(Waters 643) This shows how easily one can switch from one ethnic group to another. .
An example of this phenomenon is profoundly described in Aurora Levins Morales essay Child of the Americas. She tells of being born and raised in the Caribbean by a Puerto Rican mother, and a Jewish father. (674) She tells of being born into one culture but becoming a "product of the ghettos of New York." (674) She identifies herself as an "immigrant and the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants." (674) Although she was raised (until the age of 13) as one culture, she was able to change her cultural identity at a point in her life. (673) This change allowed her to consider herself a child of the Americas, an American. .
Waters also feels that White-American's have the opportunity to choose their "ethnicity," where others may not have so much freedom. (643) One of the options are (1) whether to claim a specific ancestry or claim being just "American." Another option is (2) which of the European lineages they choose to classify themselves with. (643) The problem with option number one is that she is giving "American" as a choice where it is not an option in most contexts. .
Therefore, if ethnicity is purely a matter of choice, why isn't "American" considered an ethnic group? Aside from the Native American's, everyone here could trace their roots back to another location. Should American's be expected to classify themselves with this location, regardless of the time elapsed from their families departure, or should they be given the opportunity to consider themselves a member of the group that they have helped create in America? In Let America be America Again by Langston Hughes, we read of what an American truly is. "For I am the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free." (Hughes 546) Are we not all "pioneers" from other places, having come here to build a new "homeland"? (Hughes 546) .
