Helped Mom study for her citizenship test
Peg Anderson,
Westborough, MA.
Mom came here after WWll from Newfoundland, Canada. When I was in the fifth grade she became a citizen. I used to quiz her while sitting on the front steps of our house.
I passed Citizenship test, can you?
Avanti Iyer,
Chevy Chase, MD.
I’m tired of not been seen as having the same rights as white people (especially after 9/11). I had to pay hundreds of dollars in fees and take a test to become a citizen of the US. I am curious how many native-born white people have the equivalent civics, history and geographic knowledge of this country that they seem to take for granted.
No, I’m “really” from New York.
Kate Lee van Loveren,
Ann Arbor, MI.
I was born in New York, grew up in New York, and live in New York (when I’m not at school). I’m of half Chinese and half Dutch descent, but for some people that registers into me not being American for some reason. Just by looking at me, people will ask where I’m from. I will say New York and ask where they are from, knowing the question they’re going to ask next. Like expected, they ask where I’m REALLY from because I must have been lying to them the first time. I’m REALLY from New York. Did you know that people from other countries can immigrate into the United States and live in America and raise families in America and have American citizenship and be AMERICAN? Fascinating, I know.
Si Senor! I am US citizen
Heidy Avila Murillo,
Baltimore, MD.
My marriage is biracial, I am Hispanic and my husband is a Caucasian born in Maryland. This year after obtaining my US citizenship, my husband and I decided to have three days vacations in Canada. We visited Niagara Falls, Toronto city, and since I love Diego Rivera’s artwork, we decided to have an adventurous driving trip and passed by Detroit Museum of Art, which has original copies of Rivera’s murals.
When passing through the border checkpoint between Canadian area and Detroit, an officer asked for our passports, he reviewed mine very carefully. He started asking us what was our relationship? We said we are married, He replay for how long?, we answer 4 years. He asked back and directed the question toward my husband like if I didn’t understand English, and said Why she hasn’t change her name? My husband replied, “Well she doesn’t want it. “ After that he asked more questions; from where we are coming from? For how long we have been in Canada?, what was our purpose of coming to Detroit? For how long we are planning to stay in Detroit etc, etc. Still after answered all his questions, he didn’t seem satisfied. At the end he told us to park our cars and so we can pass by the office to be checked.
I got it officers in any checkpoint border need to check people’s passports, but this officer’s behavior wasn’t correct, why all that questions? What if we were just being friends, or complete strangers? What it is wrong if I don’t want to change my Latino name for a more Westernized? we were after all US citizens.
With this experience, the only conclusion that I can make is that his officer had his head “full of stereotypes” I guess it was hard for him to accept the idea that biracial marriages really exist, and that people like me “Hispanic looking” can also be citizens like him, but I don’t blame him, my passport was the only evidence that I had to prove it.
Citizenship is fact – race is fiction.
Ann Evans Larimore,
Ann Arbor, MI.
Every human being is entitled to humanity
Erik,
Netherlands.
Obama said in Athens: “To see different cultures and meet different people is important to understand ourselves and our place in the world. Here, so many ideas about democracy, notions of citizenship and rule of law began to develop. That is something of value.”
I am an American, not hyphenated American
AJ Allee,
Bulverde, TX.
Hyphenation is made up by racist and news media I worked my butt off to become an American I earned the right to be one, why would I want to be called half American???
earned my citizenship 1995 and very proud of it
Citizenship does not define, personality does.
Margarita,
San Marcos, CA.
Many people have judged not just me but my parents as well because of their citizenship status, we’re not good enough, just a burden to society. People have said that I won’t finish high school because I’ll end up pregnant by my senior year. My parents have had trouble getting jobs before because they didn’t speak English well or they seemed untrustworthy just because of their citizenship. My parents are the hardest working people I know. And as far as I know I’ll be graduating next year in June.
African-American, no. American whose’s black, yes!
Vanessa
Minneapolis, MN
I HATE the term African-American. I don’t hold citizenship to any country on the African continent so why do people feel the need to call me that. I’m the descendent of people who were forcible sold and brought to the country, raped, beaten, and denied personhood and their rights. They slaved and worked to help build a country that saw them as property and third class citizens. With blood like that running through my veins, I refuse to be called “African-American”. Through their struggles, America became my birthright and I fully intend to claim it…ALL 100% of it. I’m an American who happens to be black NOT an African-American.
