What Does Being American Ask of Us Today
Open Toggle To Read Panel Intro
“Being American” is often discussed as an identity, something people are or are not. What is discussed less often is what that identity asks of us in practice, responsibility, participation, and care for shared systems.
This video explores a shift in perspective, from identity to principles, from labels to responsibility, and from symbolic belonging to active participation in everyday civic life. Inside this reflection:
What responsibility looks like beyond identity.
How participation shows up in daily life, not just in moments of crisis.
Why care for shared systems matters across generations.
How immigrants and multigenerational Americans think about what comes next As the United States approaches its 250th year, this video places the question of being American within a broader civic story, shaped by effort, consistency, and long term commitment rather than slogans or labels.
This conversation is not a lecture and not a call to action. It is a calm, reflective exploration meant to support understanding, dialogue, and thoughtful participation.
Tuesday — 1:00 PM EST 4/7, 5/12, 6/30 – 2026
Watch Recordings or Read Transcripts
Proud to Be American: Living the Promise of Opportunity and Unity - (3:16 Min.) Mandy Chan, Risen Global Music Ministry
I’m very patriotic always. I love the pledge of the allegiance. Those words are very meaningful to me. And the national anthem and God bless USA. I try to participate in many events as possible, singing the national anthem or any patriotic songs to build up the group.
And also remind, we don’t forget about the flag and our country and also thank people who serve this country and give us the freedom today. And I believe in American Dream very much. That’s why we are here.
We got to do this because America is a land of opportunities and possibilities. If we put our mindset to it, we can turn the impossible into possible. And look at us today.
We can receive higher education if we work hard instead of sitting back and do nothing. We can have a lot of funding, government support to go to school. I’m grateful I got full scholarship to attend Boston College and after I graduated, I went to Boston University for my master.
I was able to work full time after I graduated and the company support me to go for my master’s degree. If you look for opportunities, you can continue to rise. That is the American dream that we live out and to reflect America also being a role models because the world look upon us.
We can’t just act like not being a responsible person. We have to reflect America in a positive way and not in a division. We have to be united. That’s why we are called United States, bringing people together.
And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the ones who died who gave that right to me. And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today, because I ain’t no doubt.
Between Individualism and Community - (2:47 Min.) Weihaur Lau, Planning Committee, DOI250AA, Founder, Awaken Inner Voices
Realizing, you know, the value of, of, of two cultures and how they intersects, you know, and I think the advantage of individualistic culture is their great part, you know, be able to expresses our, our, our commitments and desire without, without hindrance, without limitations.
And, and, and, and on the other side, people to value are the importance of community and not lose sight of that, you know, and, and it’s, it’s both and, and then now how can we bring both forward to a new world?
You know, I think it remains to be the new, new conversation of the new era.
You know, you know, I well it now we see the extreme of two, right.
We have the you know, because of individualism, we have a lot of homelessness in America.
But but but with communityism we have, we have don’t have homelessness, right.
But we have group constrain and group, you know, two types, you know, to to to limitation, like people cookie cutter, you know, that’s not enough innovation.
So you know all that.
So you see that that’s the struggle of two, you know, so, so that’s why you know, my, my American friend, my American, my fellow American would say, oh, wait, how are you so blessed to have, you know, big community, big family or whatnot, root of family and stuff like that.
On the on the other side, know that well, I have to run away from all those, you know, new limitations and all that, you know.
And then on the other side, you know, when I’m in Asia, people say, wow, you, you, you guys in America is always so innovative, you know, so, so cutting edge, you know, you come up with new, new, new technology and breakthroughs, you know, and that’s the freedom of it.
That’s what we admire at times, what the Americans can do.
And so I was like, oh, OK that when I—that’s, I appreciate, you know, like, like that, you know, so, so you see, there’s no the, the better way, you know, that’s, you know, both, both have his own challenge and struggle.
So so.
Freedom Requires Showing Up - (5:19 Min.) Weihaur Lau, Planning Committee, DOI250AA, Founder, Awaken Inner Voices
I think the power of the being American to me is is at least the opportunity of the First Amendment right—freedom of speech.
And I think that as Asian American, I think we should take that wholeheartedly. It’s the same right. It’s not true in many countries.
You know, I wouldn’t say that it’s true from the origin I come from, and you know, I wouldn’t be able to exercise that right as easily and be heard by others and be embraced and supported in my advocacy.
And so, so I think that is—I’ll call those moments my American moment, where I can be proudly representing what I believe in.
And I wouldn’t think it is free. You know, it’s not free because you need to take your time to be there. You need to take your time out of your midday.
Sometimes those health meetings, you know, it’s like this time—they purposely set it at this time so that no one shows up, you know.
