american lifestyle essay

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Adapting to a New Lifestyle: My Experience in America

Table of contents, introduction, cultural differences and adjustments, language and communication, lifestyle and daily practices.

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Essay About Lifestyle in America

To generalize the “ lifestyle ” of an entire nation is a tricky thing, especially when talking about a massive country like the United States of America. There are over 350 million people in the country, and every individual is entitled to the right to live a lifestyle of their choosing. To use a single umbrella to describe every single lifestyle choice of the entire country would be tough, and even dangerous.

However, there are certain commonalities that entire cultures, nations, and countries share, things like language, food, commerce, and religion all exist within America, and while vast differences exist from one person to the next, the fact remains that it is still practice.Composed of 50 states and a handful of outlying territories, America has the third largest population in the world. A strong sense of nationalism resounds throughout the populace and Americans are not afraid to show it.

The Star – Spangled Banner flies almost anywhere a flag can be hung. It is not uncommon for entire streets to lined with the American flag hung on car antennas, patios, and flag poles in front yards. Just like any country in the world, poor areas do exist within America, but compared to the rest of the world it is still considered a “first world” or industrially developed nation. And, the liberties, freedoms and even economic behavior of its residents reflect this.

Language is often a point of commonality when it comes to most countries, and America is no different. For the overwhelming majority of the population, English is the first language. It is the national language and is speaking in every state and city. Spanish is considered the second language, the origins of which can trace back to the days of Christopher Columbus, Spain’s expansion into the New World and the neighboring country of Mexico. Surprisingly, the third most spoken language is German, which is most prominent in the Midwest which saw a lot of immigrants from Germany and Bavaria at the turn of the century.

While Americans are viewed by outsiders as secular and do not subscribe to religion or superstition, nothing can be further from the truth. America is known as a melting pot of cultures. Comprised of immigrants from all corner of the globe, these people have brought their culture, food, and religion to America as well. The majority of the country identifies itself with some denomination of Christianity. However, that is not all. Several dozen religions are recognized by the United States from Judaism to Islam, and from Buddhism to Bahai. So important is the concept of religious freedom, that the Founding Fathers of America included it in the nation’s Constitution.

The United States is a vast country with varying ecosystems, terrains and geography. Very few countries on Earth can sport this kind of diversity, however, like most countries the majority of the population congregates near the water, and in particular, cities by the water. Sure, there are rural locales has some semblance of the community, but the cities are where the bulk of American civilization lies. Seaside Metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Miami hold more people in them than several other states combined. While the American landscape may bring about visions of the wild west, open expanses of grasslands or wooded forests, the truth is that most people find solace in the concrete jungles of cities,

Education is another part of the American lifestyle that permeates throughout the entire country. While quality does vary from area to area, public education does exist for all children in the country. Unless they are attending a private institution, American children go to school for free (relatively speaking) until they attend college or university. Going to school is highly encouraged and almost seems mandatory in some cases. Needless to say, this is not the norm for children all around the world. American children, in general, do not need to work or care for younger siblings. Thus, they have the time, energy and attention to go to school, to learn and socialize.

America has a higher standard of living than most of the world. Its citizens are often gainfully employed and earn a decent amount of income. It allows them also to spend said money. Famed traveler, chef, and TV host Anthony Bourdain once noted that due to the decrease in manufacturing jobs, America’s chief export is now culture. By this, he meant entertainment, arts, and fashion. American’s can indulge in their consumerism by procuring the goods they often see on the television, in adverts and on the bodies of their on-screen idols.

The real American lifestyle is a quagmire of paradoxes when looked under a microscope. But take a step back, and one can easily see the threads that tie one single American to another.

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American Lifestyle: The Impact on Health

Intensive movement forward to a high-quality rhythm of life is manifested in all spheres of American life. For example, high-speed movement in private cars on the streets and even within cities, the rapid development of the transport system, and the dynamic development of science and technology. Life in the USA is a high-speed race, and if people are on this track, they need to move either faster or step aside so that someone else can go this way of success. The fast pace of life of Americans provokes stress, which in turn causes a lot of diseases.

Stress is a tense state of the body that appears as a protective reaction to the effects of various adverse factors. Being in a state of stress daily, many people do not even realize that this is an abnormal phenomenon that needs to be eliminated. Stress lies in wait for a person everywhere: at home, at work, on public transport. When stressful situations are irregular, there is nothing to worry about. When a state of stress lasts for a long time and occurs often, it is called distress. Psycho-emotional stress is characterized by a violation of the work of internal organs and mental disorders. A person often begins to have a headache, and blood pressure rises. If the main symptoms occur, measures should be taken immediately and not aggravate the condition.

Depending on the duration of exposure, short-term and chronic stress are isolated. If in some cases, it is even possible to benefit from the first, since the amount of energy increases, concentration increases, then a person tolerates prolonged and regular exposure to stressful factors much worse. The negative impact of stress affects all aspects of human life: emotions, behavior, mental abilities, and physical health. Since people deal with stress differently, its symptoms and severity may vary. However, signs of stress in different people have a lot in common. Physical stress affects all body systems, including muscles, heart and blood vessels, respiratory, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems (Lenz & Kuhn, 2017). The human body is well prepared to cope with episodic stress, but it can have serious consequences for the body when it becomes prolonged or chronic.

Full rest and healthy sleep are the first rules of a stable psyche. A person who has had enough sleep is more resistant to stress. If there is not enough sleep, the stability of the nervous system decreases (Lenz & Kuhn, 2017). One may have seen an example of such a situation while observing naughty little children’s behavior when they are tired and want to sleep. A similar condition is observed in adults who regularly do not get enough sleep – it becomes difficult for them to control their emotions, they feel irritation and aggression. Chronic or persistent stress experienced over a long period of time can contribute to long-term heart and blood vessel problems (Lenz & Kuhn, 2017). Consequently, stress affects not only the psychological state of a person but also the circulatory system.

In conclusion, the basic principle of the American lifestyle is, of course, the pursuit of the American dream. That is why America remains a country of great opportunities. Chronic stress caused by exposure to stress factors over a long time can lead to prolonged body exhaustion. As a result of prolonged stress, neuroses, psychoses, alcoholism, cardiac disorders, arterial hypertension, ulcerative lesions of the gastrointestinal tract develop. If a person does not manage to cope with a difficult situation quickly and has to stay in a state of emotional tension for a long time, then all body systems are forced to work with overload. To withstand prolonged stress, it is necessary to have health reserves.

Lenz, R., & Kuhn, K. A. (2017). Towards a continuous evolution and adaptation of information systems in healthcare. International Journal of Medical Informatics , 73 (1), 75-89. Web.

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Regions & Countries

Where americans find meaning in life has changed over the past four years.

Many things have changed in the United States in the past four years, from a new administration in Washington to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted work, financial security, family structures and even the ability to move around freely – to say nothing of its impact on public health.

Alongside these shifts, Americans have evolved in where they find meaning in their lives, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of surveys conducted in September 2017 and February 2021. In both years, the Center asked a representative sample of U.S. adults to answer the following question in their own words: “What about your life do you currently find meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying? What keeps you going and why?”

Based on these surveys, here are six facts about where Americans find meaning in life and how those responses have shifted over the past four years. The analysis also examines how attitudes in the U.S. compare with those in 16 other advanced economies surveyed by the Center in 2021 .

This Pew Research Center analysis examines Americans’ responses to an open-ended question about what gives them meaning in life and explores how responses in the United States have changed over time as well as how they differ from those elsewhere in the world. Details about the over-time analysis can be found in the Methodology for comparing 2017 and 2021 U.S. surveys on the meaning of life.

For this analysis, we conducted nationally representative surveys of 4,867 U.S. adults from Sept. 14 to 28, 2017, and 2,596 U.S. adults from Feb. 1 to 7, 2021. Everyone who took part in both surveys is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all adults have a chance of selection. The surveys were weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.

In both surveys, respondents were asked to answer the following open-ended question: “We’re interested in exploring what it means to live a satisfying life. Please take a moment to reflect on your life and what makes it feel worthwhile – then answer the question below as thoughtfully as you can. What about your life do you currently find meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying? What keeps you going and why?”

We also conducted nationally representative surveys of 16,254 adults from March 12 to May 26, 2021, in 16 advanced economies. All surveys were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Responses are weighted to be representative of the adult population in each public. Respondents in these publics were asked a shorter version of the question asked in the U.S.: “We’re interested in exploring what it means to live a satisfying life. What aspects of your life do you currently find meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying?” Responses were transcribed by interviewers in the language in which the interviews were conducted.

Researchers examined random samples of English responses, machine-translated non-English responses and responses translated by a professional translation firm to inductively develop a codebook for the main sources of meaning mentioned across the 17 publics. The codebook was iteratively improved via practice coding and calculations of intercoder reliability until a final selection of 20 codes was formally adopted ( read Appendix C of the full report ).

To apply the codebook to the full collection of 18,850 responses, a team of Pew Research Center coders and professional translators were trained to code English and non-English responses, respectively. Coders in both groups coded random samples and were evaluated for consistency and accuracy. They were asked to independently code responses only after reaching an acceptable threshold for intercoder reliability. (For more on this, read Appendix A of the full report .)

