Being an American means it does not matter what color skin you have, or what beliefs you have. Being an American means you are free, free to do and say what you want, where you want. You, as an individual, can be of any culture in order to be considered an American. Culture is what defines you, it is your learned values and beliefs that you acquire from the previous generations in your family, according to Richard Bucher as he explains it in Chapter one of his book Diversity Consciouness. Being an American also means being diverse. Diversity is a key subject in the definition of an American as it refers to all the ways people are different (Bucher). Everyday people get up early and hit the 9-5 shift or 7-3 shift or whatever shift they have in order to provide for their family. But, not a single person is the same as the other. This is the beauty of being diverse. These people going to work are of many different cultures, and races, but are all American. You see, being American, as like I said above, doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, every single person has the same rights as another.

To me, the reigning Ms. America does not represent being an American. Ms. America does not reresent the different cultures and the diversity of America. Ms. America pageants are represented with tall, skinny women from each state in the United States trying to represent being Ms. America. However, all those women are practically the same. If you look at them, they all are tall, beautiful, skinny, and are probably athletic. But, America isn't about everyone being the same as the next, its about diversity. So if you put 50 beautiful, tall, athletic women in a row to contest for Ms. America, tell me, where is the diversity at?

By looking at the given website, zipskinny.com, I compared my zip code (21222) with another zip code (21237). The zip code 21222 has a current population of about 54,923 people, with 50.7% of people married. The percentage of caucasions is 87.9%, african american is 8.3%, hispanic is 1.4%, and Asian is 0.7% (zipskinny). The zip code 21237 has a population of about 25,414 people with 76.7% of people being caucasion, 16.2% being African-American, 2.1% hispanic, and 3.3% Asian (zipskinny). By the looks at this chart, there is diversity in these two areas, but the majority of the population is caucasion. This being said, sure we have a diverse community in each of these areas, but its still not as diverse as what we think it should be.

In the year 2050, the U.S. demographics will be changed completely. Rob Wile suggests that the total population of the U.S. will increase by another 100 million people, with nearly a fifth of them being born in other countries, and the hispanic population will just about triple. Rob also says that the Asian population will grow by 192% and the African-American population will grow by 56% (Wile). The caucasion population will flatline. This, for me, means that the U.S. will become more diverse and the caucasion population looks like it will become obselete.

References:

Richard Bucher, Diversity Consciouness. 2010 Baltimore City Community College.

Zipskinny, http://zipskinny.com. Accessed on 1 November 2014

Rob Wile, businessinsider.com. Written on 9 October 2012. Accessed on 1 Novmeber 2014