So, hey, you want that right—you need to show up. It’s not free.
It’s land of the free, but things are not free.
OK, so, so, so, so I encourage our people to actually seize the opportunity.
If not, you’re just standing aside and complaining all day long, and that wouldn’t make any difference.
That wouldn’t make any difference.
But if you’re willing to step up and try, you may get somewhere.
So all these years, I feel like I’ve got somewhere, you know, and be able to help myself.
You know, I help myself to have a healthy, expressive life in America, which I’m grateful for.
You know, I don’t get to do what I do today from the limitations, the cultural limitations, the society constraints that we were trained in in Asian society.
But that’s also the good side about that, right? The support, the community, the tight-knit culture.
So, so yeah, I wouldn’t say that’s right or wrong, good or bad.
You know, I think just value it as you come, and have a more critical and reflective perspective.
You know, I don’t think it’s anything right or wrong.
You know, I was a busboy working under the table when I was an international student. That was the only way to stay here at that time when the Asian economic crisis hit my family in Malaysia—no money coming.
So I became a busboy in a Chinese restaurant, you know, just like you.
And that was that.
And at the time, I swore to myself I don’t want to work for any Asian boss—you know, something, something—but, you know, it’s also dumb that let me do that.
I was able to pass through that time and then move on to other better opportunities.
I worked for a French restaurant before, you know, and—but that came with other things. I got bullied by other races as well.
So it’s just like, OK, that’s no good or bad.
You’re just looking at the moon.
How to say—the Chinese say, the moon is not rounded on the other side.
So, you know, you’re just mesmerized from where you’re looking at.
I think you have to experience it—it’s a whole different story.
No one outside can judge what is right or wrong, good or bad.
You know, you’re just seeing from the outside.
Every family—I call it whether it’s a country or society—every family, community, has a tough story, has an insider world.
And it’s easy to stand outside and make comments.
But what it’s like to be inside, what it’s like to be outside, what it’s like to be getting out of it—that’s a whole different thing.
So yeah, I appreciate everyone sharing their different perspectives that allow us to read between the lines.
Being American: From Collective Identity to Individual Freedom - (5:05 Min.) Dr. Xiaoyan Zhang, Lead Initiator, DOI250AA
What is American right?
And one thing my understanding American is when we come from
a country with long history like China and others, I think the
collective identity usually ahead of individual identity.
We came here, we think we’re Asian, we’re Chinese, we’re have
this great culture, a country and everything else because
we were taught, we brought that way, came to America and I realized
actually Americans start with individual.
If you look at especially the Declaration Of Independence, they
basically try to define what’s the individual, their relationship
with the country.
When they build this country, America, it wasn’t inherited from
dogma religions, not monarchy, no king.
And of course they are separated from the king of England.
So they end up with just take this actual as everybody has a
fundamental right at birth.
So that’s what would come from this, a natural law, everybody
born with as individual as a human being restarting law.
That is something I didn’t quite understand when I first came
to this country, but now I’m more and more I realize that’s
really the essence of a being American.
We all free human beings, free individuals, and we’ll come together
no matter where you come from.
So what defines you, what bond this country together is
not blood, is not a culture.
Well, to some extent, yes, it’s religion is important, you
know, Christianity and we understand that.
But fundamentally this country is not bound by culture and blood,
but bound by we bound together by a sets of ideal.
It’s a concept which I believe is a milestone of humanity actually,
when human from the king trade from the, you know, religion
from others in banner together now become a constitution banner
together, a set of ideal banner together and we all born equal.
That concept is what I really learned about America being American.
And one concrete example, when I first came to this country
and you know, I came here to study sociology.
So my professor got all of our foreign student together at the
time, you know, foreign student together.
Everyone were forced to say something about what you’ll feel.
You come here as a different culture.
And I remember when they pushed to me, I said one thing.
I immediately realized the difference is when I start writing
letter back to my home and I start with in Chinese tradition,
you start with China and Beijing city and then the district
we live and then the number, you know, for the street number
and then my father or my my mother’s name.
But I’m here, I start by own my own name and then my street
and then my county and and state and USA.
So it’s total reversal of the sequence to Americans, they take
that for granted, but to me just come from another country.
When you write letter, you all of a sudden realize a different
but I propose that to my professor.
I said this could maybe a sociological reason.
So that’s to me actually reflecting this society, the orientation,
it’s toward individual identity.
You’ll start with your own self.
But in China, you’ve always been taught the collective identity
of your country throughout your province.
Your family is always ahead of you.
Anyway, just want to throw that out.
That’s some kind of thinking observation I have as a social
scientist to observe how a society come together, how people,
how humanity actually move forward, why there’s different civilization,
why there’s different cultures, different traditions.