Here is the question used for this analysis, along with the coded responses for each public. Open-ended responses included in the analysis and in the accompanying interactive have been lightly edited for clarity (and, in some cases, translated into English by a professional firm). Here are more details about our international survey methodology and country-specific sample designs. For respondents in the U.S., read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Americans have become more likely to mention society as a source of meaning in life, but much of this emphasis is negative. The share of Americans who mention society, places and institutions – which includes references to one’s local area, as well as to broader notions of the U.S., the government and social services – grew from 8% in 2017 to 14% in 2021. The increase was especially pronounced among those ages 65 and older (24% this year, up from 10%) and those without full-time jobs (17%, up from 8%).

As was the case in 2017, about half of adults who mention society (49%) bring up something negative, such as personal frustrations or difficulties. The nature of these complaints ranges widely, from economic concerns, distrust of government and partisan animosity to more general fears about the direction of the country. As one woman put it while reflecting on what she views as growing political extremism in America, “My hope is dimming because I see no light at the end of the tunnel.”

The U.S. stands out as one of only three publics surveyed in 2021 where mentions of society significantly coincide with greater negativity. The other two are Italy and Spain, but in neither of them is the relationship between society and negativity as strong as it is in the U.S.

Americans – especially Republicans – have become more likely to mention freedom and independence as a source of meaning in life. Among Americans overall, 9% now mention issues such as freedom, independence and their ability to do what they want to do, including financial independence, having free time or a good work-life balance, or political freedoms like freedom of speech. This is up from 5% in 2017.

Much of this increase has occurred among Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party. This year, 12% of Republicans mention freedom or independence, up from 5% in 2017. There has been no significant change among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents during this period (6% this year vs. 5% in 2017).

While Republicans in the U.S. are much more likely than Democrats to mention freedom or independence as a source of meaning in life, similar ideological divides are not evident elsewhere in the world. Mentions of freedom are not associated with right-leaning ideological views in any of the other 16 publics surveyed in 2021; in fact, in two other publics (Italy and Spain), such mentions are more common among those on the ideological left .

Mentions of freedom in the U.S. have become more common among other demographic groups, too. For example, while just 4% of parents mentioned the topic in 2017, 9% do so in 2021, matching the share of non-parents who currently mention freedom or independence as a source of meaning in life. Similarly, Americans without a college degree have become more likely to refer to the subject, now mentioning it at roughly the same rate as those with a college degree (9%).

Compared with 2017, fewer Americans now mention spouses or romantic partners as a source of meaning in life. Around one-in-ten U.S. adults (9%) now mention their spouse or romantic partner or their romantic or dating life, down from 20% in 2017. This represents one of the largest decreases across all of the sources of meaning coded as part of this project. While both married and unmarried people are now less likely to mention partners or romance, the decline has been greatest among married adults. Just 13% of married adults mention their spouse in 2021, down from nearly a third (31%) in 2017.

Despite the decline, Americans are among the most likely to mention their spouse or partner among all 17 places surveyed. Outside of the U.S., mentions of romantic partners are most common in the Netherlands (8%) and Italy (7%). But no more than 5% of adults in most other places mention their spouse or partner.

Fewer Americans now mention finances, jobs or travel as a source of meaning in life than in 2017. The share of U.S. adults who bring up their material well-being – including references to feeling safe, secure, able to cover the basics, living comfortably or being well-off – has dropped from 29% to 18% over the past four years. This decline has been concentrated among two groups in particular: married adults and White Americans. In 2017, both groups were among the most likely to point to material well-being as a source of meaning.

The share of adults who mention their job, occupation or career as a source of meaning has declined from 24% to 17% since 2017, perhaps reflecting the fact that many Americans’ working lives have been upended during the coronavirus pandemic. While Americans with higher incomes and those with a college degree remain the most likely to bring up their jobs, both groups have become less likely to do so, with a decline from 37% to 27% among those in the upper-income tier and a decline from 39% to 26% among the college-educated.

The widespread travel restrictions in response to the pandemic may have also affected the share of Americans who derive meaning from travel, which declined from 6% in 2017 to 3% in 2021. But the topic of travel remains more common among college graduates and those with a total family income of $100,000 or more per year.

Older Americans have grown less likely to mention their physical or mental health as a source of meaning in life. The overall share of Americans who mention their physical or mental health or wellness fell from 19% in 2017 to 11% in 2021. And this shift has been especially pronounced among older Americans. This year, only 12% of those ages 65 and older mention their health as a source of meaning, down from 30% in 2017.

The emphasis on health has also fallen significantly among White Americans, who now mention the topic at a similar rate as Black and Hispanic Americans. In 2017, by contrast, White adults were more likely than Black and Hispanic adults to mention their health.

Most Americans are no more likely to mention difficulties or challenges than they were four years ago, although older adults are an exception. Between 2017 and 2021, the share of Americans who mention some sort of negative circumstance or difficulty when describing where they find meaning in life has remained stable – 17% of all adults. But older Americans have become more likely to mention difficulties or challenges when answering this question. Roughly a quarter of those 65 and older (27%) mention a difficulty or challenge in 2021 – more than any other age group and more than the 20% who did so in 2017. This pattern does not appear to be unique to the U.S.: In many of the other publics where the Center asked the same question in 2021, older people are also more likely to mention these kinds of difficulties.

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

United States of America Essay

The history of america.

The story of the United States is based on either the Native people’s prehistory or the 1492 voyages of Christopher Columbus to the land. USA or the United States, as it is sometimes called, is a federal republic made up of a federal district and fifty states. Native people, whose first appearance in the region was at North America, were the indigenous people in the country.

This group of people would compose of a number of distinct American ethnic communities and was called by controversial titles that were based on European language terminologies. The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, on the other hand, refers to the speculative journey of an Italian navigator and explorer by the name Christopher Columbus, across the Atlantic Ocean.

Columbus’s boat voyages were a successful exploration story, since they would lead to significant discoveries of the land. The discoveries of Columbus explorations contributed to general European awareness of the continent of America, thus necessitating its colonization by the Great Britain. This colonization begun at around 1600, and would go on for about 15 decades before the onset of the revolution war in 1775.

The first batch of Europeans to arrive in the region would languish alone for many years before a new stronger group of British settlers finally made their way into the region towards the end of the 17th century. These new settlers were indeed the first category of immigrants to bring the idea of commercial agriculture in the region, with tobacco and rice being the first agricultural products to be introduced.

The 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries would see a great number of immigrants flow into the region, with the intention of making good use of the abundant opportunities and resources that were available. Apart from the impact of these varied opportunities, many significant aspects in the American history such as industrialization and formation of the initial states would also take place in the course of this period, making America one of the most developed continents in the world those times(Wendell,2005).

However, the differences in cultural aspects arising from the diverse communities in the region would often lead to serious ethnic violence, social disruptions, and political tensions among the communities over the centuries. In fact, these pressures played a significant role in the facilitation of the American war of independence or simply the revolution war in 1775.

The American Revolution was an open confrontation that involved the Great Britain on one side, and the united colonies together with other European immigrants on the other side. The revolution would come as a result of heightening restrictions which had been placed upon the colonies by the Great Britain.

The confrontation is also said to have started as a result of disagreements over the manner in which the Natives were treated by their British colonizers, and the way they thought it was better for them to be treated. Some of these disagreements came by as a result of matters regarding taxations which the colonies believed were conducted unfairly.

While the Americans thought that their rights as the owners of the land were being trodden upon by the Europeans, particularly the British, the Great Britain would claim that it was their right to treat the colonies in every manner that suited the crown. These events would later lead to the British defeat by the Americans. This would come following the support of the latter by the French and other immigrants who had settled in the region.

The outcomes of this historic war eventually granted Americans their freedom from the colonizers. This historic achievement was realized on July 4, 1776, and the declaration of Independence would be signed officially two days later. This marked a new beginning for the Americans, since the thirteen states which had previously being under the harsh rule and domination of Great Britain for many centuries were now free to come together to establish an autonomous government.

The states could now form their own way of leadership, and be able to come up with own laws that would be suitable for them in all aspects. 37 more states were formed in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries increasing the number of states to 50 from the previous 13, thus giving rise to modern America.

1780s would see key nationalists from the 13 states come together to form a new constitution to serve as a foundation for this new nation that was too fragile to withstand any form of pressure that was likely to arise. The new constitution paved way for a stronger government with a powerful president and new laws.

George Washington, a renowned political figure who had played an active role in the revolutionary war was elected the first president of the country, under the new constitution in 1789. Ever since then, America has gone through smooth and tough, wars and treaties, and good and bad times, to emerge not only as one of the most developed countries in the world, but also as a global superpower. The United States has had 44 presidents so far, with Barack Obama being the current occupant of the Whitehouse.

Significant Events in the Country’s Life

The American life is marked by many significant events which include wars and diseases. Concerning wars, there have been all sorts of warring events in the country’s history. This would range from domestic conflicts to international conflicts where the Americans have been involved in conflicts with combatants from other countries.

Some of the well-known conflicts involving the Americans had taken place in the colonial times, while others would occur just after the independence and the years to follow. The King Philip’s War, which took place between July 1675 and August 1676, was among the first wars involving the Americans. This was followed by a conflict involving France and the English colonies, a confrontation that was known as King William’s War between 1689 and 1697.

There was also the King George’s war which took place between 1744 and 1748. This was followed closely by the French and Indian War involving the Great Britain and French colonies from 1756 to 1763. The Cherokee War between 1759 and 1761 would pave way for the Revolution War that was fought for eight consecutive years starting from the year 1775.

