejudice, the USA has such.

But why is it, then, that American society seems to be far more divided than the Britain? While I think everyone in Britain is indisputably British (they might not be English, but everyone is British), Americans seems to be defined by which sub-category they fit into; Afro-American, Anglo-American, Italian-American. Americans are more obsessed by their 'roots' than any other country in the world. Rather than relishing a lack of prejudice, Americans seem to try and create it.

As a result, American society seems polarized to a huge extent; there are black schools, and white schools. Whole areas are populated only by Hispanics, or by Italians. Crossing the line between these narrow categories seems unfeasibly hard. It's like rather than using this potential for equality, Americans seek to escape from it, and regress to their imaginary past, defining themselves by who their great grandparents were.

And let's be clear here; no one wants the Americans. Irish people don't like 'Irish-Americans' claiming kinship with them any more than Africans like black Americans pretending they have a common bond with them. Americans are forever American, not Italian, English, Scottish, African or Welsh. This, surely, is a good thing. This, surely, is the whole point of Americans emigrating to the bloody country in the first place; to get away from cultural stereotypes.

Of course the situation of black Americans is different to that of others; their forebears were taken to America by the force of slavery. But the United States of 2001 is not the United States of 1780, and equality is a possibility. So maybe the message for black culture shouldn't be to try and isolate itself as Afro-American, but rather to try and become equal, not just part of a ghetto. But I can understand the urge to separate yourself from the white-governed mainstream of American culture, considering they've just elected a fucking racist cunt for a president who thinks black people are synonymous with criminals.

But then again, I'm looking at this from an English perspective. We have so much history here we don't know what to do with it; you're in danger of tripping over ancient ruins all over the place. But living with all this history makes you realize how pointless it is; very bloody, repetitive and impersonal. I don't want to be ruled by history, so it annoys me that in many ways Britain is a society where historic prejudices are almost enshrined in law, even though they're largely irrelevant to most people in the country.

Either way, I think there's a difference between an interest in your roots, and in letting your whole life be guided by prejudices which are not your own but are those of an, often largely imagined, cultural or racial history. Though I can understand Americans who're searching for their roots, I don't think roots should be more important than the present. What I'm saying is, understand and explore your culture, by all means, but in at nation such as the USA, there really is no excuse for letting the context of your background control your life.
 
 

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