So those are things I guess my profession trained me to do.
But that helps me over time to understand what is of being American,
what is being American as an individual.
Being American: From Structure to Possibility, and the Responsibility to Lead - (7:59 Min.) Celine Fang, Executive Director, DOI250AA Founder, BoostInMinutes.com
Being American is it’s, it’s a very unique identity, unique
position because like Vivek mentioned earlier, cookie cutter
and a lot of us when we came from a very traditional root kind
of place.
If you came from Hong Kong and then US or if you came from the
Caribbeans and then the US or the European countries and then
the US.
There’s a, a, a, a level, a step in between coming straight
from a country with long traditions and directly to the US because
it’s so different.
Cookie cutter is more like how, you know, when I was going to
school, I had to sit up straight and if I turn my head a certain
way, if I look at the the classmate next to me, I’m going to
get punished for that.
And I was have to stand at the back of the class.
You know, different, different things.
That has to be structure and that is because of the population,
the discipline, and sometimes it’s just needed because when
you have so many individuals and if they can all be having that
individual freedom, it could go chaotic.
But coming to US is so different that you get to meet people
with all kinds of background, all kinds of story.
And then it’s not a inward facing story anymore.
It’s not a cookie cutter.
It’s not like, hey, if you are from this origin, you’re supposed
to be one way or the other.
And the perspective just, you know, your view just expands.
And even though there’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of news
about the scrutiny of immigration today, they are still people
trying to smuggle or somehow come in the United States, regardless
of how much trouble they have to go through, how much risk they
have to take, money they have to pay for the middle people either.
They didn’t know that it’s being cracked down here or they still
feel like United States is the place to go compared to wherever
they are.
And that tells you how this country is being looked at as a
place of possibility, not just opportunity, not just something
that’s already proven set in stone.
The declaration say everybody equal, not all of that was hundred
percent done and ready, but still people see the possibility
and they want to come and experience that.
And when Mandy sang the song, when she talked about the military,
the troops protecting us.
If you look at the the history of the this different wars going
on, other than Hawaii, none of the places in the mainland has
been a war- torn place by a foreign enemy in in the way of civil
wars and internal conflicts.
That’s different.
But still our military is protecting this land, protecting us
from getting invaded from, you know, like the outside enemy.
So in terms of being a participant of the society, we have the
opportunity to exercise leadership.
And this is where everybody is equal.
Everybody is welcome to contribute as you are, come as you can.
Because in some places there’s a hierarchy, the social status,
the social level, and certain voices cannot be spoke up or be
heard and there’s restrictions one way or the other.
But here is a lot of open opportunities to contribute.
And if one way a certain group feel like, you know, it’s not
a tradition, is not accustomed to them, there’s opportunities
to do it some other ways as long as it could still possibly
impact the society or people around you.
And for a lot of people, when they in in leadership, when they
lead, it involves the emotional intelligence because they’re
reacting to things.
So their emotion takes over on the leadership.
Someone who may be a little bit more dominant, someone who may
be a little anxious and you could see by the way they try to
leave their community or organization.
Some people may be a little calm and that is the emotional intelligence
because they are able to process information.
And also that involves the culture intelligence as well.
Because when you understand the different cultural norms, cultural
value and the way people do things, then you interact with people
in a more understanding manner rather than, for example, if
I’m standing here and somebody come very close to me to talk
and to them in their culture, it may mean I’m paying attention
to you.
I want to pay respect to you.
That’s why I’m standing close.
But to another person that feels like, you know, you’re intruding
my private space, I don’t like it.
So having being able to live in a society that has multiple
background, multiple culture, we have the opportunity to learn
this kind of things piece by piece, little by little by by different
daily experience.
And we process that information so that we it’s, it’s different
if we were just in like, you know, structure and cookie cutter
environment.
If this doesn’t fit me, then I don’t know how to respond.
So it gives us a lot of opportunity and being American, we have
the responsibility to keep it that way because this is how everybody
can live harmoniously and work together, whether it’s in the
workplace, whether it’s in like a economic exchange, you know,
and, and some other things.
So I think this is very unique compared to any other place that
we may have come from.
Discovering Freedom Through Individualism - (2:43 Min.) Vivek Singhal, Planning Committee, DOI250AA Founder, Dominion & Dharma, DDDI.net
When I was coming to America, I had a three day orientation
program at the US Information Service or Agency, and because
they wanted to make sure that you understand at least something
about the history and what you would encounter as a culture.
And one of the things that I distinctly remember is that’s when
I realized the beauty and the greatness of American individualism
because we studied the Declaration of Independence and the idea
that everybody is created equal with unalienable rights, which
is self- evident.
And the question that I always used to says, you know, maybe
I’m missing something.