The Post-independence wars involving the US included Franco-American Naval War of 1798, Barbary Wars, War of 1812, Creek War, Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, and the U.S. Civil War. Some of the major wars in the American history would include the Great War, World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam War, Invasion of Panama by the US, Persian Gulf War, the Invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and the US disarmament war on Iraq.

The Iraq war which begun in 2003 and took not less than five years to end, is arguably one of the worst wars that have involved the Americans recently.

Apart from these notable wars and conflicts, America has also experienced a number of diseases. As it would be observed, Native Americans have been victims to various health concerns and diseases throughout history.

Most of these diseases, however, are said to have resulted from the interactions of the Europeans when they first invaded the American territories way back in 1600 and the years to follow. The most notable diseases and health concerns arising from these foreign invasions would include, but were not limited to, smallpox, measles, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, chicken pox, scarlet fever, influenza, whooping cough, yellow fever, bilious disorder, and sexually transmitted diseases (Matthew & Cliff, 2004).

Most of these diseases, however, occurred as sweeping epidemics which resulted to massive deaths, thus causing serious destruction to the affected communities. Some of these epidemics are seen as significant events in the country’s life, owing to their serious implications on people’s lives.

Even though the effects of these early diseases have declined tremendously over the past several decades, probably due to the current advancements in matters of health, a new batch of more serious ailments has sprouted in the contemporary world. These contemporary diseases, which have continued to place a heavy burden on the American economy, would include HIV/AIDS, malaria, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and liver cirrhosis, among others.

Recent Worth Noting Events

Apart from the wars and diseases that have affected the American since prehistoric times, there are also other worth noting events that have rocked the country. These include devastating events such as acts of terror, natural calamities or disasters, and incidents of mass shooting that have occurred in the country‘s history. As it would be observed, America has been a common target for many Islamic terror attacks.

Some of these attacks would result to loss of many innocent lives across the country whenever they did occur. Among these attacks, the events of September 11 are said to be the most devastating acts of terrorism to have ever happened in the country’s history. This was an act of terror involving Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacking four passenger flights in the U.S. and steering them into strategic points in Washington DC, leading to the deaths of nearly 3000 Americans and injuries of more than 1000.

Apart from terrorism events, mass shooting incidents have also become a norm in the United States recently. Most of these incidents are said to have occurred in entertainment zones, restaurants, and learning institutions, among other places. According to police sources in the U.S., more than 30 mass shooting incidents have occurred in the country in the last three decades alone .

The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University incident, where an undergraduate student by the name of Cho shot and killed 32 fellow students is a worth noting event here. The April 2007 shooting, which is said to be the worst incident of mass shooting ever in the country’s history, has raised a lot of concern on the controversial issue of gun control in the country.

The McDonald’s massacre of July, 1984 is also another significant event. In this particular incident, James Huberty had invaded the Californian restaurant and opened fire on everybody who was inside. Only 19 out of the forty people who were said to have been shot in this incident had survived the ordeal, but with serious injuries.

US Government Structure

The current American government structure is divided into three major branches which include the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judiciary. Normally, the government is headed by the US president, who shares his authority and powers with the judiciary system and the Congress. Theirs being a Federal Republic, Americans do recognize the Constitution as the Supreme law which governs them.

Following is a simple diagram showing the current government structure of USA.

The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are the two major political parties in the states. Each of these parties has tried to exercise outstanding credibility and performance in governance affairs. Democratic is currently the ruling party, with president Obama being the 15th Democrat to occupy the Whitehouse as the 44th president of the United States. With a population of over 300 million people, the U.S. is arguably among the high-ranking countries in the world in terms of voter turnout every time there is an election.

However, the voter turn out in the country has never been constant, but it keeps on rising and dropping every now and then. According to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, the recent voter turnout in the country stood at 57.5 percent of the total number of people who were eligible to vote. This rate, however, was a bit lower compared to the 2008 and 2004 general elections where percentages of 62.3 and 60.4, respectively, were observed.

Cases of Corruption in the US

The U.S., just like any other country in the world, has witnessed many cases of public corruption in its history. There has been a case of corruption in almost every administration that has governed the Federal Republic of the United States.

Some of the past administrations that have been associated with major corruption scandals in the country’s history would include the governments of Reagan, Clinton, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, George W. Bush, Kennedy, Carter, and George H.W. Bush. Of all the vast corruption scandals witnessed under the above administrations, the corruption case of William Jefferson is a worth noting scandal. This incident had taken place in the era of President George W.

Bush, and is one of the most recent corruption cases to have rocked the U.S. The fact that the case involved a Congressman was not the only reason that would make it one of the most significant corruption scandals in the country’s history, but also the fact that the 5-year investigation on the case, which had started on mid 2005 would reveal more than enough evidence to convict Jefferson (Nicholls et al., 2011).

This would see Jefferson being convicted of 11 accounts of corruption in August 2009, and getting a 13-year sentence. In this regard, Jefferson went into history as the first congressman to get the longest jail sentence on accounts of corruption and bribery.

Country Indicators and Statistics

As it would be observed, the major indicators of the United States are based on aspects of human development, climate and environmental matters, socioeconomic aspects, and information and communication technology matters, among other aspects.

The levels of Human Development in the US are assessed by bringing together the indicators of income, life expectancy and attainment of education. However, the levels of income would vary from state to state. The current Median Income of the households is said to be $45,019 per annum.

The life expectancy at birth in the US currently ranges between 77 years and 80 years for both male and women. Educational attainment for all ages, sex, race, and gender has increased significantly in the last several years. Based on the above indicators, it is patently clear that all avenues of human development in the country have improved greatly over the years, thus paving way for even better achievements as far as the country’s future economy is concerned.

Climatic indicators are also widely used in the U.S. to determine expected weather patterns. Most of these climatic indicators are aimed at assessing the key elements of weather that are likely to be observed in the country, such as weather patterns, greenhouse gases, and ecosystems.

Current economic indicators have shown USA as one of the most powerful economies globally. This great achievement, however, can be based on the behavior of the financial market as it is gauged using various economic indicators. Some of the common economic indicators that have continued to play a significant role in the United States include, but are not limited to, Gross Domestic Product, Inflation, and unemployment.

These indicators have proved to be effective in helping the Federal Reserve make the necessary decisions and plans in regard with the country’s economy. The current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the country is estimated to be $15.7 trillion. This actually stands as the largest national economy globally.

This is slightly higher compared with previous rankings, thus indicating a significant advancement in the job and business sectors. Currently, the U.S. inflation rate is recorded at 1.1 percent, and this is a significant drop compared to previous records which had stood at a higher mark. The unemployment rate in the US has also dropped to 7.5 percent this year from last year’s rate which stood at 7.6 percent.

Population Statistics

Currently, United States stands as the third most populous country in the world, with an approximate of about 315 million people. According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, the country’s population has been growing steadily since prehistoric times, and it was in the year 2006 when the mark of 300 million was eventually reached.

This is a massive growth, considering the fact that the country had a population of only 350 people way back in 1610, when the first census was conducted on Native Americans. United States has a total area of 3.79 sq miles, and in that case, its population density stands at around 33.9 people per sq.km. Having a growth rate of nearly 1 percent, which is considered to be higher than that of any other developed nation in the world, the country’s population is projected to increase abundantly in the near future.

The total fertility rate in the United States stands slightly below the replacement value at 2.09. This, however, is a bit more higher compared to that of other developed countries in the world. The death rate in the country is observed to have dropped significantly in the past few years. In fact, this is one of the key factors which have contributed to the high growth rate witnessed in the country today.

Based on the current demographical data, the death rate stands at 8.4 deaths per every 1,000 population. The infant mortality rate normally constitutes the largest percentage of the overall number of deaths occurring in the country. Currently, the infant mortality rate in the U.S. stands at around 6.04 deaths per 1000 live births.

Most of these infant deaths are said to occur as a result of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and serious birth defects, among other causes. Even though the infant mortality rate is observed to have started declining in recent years after leveling off for quite sometime, it still remains a bit higher than that of many other countries in the world.

Armed forces, Conventional Weapon Holdings and Military Activities

Generally, the U.S. armed forces are comprised of five key branches which include the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the US Air force. The president, who is also the Commander-in-Chief, is the military’s overall head assisted by a federal executive department and the Defense Secretary, among other key units in the government.

All these units are entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the complex operations of the armed forces in the whole country. Members of the U.S. armed forces are entitled to a variety of duties and assignments, as stated in the Constitution. Even though personnel from different units of the U.S. armed forces can perform similar tasks in most cases, their duties would tend to vary greatly sometimes, depending on their departments or units.

The typical duties of military personnel in the U.S. armed forces would include safeguarding the country from both domestic and external attacks, responding to matters of emergency in the country, helping in undertaking development projects, and assisting in carrying out the outstanding mission of the government in other countries through the U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. armed forces are ranked among the best trained fighting forces globally. Moreover, they have also gained outstanding reputation and recognition from allover the world, for being in possession of the most sophisticated war weapons that have ever been introduced into the world.

These achievements have brought much glory and honor to the American fighting forces. Ever since their establishment way back in 1775, the U.S. forces have taken part in many military activities inside and outside the country (Ploch, 2010). Most of these involvements have been in the many warring events involving the Americans that would take place after the declaration of independence in 1774. The prevailing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are good examples here.

