American exceptionalism is the concept that America is or was exceptional or distinct from other nations in history. Many Americans often felt that the United States had a unique responsibility to serve as a model to the rest of the globe. Many leaders and scholars have discussed America’s exceptionality since the nation’s inception, and it has been a recurring theme. The old realms against which the United States established its ideology at the time of its liberation were, in reality, the great European colonial prerogatives, England, France, the Netherlands, and Spain, and that the United States differentiated from these countries in crucial ways. Ethnographic narratives have shed light on the suffering of those at the bottom of American society, which has sparked civil unrest (Agar, 2016). If it simply means one of a kind, the assertion is unexceptional since no two nations are alike. If exceptionalism means that Americans claim their country is unique, then there is nothing extraordinary about it, especially in the recent events; hence all global powers treasure national myths.
The equality in American society has caused much of the disconnect in the theory of exceptionalism, which has the unmasked representation of contemporary Western history’s most complex elements. Many African American and Latino families are one or two pegs up the pyramid from poor or at risk of being poor regularly. Members of this community face continued job instability, many of whom have been victims of securitization lending standards. They are overwhelmingly displaced as urban sprawl moves them out of urban communities that are becoming appealing to higher-income families. People in the community are especially concerned about their children’s prospects. On the one hand, the oppression of minority teenagers and young adults has been revealed due to frequent incidents of police brutality. Also, bad colleges and financial obstacles to higher education are major impediments to growth.
However, men in this population do not have the same high mortality rates as predominantly white working-class men. The common theory is that since racial minorities have traditionally experienced cultural divides and prejudice in the labor force, they do not view increasing job market uncertainty as novel or shocking. A current history of political movement within these cultures might offer a solution to depression and self-medication. In reality, in these neighborhoods, there has been a revival of political participation. Black Lives Matter, the Fight for Fifteen to increase the minimum wage, and efforts in immigrant families to stop deportations and provide paths to citizenship are all signs of the prospects for wider political engagement (Jaffe, 2016). However, as seen in the 1960s, making such statements inside minority groups elicits an immediate reaction, prompting politicians like Donald Trump to escalate their anti-immigrant and pro-police discourse. The research proposal seeks to determine how exceptional American exceptionalism is amid civil unrest playing out in its cities and streets.
Research Questions
1. What exactly does it mean to suggest that the United States is exceptional?
2. Has American exceptionalism ended?
Learning Outcomes
The rightward political shift in the United States that began in the 1980s has essentially undermined some of the core institutions of American exceptionalism, particularly the belief that citizen effort and hard work are necessary for an equal and just society. Consequently, the learning outcomes of the paper will examine;
1. The cause of the increase in cultural polarization, political gridlock, and the emergence of new social movements like nationalist authoritarianism and socialism were historically marginalized in American politics.
2. Why are there complex interplays among leadership identities, political decisions made by various communities, and international events so important to the American culture?
References
Agar, M. (2006). Culture: Can you take it anywhere? Invited Lecture presented at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California at Santa Barbara. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(2), 1-16.
Jaffe, S. (2016). Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt. Bold Type Books.