It is not self- evident anything to me because at that point
in time we used to sign our letters by saying yours obediently
as a child when I was growing up.
And I said to myself, I can’t be obedient to every person and
everybody that I am writing that is in greater authority or
is older than me.
I am a free individual.
And those were the questions that I raised in as a child even.
And so at a point in time I started signing all of my letters
and saying yours sincerely, I am sincere to you as a human being
and as a fellow human being.
And that all happened in my background before I even took that
idea of the coming to America and took that three- year it.
It was a three days full program from morning till evening with
about fifty plus people in the class.
And so I knew about the Declaration of Independence and I knew
about what it meant.
And what does individualism mean?
Being American: From Structure to Possibility, and the Responsibility to Lead - (3:21 Min.) Vivek Singhal, Planning Committee, DOI250AA Founder, Dominion & Dharma, DDDI.net
Being American is it’s, it’s a very unique identity, unique
position because like Vivek mentioned earlier, cookie cutter
and a lot of us when we came from a very traditional root kind
of place.
If you came from Hong Kong and then US or if you came from the
Caribbeans and then the US or the European countries and then
the US.
There’s a, a, a, a level, a step in between coming straight
from a country with long traditions and directly to the US because
it’s so different.
Cookie cutter is more like how, you know, when I was going to
school, I had to sit up straight and if I turn my head a certain
way, if I look at the the classmate next to me, I’m going to
get punished for that.
And I was have to stand at the back of the class.
You know, different, different things.
That has to be structure and that is because of the population,
the discipline, and sometimes it’s just needed because when
you have so many individuals and if they can all be having that
individual freedom, it could go chaotic.
But coming to US is so different that you get to meet people
with all kinds of background, all kinds of story.
And then it’s not a inward facing story anymore.
It’s not a cookie cutter.
It’s not like, hey, if you are from this origin, you’re supposed
to be one way or the other.
And the perspective just, you know, your view just expands.
And even though there’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of news
about the scrutiny of immigration today, they are still people
trying to smuggle or somehow come in the United States, regardless
of how much trouble they have to go through, how much risk they
have to take, money they have to pay for the middle people either.
They didn’t know that it’s being cracked down here or they still
feel like United States is the place to go compared to wherever
they are.
And that tells you how this country is being looked at as a
place of possibility, not just opportunity, not just something
that’s already proven set in stone.
The declaration say everybody equal, not all of that was hundred
percent done and ready, but still people see the possibility
and they want to come and experience that.
And when Mandy sang the song, when she talked about the military,
the troops protecting us.
If you look at the the history of the this different wars going
on, other than Hawaii, none of the places in the mainland has
been a war- torn place by a foreign enemy in in the way of civil
wars and internal conflicts.
That’s different.
But still our military is protecting this land, protecting us
from getting invaded from, you know, like the outside enemy.
So in terms of being a participant of the society, we have the
opportunity to exercise leadership.
And this is where everybody is equal.
Everybody is welcome to contribute as you are, come as you can.
Because in some places there’s a hierarchy, the social status,
the social level, and certain voices cannot be spoke up or be
heard and there’s restrictions one way or the other.
But here is a lot of open opportunities to contribute.
And if one way a certain group feel like, you know, it’s not
a tradition, is not accustomed to them, there’s opportunities
to do it some other ways as long as it could still possibly
impact the society or people around you.
And for a lot of people, when they in in leadership, when they
lead, it involves the emotional intelligence because they’re
reacting to things.
So their emotion takes over on the leadership.
Someone who may be a little bit more dominant, someone who may
be a little anxious and you could see by the way they try to
leave their community or organization.
Some people may be a little calm and that is the emotional intelligence
because they are able to process information.
And also that involves the culture intelligence as well.
Because when you understand the different cultural norms, cultural
value and the way people do things, then you interact with people
in a more understanding manner rather than, for example, if
I’m standing here and somebody come very close to me to talk
and to them in their culture, it may mean I’m paying attention
to you.
I want to pay respect to you.
That’s why I’m standing close.
But to another person that feels like, you know, you’re intruding
my private space, I don’t like it.
So having being able to live in a society that has multiple
background, multiple culture, we have the opportunity to learn
this kind of things piece by piece, little by little by by different
daily experience.
And we process that information so that we it’s, it’s different
if we were just in like, you know, structure and cookie cutter
environment.
If this doesn’t fit me, then I don’t know how to respond.
So it gives us a lot of opportunity and being American, we have
the responsibility to keep it that way because this is how everybody
can live harmoniously and work together, whether it’s in the
workplace, whether it’s in like a economic exchange, you know,
and, and some other things.
So I think this is very unique compared to any other place that
we may have come from.
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