Apart from the wars, the U.S. armed forces have also taken part in other special missions outside the country, some of which are noteworthy events in the country’s history. A good example of the special activities in which the U.S. military forces have continued to take part is the UN peacekeeping mission of enforcing peace in war-stricken regions in the world. The American military forces have also played a crucial role in responding to natural disasters and events of terrorism in the world.

One important aspect which the U.S. enjoys out of their economic power and stability is their status as the strongest military power in the world. This outstanding status has been confirmed by previous war events which had involved the Americans, such as the Great War and the Spanish-American War, among others.

America’s status as a strong military and economic power would come after the Second World War, when it eventually became a global superpower. Today, the U.S. stands as the country with the highest number of military personnel in the world, constituting of volunteers and conscripted service men, both of whom are entitled to salaries and allowances.

When it comes to holding of conventional weapons, the U.S. military forces would come second to none in the whole world. As a matter of fact, the deadliest conventional war machines and equipment used in the world can be found in the U.S. armed forces arsenal. These deadly weapons include laser-guided bombs, the bunker booster bomb, anti-personnel mines, the AC-130 aerial gunship, and the .50-caliber sniper rifle, among others.

Education Structure

Education is compulsory for every child in the United States, just like in any other nation that values the future of its coming generations. The system of education in the U.S. is almost similar to that of any other country in the world. Basically, the system is divided into three major levels which include elementary school, middle school, and secondary school.

The educational system constitutes of twelve study grades which are achievable over twelve full years of primary and post-primary education in high school, before one becomes eligible for admission in college or university for further studies.

Early childhood is the first level of the education system in the United States. This normally comprises of toddler, preschool, and pre-kindergarten. The elementary school, which constitutes of kindergarten as the lowest level and five years of study in the primary school, comes next.

Learners are then taken through the middle school level where they undertake grades 6, 7, and 8, before proceeding to high school. After graduating with high school diplomas, they can then enroll for post-secondary education which comprises of tertiary education, vocational education, and graduate education. Adult education, which is not very common in the country, also falls under this category.

The following figure illustrates the education structure in the U.S.

Economic and Trade Activity

Apart from being the biggest economy in the world, America is ranked among the wealthiest nations in the world today. Moreover, the country enjoys abundant natural resources, integrated communication facilities, and well-developed infrastructure, among other modern aspects that are critical in boosting a country’s productivity and economy.

All these opportunities have continued to play a crucial role in promoting the country’s development and prosperity in terms of trade and economic affairs. Over the years, America has established strong trade ties with other countries in the world, thus playing a key role in shaping the global economy. According to Hanson (1996), the U.S. has proved to be less vulnerable to anything which threatens to interfere with its incredible advancement in various sectors of the economy.

America has been a major trade partner in the world for many years now and this progress in trade affairs has made the nation a global leader in matters of trade. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have become the most convenient way of opening up the country’s abundant exports to foreign markets.

More importantly, these agreements have also proved to be more important in giving the country an opportunity to import equipment and resources freely from their many trade partners around the world. Currently, the country has engaged in numerous trade agreements with other countries in the world. Some of the major free trade agreements involving the U.S. include North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Australia-U.S.

Trade Agreement of 2004, Singapore-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, Chile-United States Free Trade Agreement, Morocco-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, Peru-United States Free Trade Agreement, and Oman-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, among others. Currently, the country has engaged in negotiations with other nations in a bid to open more multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements across the world.

Despite the current economic nightmares arising from the most recent economic crisis, America has maintained a stronger economic health. If anything, the country’s outstanding strength in business has played a crucial role in enabling it to survive these economic setbacks. This achievement, however, has also been enhanced by the efforts of the U.S. government and other important sectors of the economy.

For instance, both public and private sectors in the country have constantly come together to exert considerable efforts that would be necessary in key areas of the economy. The government is the engine of the country’s economic growth, and for that reason, America’s potential economic benefits out of trade affairs are likely to remain inexhaustible for long.

Some of the ways by which the government influences economic activities in the country is through exertion of leverages on some key sectors of the economy and through implementation of antitrust laws aimed at preventing firms from engaging in unethical business practices.

Membership of international organizations

Apart from the Free Trade Agreements, the United States also takes part in numerous international organizations in the world. Some of the major international organizations in which the country participates include the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN), International Trade Union Confederation, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Criminal Court (ICC), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Group of Seven (G7), International Olympic Committee (IOC), and African Development Bank Group, just to mention but a few.

Human Rights

Human rights in the U.S. are just as important as they are in any other nation in the world, and for that reason, they are legally protected by the law (Stephens, 2008). The organization of the human rights in the country dates back more than two centuries ago, when Anthony Benezet introduced the first human right standards in regard with the abolishment of slavery.

This makes America a leader in the creation of an international system which recognizes, promotes, and protects the rights of people in various sectors of life. Ever since after the independence, when the first human right requirements were introduced in the country, America has shown great consistence in recognizing and protecting the rights of all its citizens and other people in the world, regardless of their race, color, gender, and national identity, among other aspects.

To prove that they are the premier promoter of these standards in the contemporary world, Americans have expressed support to some standard international human rights through ratification of treaties. Some of the key areas of concern upon which the U.S. human rights are based would include, but are not limited to, legal aspects, equality issues, labor rights, freedoms, justice system, and health care.

Major Societal Trends

As it would be observed, modern societies in the U.S are characterized by a number of societal trends. One of the most common trends here, which has affected nearly all groups in the country, is the obsession with modern technology. For instance, Americans, just like people from other developed nations, have become big fans of the social media through interactive sites such as Facebook, you tube and twitter.

Waking up to conservative life is another significant trend which defines the current American society. It is only at this age when you will find more grown-ups in America living with their guardians, compared with the past. As a matter of fact, the percentage of parents living with their adult children has increased tremendous in the past few years.

On the same note, current generations are even more family-centric compared with their predecessors. This, however, explains the reason as to why current generations are bearing more children, compared with their predecessors.

America is also experiencing a big demographic shift presently than before, probably as a result of the rapid wave of globalization which is taking place in every part of the country, among other significant factors in the society. Efficient access to goods and services has also become a norm in the U.S. as a result of current advances in technology. Anxiety has also emerged as another common trend among the American societies nowadays.

Previous acts of terrorism, particularly the events of September 11, have left many citizens in the country slightly rattled. This has triggered feelings of fear and anxiety among some American citizens who have felt that the country’s security against terrorism is not fully guaranteed. Other major societal trends in the U.S. would include bulging business opportunities, innovations, and invention of sophisticated aspects of technology in all sectors.

State of Technology

Being a country associated with abundant opportunities and resources, America has over the time emerged as the most advanced nation in the world in matters of technology. These aspects have played a critical role in helping to facilitate the early industrial and technological development in the country.

For the past one century or so, America as a country has been integral in the development of many award-winning technology products in the world. The country has been associated with a series of inventions and innovations, especially in the ICT sector which has continued to serve as a platform for other major developments in the world. Based on these observations, there is no doubt that America has excelled in matters of technology.

Environmental record

The management of environmental matters has never been easy for any country in the world. However, the United States has made progressive efforts in ensuring that current and future generations are spared the implications of a wasted environment which could result from environmental pollution and air pollution.

As it would be observed, the U.S. has maintained a good environmental record, possibly through their strong environmental policy which is enforced by the federal government. 1960s and 1970s are significant years in America’s history, since they mark a time when important laws on the environment were passed by the Congress. It is worth noting here that it was also in the course of this time when the Environmental Protection Policy was first introduced in the country to help address environmental matters more efficiently.

On this note, the United States is said to be at the fore-front in the fight against pollution of air and the environment. More importantly, the country has also adopted the idea of going green in various sectors of its vast economy, thus becoming the first country in the world to show serious concerns in the fight against the devastating issue of global warming, among other serious climatic conditions affecting the global populations today.

Hanson, G. (1996). Economic integration, intra-industry trade, and frontier regions. European Economic Review, 40 (3), 941-949.

Matthew, R., & Cliff, D. (2004). Impact of infectious diseases on war. Infectious Disease Clinics of North America, 18 (2), 341-345.

Nicholls, C., Daniel, T., Bacarese, A., & Hatchard, J. (2011). Corruption and misuse of public office. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Ploch, L. (2010). Africa Command: US strategic interests and the role of the US military in Africa . Berby, PA: Diane Publishing.

Stephens, B. (2008). International human rights litigation in US courts . Leiden: Brill Publishers.

Wendell, B. (2005). A literary history of America . Whitefish MT: Kessinger Publishing Company.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Society — Sinclair Lewis’s Crtique of American Lifestyle and Society in The Babbitt

Sinclair Lewis's Crtique of American Lifestyle and Society in The Babbitt

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Course: US history   >   Unit 7

• The Nineteenth Amendment
• 1920s urbanization and immigration
• The reemergence of the KKK
• Prohibition
• Republican ascendancy: politics in the 1920s
• The presidency of Calvin Coolidge
• 1920s consumption
• Movies, radio, and sports in the 1920s

American culture in the 1920s

• Nativism and fundamentalism in the 1920s
• America in the 1920s
• The Lost Generation refers to the generation of artists, writers, and intellectuals that came of age during the First World War (1914-1918) and the “Roaring Twenties.”
• The utter carnage and uncertain outcome of the war was disillusioning, and many began to question the values and assumptions of Western civilization.
• Economic, political, and technological developments heightened the popularity of jazz music in the 1920s, a decade of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the United States.
• African Americans were highly influential in the music and literature of the 1920s.

