What does it mean to be American?

Dear Toni Morrison,

I was very interested in the way you analyzed the role of the racial hierarchy in establishing an American identity, as well as the role of race in unifying groups that would otherwise be divided. We talked about this idea in class today in the context of the antebellum South, when whites of different classes being unified by their shared whiteness and their shared sense of superiority over blacks. You talk about this in your article, explaining “race talk as a bonding mechanism” that is reflected in popular culture. You say that race is the “nail upon which American identity is hung,” and that “race talk,” the creation of a racial hierarchy that puts blacks at the bottom, is a “rite of passage into American culture.” I find this frame of analyzing race compelling. It builds on what we have read before about race as a metalanguage, but you very effectively pinned down how central race is to American identity through your anecdotes, helping me to understand this idea more concretely, and add more complexity to my understanding of intersectionality and the hierarchy of our society. Your article raises very interesting questions: what does it mean to be American? How has that been defined over time? After reading your article, I will continue to ponder these questions.