The First World War

The lost generation, jazz and the “roaring twenties”, the harlem renaissance, what do you think.

• For more, see David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980).
• For more, see Noel Riley Fitch, Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985).
• See Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s (New York: Hill and Wang, 1995).
• See Kathy J. Ogren, The Jazz Revolution: Twenties America and the Meaning of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
• For more on the Harlem Renaissance, see Jeffrey B. Ferguson, The Harlem Renaissance: A Brief History with Documents (New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007).

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Home » USA » Life-style of Americans

American Lifestyle

Family Relationships

The concept of family is different in the U.S. compared to countries like India. Most American families consist of a mother and father with an average of 1-3 children and many times a pet such as a dog or a cat. It is very common in most families that both the mother and the father are employed full time and are at work, while their children are at school or a daycare facility. There are a large number of families in the United States that consist of one single parent and children as a result of divorce or being unwed. In most families, once the child has become a teenager and graduated from high school, he or she leaves the home and leads an independent lifestyle. Most families, regardless of where they are located, will all get together to celebrate family occasions such as weddings, reunions, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays.

In the U.S., the parents of an adult person are not considered their dependents or part of his/her immediate family. 

Some people get married and divorced several times, or even have children out of wedlock. Relationships are sometimes confusing. It is not uncommon to hear phrases like “she is my father’s wife” (not necessarily the mother), “he is my mother’s boyfriend,” or “he is my son’s father” (not necessarily the husband).

Time Punctuality

Most Americans are very punctual. Most people arrive exactly on time or a few minutes early for an appointment. Although most high tech jobs don’t require exact arrival and departure times, most people at most jobs arrive on time and work hard during their shifts. If there is an unexpected delay, it is customary to inform the other party by calling them about the delay and apologize immediately upon meeting.

It is sad that many Indians don’t accept this concept of being on time in a non-work related environment. Most people are late to social gatherings like parties or dinners.

Going for a Walk

Going for a walk is quite popular among Americans. Usually, people go for a walk during the early morning hours and after dinner. Many people don’t go for a walk because they feel they’re too busy or prefer watching TV or other activities. Some people also go jogging and running. Walking or jogging is usually done in public parks, at sidewalks in residential areas, or walking trails.

Many people prefer to go to the local gym to stay physically fit. Gold’s Gym is a very popular national chain.

Keep in mind that you can’t walk anywhere you like. If you walk at inappropriate places (such as highways), the police may issue you a ticket and fine.

Social Matters

It is inappropriate to just show up at someone’s house. You must first call and ask them whether they are available at a particular date and time. If someone casually says “come any time,” please don’t take it literally. If that person really wants you to visit, they will specify a date and time. Unexpected visits are not appreciated, except in an emergency. Even if you’re invited at given date and time, as a courtesy, you should call the host and inform them just before you leave so they can estimate your time of arrival.

In India, people of the same sex hold hands or touch shoulders as a gesture of friendship. Never do that in the U.S. If you are male and hold another man’s hand or put your arm around his shoulder, you might be considered gay. Also, unless you have an intimate relationship, you should keep your distance even from the people of the opposite sex. At the office, in public, and at home, people keep a comfortable distance while sitting next to each other. People speak softly and with low voices. In general conversation, your voice should not be too loud. Have the same manners while talking on the phone so you don’t disturb those around you.

Social Meeting

Generally, you will only visit someone’s home if you’re invited. It may either be a general visit or for snacks, lunch, dinner, or for a party. It is customary to bring a gift for the host. Of course, the nature of the gift would depend on the occasion, and the value of the gift may depend on your relationship with the host.

Some hosts may open the gift right away and express gratitude, while others may open the gift later.

If you are visiting for dinner, you may want to arrive early for drinks and conversation. Don’t leave immediately after dinner; instead, stay for further chat.

In case you are invited to a party, it is customary to inform the host before leaving the party.

Others First

Whenever you visit a public place, it is generally considered courteous to open the door for others nearby to let them pass through first. It is even more important to do so for ladies. The person who you let through first will generally say “thank you,” and you say “you are welcome.”

Of course, if you are waiting in line to buy something (at the post office, grocery store, etc.) or to apply for something, you don’t have to let others go through first. Everyone waits their turn.

Most people work five days a week, typically Monday through Friday during the day. Saturday and Sunday are collectively called the weekend. Most people work hard during the weekdays and enjoy the weekend. Most social activities, sports, and other non-work related outings are scheduled during the weekend, e.g., a football match would typically be on Sunday. Many people use weekends to do household work like laundry, cleaning, getting groceries, etc. Of course, people also do leisure activities such as swimming, boating, bowling, hiking, or skiing, depending upon individual interest and geographical location. Many people watch movies either at theaters or in the comfort of their own home. Millions of Americans spend Sunday watching football games five months out of the year (when the sport’s season is active).

Generally, you are not expected to work during the weekends. Of course, it depends upon the individual’s profession. You wouldn’t call your colleagues or superiors for work-related reasons on weekends unless it is urgent or required as part of work. 

Most American festivals are mostly scheduled around weekends or Mondays. Even Indian festivals that are traditionally not set up that way are celebrated during the weekends. People celebrate Diwali, Holi, etc., on weekends. Even the Navratri festival, which is supposed to be for nine continuous nights, is celebrated over three weekends, three nights each.

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625: Essay B

Mariya is always a little embarrassed to admit how much she loved high school. But the truth is she really loved it. This is outside Houston. She had friends. Liked her classes and Friday night football and backyard pool parties. She was editor-in-chief of the school paper. Felt a lot of freedom.

And then this disquieting thing happened during her senior year, when everybody was applying to colleges. When you apply to a state school in Texas, Mariya explained to me, Texas has their own Common App.

Mariya Karimjee

And it's only for people applying to a public university in Texas. But there were four different essay prompts. And one of those was Essay B.

Essay topic B, like A, B, C, D.

Do you want me to read it?

OK. "Many students expand their view of the world during their time in college. Such growth often results from encounters between students who have lived different cultural, economic, or academic experiences. With your future growth in mind, describe a potential classmate that you believe you could learn from, either within or outside a formal classroom environment.

Wait, wait. So they're asking a potential classmate. In other words, make up a classmate who you have not met.

Yeah. Imagine a hypothetical person who is different from you in some way.

Mariya never actually answered Essay Topic B because she wanted to go to college out of state and she applied early admission. But there were a few days in her English class during that year where the rest of the class that was applying to state schools wrote and worked on their college essays. Because Mariya didn't need to write any essays to get into Texas schools, the teacher asked her to help edit them. Mariya ran the school paper, so she had some skills.

So I was sitting in this class and I was reading all of these essays about a future hypothetical person that helps them grow. And they didn't actually write about a future hypothetical person. They all wrote about me.

They all wrote about you?

Wait. They were writing about you as if they hadn't met you and someday might meet someone like you?

Yeah, exactly.

And then they explained all the important lessons they were going to learn from future imaginary you?

Yes. But before they did that, they had to describe me. And so I was reading these sentences about myself.

Two key facts all of her classmates dwelled upon. Mariya is from Pakistan, and she's Muslim, at a high school that was mostly white and not Muslim.

In a lot of the classes, I was the only nonwhite person. And a lot of times, outside of school, I would go to parties or social gatherings and I would be the only nonwhite person there.

So I'm picturing you have a stack of a couple dozen essays and you're going through them and everyone is talking about you?

I mean, there were some people who did not write about me. They did actually come up with a hypothetical future person and wrote about those people, offensively. There was one in particular in which the guy wrote about his roommate who had super, super greasy hair and smelled like sandalwood.

What does that mean? What is that referring to?

Yeah. He was like some Indian kid who managed to find common ground. I think the common ground was like video games. I'm not kidding.

Mariya brought to the studio a couple of the essays written about her by her high school friends, including one written by one of her best friends at the time, Jenna, who's still one of her best friends. Mariya was a bridesmaid at her wedding. All of Mariya's winter stuff is stored in Jenna's garage right now. Here's Jenna's Essay B.

OK. I'll just start.

"As-salamu alaykum. Hello. It's a customary Islamic greeting and so much fun to pronounce."

That's the opener?

"Almost every evening when my cell phone rings, I'll see Mari's name on the caller ID, flip open the phone, and hastily cry, as-salamu alaykum." And this is a real person writing about me. I'm Mari. And I can guarantee that I don't think that anyone who is white has ever answered the phone and said "as-salamu alaykum" to me. And then she explains. "I'm not Muslim. For that matter, I'm also not Middle Eastern or South Asian. And I certainly can't speak the tongue of those regions."

Jenna then describes how someday she's going to meet this fictional Mari at college on the first day of Intro to Psychology in the middle of a sea of kids who were wearing T-shirts.

"My eye caught the gorgeous, intricate beading of a handmade sari. At the time, I hadn't the faintest idea what a sari was. I was merely awestruck by someone who would willingly wear such a bold outfit."

And did you wear a sari all the time?

No. I have worn a sari-- I'm almost 30, and I've worn a sari maybe twice in my life. And then she goes on. She says, "Her dark, daring South Asian eyes met mine, and she smiled."

"Her dark, daring South Asian eyes"?

Yep. Yep. Followed by, "She was not the typical Indian woman I had seen in National Geographic."

What does that mean?

I don't know. I'm wearing a sari.

Was it weird that suddenly you realized that they're seeing you as their exotic friend?

Yeah, it was super weird. I didn't know that they saw me that way until I read about it in these essays.

Because how did you see yourself?

I saw myself as having fully fit in into this super white high school.

This, in fact, had been a determined, calculated, five-year campaign on Mariya's part, starting when she was 12 years old and her family moved from Pakistan. She carried around a little notebook, where she'd record important details, like at her friend's house, the family drank milk with dinner. Mariya wrote in the notebook, "Americans drink milk with dinner," then tried to get her parents to serve it. To get rid of her Pakistani accent, she embarked on a project that took hours every day after middle school. On the VCR in the family game room, she'd record her favorite TV show, Lizzie McGuire.

And then play back Hilary Duff speaking. And then I would repeat what she had said and record it.

On the family computer, using Windows Media Player.

And then play them simultaneously, hear the differences, and then fix my accent. So I basically copied Hilary Duff's accent. So even now, I sound a lot like a 13-year-old Hilary Duff.

Now, as an adult, I'm able to look back at all those things that I did to be more American and say I wasn't really trying to be more American. I was trying to be more white. And then all of a sudden, I was confronted with these essays, and they were all like, and you're not!

Yeah. That is a really sobering moment, huh?

Yeah. Because you have this project you've been working on for years. You think you're killing it. You're doing such an amazing job. You feel so close to these people, like you're totally integrated. Then you learn, like--

Yeah. It was not fun. And it was not pleasant. And I was in this classroom setting, and my friends were willingly giving me their essays to read, and everyone around me was acting as though it was this giant compliment.

Wait. Why was it a compliment?

Because they'd all written about me, like how great that I was immortalized in all of these college applications.

I know. But it's like they're saying, oh, you're our cute little mascot.

Yeah. It's a little bit like that. Yeah. Like, my Pakistani friend Mariya. And if you had asked me to describe my best friends, it's not like I would've been like, yeah, my friend Katie, who's a white Southern Baptist from Texas. Those are not identifiers I would have used. I would have just said, my friend Katie.

Mariya is the first to say her friends were just trying to give the answer that Essay Topic B seemed to be asking for. It is a really weird essay prompt. It's basically telling 17-year-olds to imagine a stereotype of somebody who's different from them and then explain how they would learn the right lessons from this stereotyped person. The kids were basically writing what they think some admissions office wants to hear.

And of everything in all these essays, there was one section of one essay that got to Mariya the most. It was in the Essay B that her best friend Jenna wrote. Jenna has a scene in her essay where she pictures someday studying for a psychology final with this supposedly fictional girl, Mari, that she imagines meeting at college and befriending.

This moment is not a hypothetical. It's not a fake moment. It's an actual thing that happened between us.

OK. Let's hear.

So she describes herself. "I'm sitting cross-legged in my favorite gray sweats on my extra-long twin, scattered with a frightening number of psych notes. My faithful study buddy, Mari, leans against the bed, her knees pulled close to her chest, a mug of chai between her hands." I would not have been drinking chai.

OK. What would you have been drinking?

Coffee. And it would have been like a basic white girl, like Frappuccino pumpkin spice drink, too.

"I'm flipping through the pages of my textbook when I run across a striking quote from the social psych chapter."

The essay goes on to quote from the textbook, which says that the DNA that all humans share is mostly alike. And then when people are different races or ethnicities, the difference is less than 0.2% of their DNA. Here's Mariya reading more of Jenna's essay.

"I read the stats aloud to Mari, then I excitedly spilled the thoughts running through my head. 'That makes so much sense. So much sense. You know, I've heard we all smile in the same language, but it goes so far beyond that, and I never realized it was possible until I met you, Mari. I had no idea I could connect with someone so completely opposite of me on such a deep level. We can read each other's looks. And no wonder. There's only a 0.2% difference between us.'"

And this like killed me, reading this. It kills me now because it's like, I didn't need science to tell us that we were the same, and she did. And she was supposed to be my best friend. And it wasn't until she read a quote in a social psych chapter that she realized that the genetic differences between us was so slim that it made sense that we could be friends.

They didn't talk about it. Mariya didn't know how. She was in this situation where their teacher and everybody else acted like this was normal, what they were all writing in their essays, and it was hard for her at the time to put her finger on what her problem with it was.

I will just say that for 10 years or something like that, I carried this moment in writing along with me and I would reflect back upon it, about the fact that my best friend had to have science prove to her that we were similar enough to be able to be friends.

Just this week, Mariya finally discussed all this with Jenna. She asked Jenna to go back and read her old high school Essay Topic B and then go into a studio to talk about it.

And Jenna felt really bad about it. Here she is.

I got this out to read it and I was like, womp-womp, it's going to be just something that I wrote when I was 17. And then I was like, oh, I get it. I get why this hurt. Yeah. It was hard for me to read.

The parts that were especially hard for her to read were the fact that she made up that I wore saris, that she used my real name, the National Geographic bit. That was especially horrifying to her.

And did you guys talk about the DNA statistic?

Yeah. I told her that it made me feel like she needed science to validate our friendship.

I never intended that. I don't know why I used the word opposite so many times in this essay.

Maybe because the prompt asked you to.

Yeah. Yeah, maybe so. I don't think about you-- like, I never, never have. Even when I wrote this, I didn't think of you as someone who was opposite.

Jenna said that in the essay, she was trying to say that the DNA science just confirmed something she already knew from our friendship.

It honestly did. Whether I express it well in the essay or not, it just clicked. I was like, yeah, of course. This is my experience. We're the same, and we can still relate in every way imaginable.

During the conversation, there was one moment where Jenna asked me something.

Did you literally think that this is how I saw you?

After the essay, a little bit, yes. There was a brief, two-year period in which I did.

That's not very brief.

But now I don't.

A version of Essay Topic B is still on the website with the Texas Common App, but instead of asking you to imagine a person who you're going to meet in college someday who's going to change you in some way, it asks you about somebody who you've already met whose, quote, "experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours." The old Essay B went further than that, of course. It asked how somebody from a different culture or economic background would benefit a student's, quote, "future growth," which, Mariya points out, seems to assume something about the applicant.

Even when I was in high school and I was reading this prompt, I remember being very aware of the fact that that question was not meant for me. Every time I read it, I had to think like, who on Earth am I going to write about? Who is different from me? I just can't get around the idea that the question is only for white people.

It says, "With your future growth in mind, describe a potential classmate that you believe you could learn from." When it's saying, "Your future growth in mind," who is the "your" in that context? In my opinion, it's white people. Who else needs to learn and grow from people different from them? It's like the prompt is saying that college is for white people and everyone else is here for the benefit of white people.

There are different ways to talk about why it's important to have a mix of people in a school together. Way back in the 1950s, when the Supreme Court decision mandated school desegregation, the language used was that this is the fair and democratic thing to do. It was just right for everybody to be treated the same. But in the years since then, another idea has come forward that you run into all the time in schools and in lots of other settings, that diversity is important because it's good for the majority. It's good for white people. It's not always said that way flat out. Often, it's kind of implicit, like in Essay Topic B.

Today on our program, we have a story of a program from back in the 1960s that ran all across the South. It was started for a bunch of reasons, but the primary one was this one-- to change the thinking of white people. Today on our show, we hear how that played out over decades in real life.

From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Stay with us.

Act One: How to Win Friends and Influence White People

Act 1, How to Win Friends and Influence White People.

OK. So 35 years before Mariya had that experience in her high school, some Black kids were drafted into a project created by a small group called The Stouffer Foundation. They would be the children whose presence in the lives of white kids would impart valuable lessons to the white kids. And before they got to do that, they had to go through an admissions interview.

Testing, testing. One, two, three.

Some of these were recorded. This is a 14-year-old named Doug. And the person that he's being interviewed by was kind of a random semi-celebrity back then, a British stage actress named Rosemary Harris. She's in film sometimes, too. You may have seen her decades later playing Aunt May in Spider-Man. Anyway, in this interview, Rosemary and Doug talk about his grades. He's mostly getting As and Bs, one C. They talk about his science fair project, what he thinks makes a good teacher.

Our French teacher, he's a good teacher, but he just can't keep a quiet class. Most of the class is quiet until they get in French.

Rosemary Harris

They don't like French.

Well, his classes are kind of boring.

Are they? Do you like French?

How many years have you done French?

I think this will be my sixth.

Oh, you've done a lot of French. Can you speak any? Say anything?

[SPEAKING FRENCH]

Very good. Good accent and well pronounced. Better than mine, I think.

The fact that this nice lady is complimenting a teenager on his terrible accent, that's just her personal style. That is not part of the educational program. Mosi Secret has been looking into this program, and he explains what it was all about.

Mosi Secret

This interview was part of an experiment started by a white heiress from the South named Anne Forsyth. She was the granddaughter of a tobacco magnate, RJ Reynolds, and she saw that integration was happening all around the country except at prep schools in the South, and she wanted to do something about it. The students in these schools grow up to be the leaders of the South, she told Ebony magazine. Teach them to be less bigoted and they'd carry that attitude into the institutions they'd run someday. A small investment in an individual change could have a big effect. Meanwhile, the Black student she'd send into these boarding schools would get a top-notch education.

So her little foundation set out to find the best of the best Black students, pluck them from their neighborhoods, convince previously all-white boarding schools to take them, and then send the students in as ambassadors.

Forsyth hired a man named John Ehle to lead the effort. John was a novelist from North Carolina who, in his 40s, turned his imagination to solving social problems with rich people's money. Rosemary Harris, the actress, was his wife. They went all over the South looking for applicants, interviewing them in their schools. John could be kind of gruff, even when he first sat down with someone. He talked to one boy who told John that his hobbies were chemistry and eating. "That's a hobby?" John asked.

I love to eat.

What do you like to eat most?

Well, I like to eat pizza.

What-- pizza. Oh, yeah, excuse me.

French fries, cheeseburger, milk shakes.

Your taste in eating is no account at all, is it? Oh, my.

Another boy told John he was worried about the effects of studying too hard.

But I believe I should study hard, but don't push myself to exhaustion till I get a nervous breakdown.

You don't look like you're going to have one, if I may say so.

You don't feel like you're going to have one soon, do you?

I agree with you. Now these prep schools are harder than public schools.

All these kids you're hearing, they were all chosen. They went on to prep schools. And later in life, they became entrepreneurs and lawyers and engineers. But here, they were at a moment of great transition, about to become transplants who might or might not take.

John and Rosemary don't tell the kids that this is an effort to change the minds of white students. The white students weren't told it, either. In fact, they wait until the end of these interviews to even bring up the fact that the candidates will be integrating white schools. They mention race, but they kind of back into it.

You want to go away to school?

You wouldn't be homesick at school, would you?

I don't think so.

Are you worried at all about going to a-- because these are all-- these prep schools in the South are really all white. Does that idea bother you at all?

What experience have you had with integration? This school isn't very integrated, is it?

No. In the sixth grade, I had a friend named Freedom, and he acts about as crazy as I do sometimes.

Uh-huh. Was he white?

What was his name?

Oh, that's rather a nice name.

So you really don't find any difference between a white boy and a Black boy?

If he's got the right qualities. That's good.

Go ahead and talk to Karen a minute, will you?

John Ehle wanted this integration effort to happen quietly. No fuss, no big moments for the news cameras. "Stay out of the damn papers," he said. The first Stouffer recipients entered schools in the fall of 1967, 13 years after Brown versus Board of Education. There were 20 Black teenagers placed in seven private prep schools that year in small-town Virginia, in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, on the affluent side of Atlanta, all schools that had historically only accepted white kids.

Does it bother you, the thought of going to a predominantly white boarding school?

No. I find that if you have a good sense of humor and you can get along with people well, it doesn't make any difference what race it is. If you can get along with people, get along with any type of people.

Sure. And if anybody is kind of unpleasant, you feel you can rise above it?

Good. Not that you're going to have any difficulty, but.

"Not that you're going to have any difficulty," Rosemary says, "but." Then her voice trails off.

So did this experiment work? Did it make white students less bigoted? And how'd it turn out for the Black students?

In order to answer those questions, I focused in on one school that took part in the Stouffer experiment, Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg, Virginia. People call it VES. When the Supreme Court mandated the desegregation of public schools, lawmakers in Virginia actually closed public schools rather than integrate in Charlottesville, Norfolk, and elsewhere, displacing more than 10,000 students. And white families enrolled their children in private schools in droves. VES was one of those schools. It was a haven for white families fleeing integration. That's what two Black Stouffer scholars were walking into when they arrived in 1967.

Bill Alexander was one of them. He was 14, from a middle-class family in segregated Nashville, the son of a prominent pastor, and a boy who John Ehle thought was perfect for Stouffer. After interviewing Bill, he wrote, "William Alexander, Jr. looks like a prep school student, dresses like one, and talks like one." In the fall of 1967, Bill flew to Lynchburg, walked outside the airport, and hailed a cab.

Bill Alexander

It was a Black cab driver. And I tell the cab driver, take me to VES, Virginia Episcopal School on VES Road. The cab driver drives off and takes me to downtown Lynchburg to an African-American Baptist seminary.

He pulls up, and because I'd been up there, I knew where the school was. I said, well, sir, I said Virginia Episcopal School. He said, you're going there? He couldn't believe it. He couldn't process that.

Eventually, Bill made his way to VES, where he got a warm welcome.

They knew I was coming. They came down. They had some guys come get my bags and stuff. The leaders of the school came down. They said, welcome, Bill. Let me take you to your room.

Bill's new roommate, Marvin Barnard, arrived in Lynchburg by bus. He'd come by himself, 100 miles from the Black side of Richmond. He had one suitcase. He was wearing a sports jacket, a little blue cap. He'd never seen a place like VES before.

Marvin Barnard

It had a bell tower. The bell tower, I thought, was beautiful. I never had a bell tower in the community where I came from. The lawn was rolling. The mountains in the background. It was so peaceful. And I felt like, OK, I can do this. Of course, I had no idea. I didn't really realize how big an issue this really was in terms of integrating the school. I wasn't thinking along that line at 13 and 14 years old. I was thinking that it's a big experiment. People want you to come. People in my community wanted me to go. I'm ready to go. Let's get it going.

Marvin was smiley, 5" 2', 100 pounds. During his interview with John Ehle, he told John, "I get along with everyone," which was true. He did.

Unfortunately, there aren't recordings of Bill and Marvin's interviews. In many ways, Marvin was Bill's opposite, warm-blooded to Bill's cool, short to Bill's tall. Marvin grew up in a three-room shack with an outside toilet, not a middle-class home like Bill. A teacher would come to call the duo of Marvin and Bill Fire and Ice.

Both Bill and Marvin had a vague sense, a 14-year-old sense, that integrating VES was a small way they could participate in the civil rights movement they saw happening all around them. 1967 was the year that riots broke out in more than 100 cities across the country. The Supreme Court decided Loving versus the State of Virginia, which ended laws against interracial marriage. John Ehle told Marvin that this was a chance to prove that Black students could perform as well as any white students if the playing field were level.

VES was a vestige of a Jim Crow South on land that had once been a plantation. A decade or so before Bill and Marvin arrived, VES had decided to tear down the remaining slave cabin on campus. But they had a new headmaster, a guy from the north who had opened the door when The Stouffer Foundation came knocking.

Resistance came from parents and some of the board. "Why, why, why have you done this cruel thing to our beloved school?" one parent wrote. "A private boarding school like VES is an extension, a part of the family. We have no intention whatsoever of integrating those of another race into our family." Stouffer wasn't blind to the immense challenges Marvin and Bill would face. So as a way to prep them, all 20 Stouffer scholars did a summer program at Duke. They learned both academics and manners, how to read classic books, do advanced math, hold a tennis racket, swim. Here's Marvin.

Socially, they really gave us a heads-up in terms of what dormitory life may be like, in a dormitory where there were, obviously, white students and they may pull pranks on you. And I wasn't used to-- like, what's a prank? A prank's, you know, you do your little things, and it sort of jokes around and they laugh about it. And I'm like, meh, OK. But my main thing is like, I've got to be a good student.

So it sounds like you're saying there was very little discussion of race there, despite what you were going off to do.

Yeah. I don't recall that.

Instead, they were told if someone pranks you, don't assume that it's about race. They left it up to the kids to figure out.

Sort of try to feel out whether things were primarily because you were a new student versus is certain things happening because you're a Black student.

Freshmen at VES were known as newboys or rats. And once they were at VES, Marvin and Bill experienced some of the same mild hazing that happened to white freshmen. Seniors would tell them to get in the back of the line in the cafeteria. They'd make them do their laundry. They rolled with it, but it never escaped their minds that they were the only two Black students on campus. They became a team, friends and roommates who were going to shine. Here's Marvin.

I felt that, if I was a good student, to be the best student I could be, then there would be success. And Bill and I both knew, then-- I think everybody else-- we wanted to be good students in as many things as possible. Not just in the classroom, but in the dorms, on the field, whatever we could do.

Right out of the gate, Bill and Marvin did more than anyone thought they could ever do. After a month into the first semester, the school's headmaster, Austin Montgomery, wrote a letter to the Foundation with an update on the boy's progress. It started, "As I write, the two are playing touch with a dozen others out on the lovely front campus. I thought you might be interested that Friday, unbeknownst to me, the freshmen held class elections." Austin explained that the white kids had chosen Bill to be freshman class president, and that was after losing the Black vote. Marvin had voted for someone else.

After the end of the first semester, when everyone gathered around the bulletin board in Jett Hall to look at their grades and see where they stood, Bill and Marvin were out ahead, tied for number one, more than 40 white boys in their class in line behind them.

I'm sure several were shocked. Yeah, there was a little competition going on.

Things continued like this into the next semester. Mostly great, but not entirely.

There may have been different events where you may hear individuals use the n-word while you're walking down the hall and you turn around and nobody would say anything, and everybody looking like, well, who said that? Or you go into a study hall in the classroom where you normally sit-- most people have habits of where they sit and where they study or whatever-- and there's a little note that has the n-word on it. So those were minor, trivial types of things that I really didn't put a lot of stock in at all.

Marvin said he'd been told by the uncle who raised him not to worry about words. "As long as they don't get physical with you. Don't let them hit my son, now." Marvin says when these things would happen, he'd think to himself, is that the best you got?

Then a Thursday night, April 4, 1968, and Bill and Marvin were in their dorm room.

And then the announcement came over the radio that Martin Luther King had been shot.

He entered to the hospital emergency room with his face covered with a towel. The exact extent of his injuries not known at this time.

And when it was announced over the radio, all of a sudden, I could hear nothing but laughter all throughout the dormitory halls. And it sort of resonated not only in our hallway, but it seemed like it was resonating through all the dorms.

At least, that's what it sounded like to Marvin.

I mean, when I heard that, I just got so angry and hurt by it because it was so pervasive. I thought it was very disrespectful. Why are you laughing when he's announcing that someone has been killed? And it's like, why are you like joyous? You're celebrating.

One of the guys on the floor, he came, and he was laughing. Came by the room and was taunting.

This is Bill. He doesn't remember exactly what was said.

No, I don't remember, but I mean, ah, he's dead. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It was probably that. He's dead. Good. I'm glad he was killed.

They were happy. Them people were happy. They were glad he was shot.

And with all that laughter going on, I remember looking at Bill and it was like, I can't let this go. And I went out into the hallway and I demanded that anybody that thinks that this is funny, that you need to come out and face me now. If you think this is funny and you want to laugh, come out and face me now. And there was silence. Nothing happened.

The night of Martin Luther King's assassination, there was one person who stood up for Bill and Marvin, someone who stepped up in a way that, even now, when they look back on it, feels significant, their headmaster, Austin Montgomery. Austin died in 1995. But that night, he called all the students into the chapel. Again, here's Bill.

We've gone to bed. We're in our PJs. And then we get the call. "Everybody come to chapel." So all the guys are in chapel in their PJs. And Mr. Montgomery gave one of the best speeches I've ever seen in my life.

In short, he was saying that the life of any man should not be one that there should be laughter or joy over, and this is not the VES way. And we are not going to have this here.

He said, we're better than this. And he wasn't going to tolerate that foolishness.

That night had a profound effect on Bill and Marvin. Here's Marvin.

It did carve-- it carved something deep inside of me because these are some of the same people that we had, quote, unquote, "been friendly with" and everything else, and why would they do that? Is there something that I don't know? Was I being just deceived or deluded in how I was thinking? That's where the whole aspect, in terms of the young, smiley face, great experiment, everybody's buying into it, that took a different shade that evening.

Marvin's roommate, Bill, was angry, too. But true to form, Ice kept it to himself. And he had this additional reaction to it. He found the incident clarifying.

How can I say this at my age? I did not have an expectation that I'm coming to VES and that it's going to be a post-racial experience. I think we could make things different, and hopefully for the better, sure, but I'm not going to take that weight on. Oh, my God, you don't like me. Or you expressed your bias against African-Americans because you laughed when Dr. King was assassinated. OK, well, I know who you are. OK. We're good.

That summer, Marvin returned home, back to his old life, back to the shotgun house he grew up in in Fulton, a neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. Some people called it Fulton Bottom because it was at the bottom of a hill on the banks of the James River. White people seldom came down the hill. One night, Marvin was in his house where he lived with his uncle. His aunt had died a few years before. Marvin was laying on the couch, watching his uncle, the man who had raised him, the man he called dad, smoke a cigarette on the front porch.

And I could see his body, his silhouette outside the window. A little breeze coming on a warm July night. The screen door opens, and he comes in. He's walking real slow. And he just sort of flops down. And as he flops down, I had to sort of pull my legs up real quick, otherwise he would've sat on my legs.

And I'm thinking, Dad wouldn't just sit on my legs like that. What's wrong? And then he says, you know, you're doing very well. He says, I'm proud of you. You're a good young man. And I said, well, thanks, Dad. So he says to me, I want you to go and sleep in the big bed.

Marvin usually slept on the cot in the middle room. It was the man of the house who slept in the big bed.

So I go into the bedroom where the big bed, his bed, is, and I get ready to turn off the light. And as I get ready to turn off the light, I just hear this harsh sound. A gasp. And so I go back into the room and I see him, and I know he's gone. And then I just closed his eyes.

Marvin was now all alone, no close family to turn to, grieving. Then he got a letter from Headmaster Austin Montgomery, offering his sympathy and urging Marvin to return to school in the fall. "I hope you know, Marvin, what deep respect and affection and what high hopes I have for you. I think you took hold of what could have been a difficult situation this past year and handled it manfully in the very best sense of that word. You did yourself great credit. I hope that you had a happy year, and one that you think was profitable. Probably you did at least as much for VES as it did for you. Let me say that, whether it matters to you or not, the school needs you, and you at your very best, working and playing hard and speaking up with humor and wisdom for what you think is right and important."

The fall of 1968, Marvin returned for his sophomore year. Bill, too. But Headmaster Austin Montgomery was gone. The details aren't totally clear, but it seems like there was pressure on him to leave. Austin was a Northerner with a bristly temperament, and he'd pushed the school to integrate. His replacement was a Southerner, an institutional guy who played by the rules.

But before Austin left, he made sure the Stouffer experiment continued with two new Black students joining Marvin and Bill that fall, two boys they looked after and checked in on. And the experiment started to shape who Marvin was. He became a little more fire. He grew more militant.

I grew a bigger Afro, which also gave me some height.

Partly in response to white students who decorated their rooms with the Confederate flag, Marvin started wearing dashikis, and--

My facial expressions were different, like I'm looking at you right now. And I was looking like I could hurt you if you step on me. OK. It's like, yeah, you're my bud and everything like that, but you don't tread on me, OK? You don't disrespect me.

Meanwhile, they doubled down on proving they were the best. They were defiant.

It definitely made me want to work even harder. And I wanted to make a statement by making a bigger gap between our being number one and number two and whoever was three and four. I didn't want it to be perceived that it was something that was an aberration. It was very close. And that's how we could really fight. We could really fight by being better students.

It worked. Bill and Marvin were popular, good athletes, exceptional students, guys everyone at VES looked up to. Bill lettered early, showed up his sophomore year with his varsity jacket. They were football champions one year, dorm leaders another year, friends with the white guys. Bill and Marvin held the number one and number two academic rankings all four years they were at VES, the pinnacle of Anne Forsyth's hopes. They chipped away at white supremacy by being supreme.

I got to feel the real impact of all of this about a year ago when I went to VES for the school's 100-year reunion. Walking around campus with Bill and Marvin was like being with celebrities. Every few paces, a former classmate would stop them and offer kind words, give them a slap on the back.

Good to see you, Marvin! I thought I recognized you.

In the main building on campus, there's a display that commemorates Marvin and Bill. There's photos of them from their freshman and senior years, like a before and after.

I want you to pay attention to 1967. See how we come in? Look at the bright eyes, and we're all happy.

Bill with some schoolboy glasses on and a suit. Short, trimmed hair. You with a plaid jacket.

That's right. We were just happy to be here.

The reunion was the first time that most of the Stouffer students had been together again since Bill and Marvin's senior year. By the time they were seniors, there were seven Black students at VES. They took to calling themselves The Magnificent Seven. That weekend, those who were there were honored and got a standing ovation.

[INAUDIBLE]

But something else happened that weekend at the reunion, something that reveals a different side of this social experiment. Some of the guys in The Magnificent Seven were hoping they could take a photograph of all seven of them together, and they kept asking me about one person, a guy who was missing, Johnny Halloway. Johnny was one of the two Black students who came to VES the year after Bill and Marvin.

Terry Sherrill

Is Johnny-- did you get up with Johnny? You didn't get up with Johnny Halloway, did you?

That's Terry Sherrill, one of The Magnificent Seven, asking me about Johnny.

I spoke with Johnny.

You did speak to him?

Did he say he was coming?

Johnny is not coming.

I'd gotten in touch with Johnny while reporting this story. I told Terry that Johnny was now a pastor at a church in Durham, North Carolina.

Do you know the name of the church? Because we're thinking about trying to go up there maybe Sunday and surprise him at his church.

If we could get the details of his church, we will go.

Maybe you can hear in my voice, I didn't think Johnny would like that surprise because Johnny, he was not Bill and Marvin. He did not celebrate VES the way they did.

Coming up, what exactly happened to Johnny? That's in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues.

It's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Today's program, Essay B. What happens when you create a project whose main goal is to integrate schools for the benefit of the white students there? How does that work out for everybody? If you're just tuning in, we're in the middle of a story by reporter Mosi Secret. He also did a version of this story this week for The New York Times Magazine. That's at nytimes.com/integration.

Right before the break, Mosi was explaining that a guy named Johnny Halloway decided not to return to VES for their reunion for reasons of his own. Mosi picks up the story from there.

A month before, I'd gotten on the phone with Johnny, and pretty quickly, he told me this.

Johnny Halloway

I took a lot of beatings. I don't know if anyone else has spoken about that.

No, they hadn't. Johnny told me he was beaten several times, always by the same guys, and he was certain it was racially motivated. He said he never told the other Black students about it. He said there was no point. So I went to visit Johnny at his church to talk more about this.

Johnny's church is called Cup of Salvation. It's a storefront church in Durham, North Carolina off a state highway in a complex with a bingo hall, daycare center, and a beauty salon. At first, Johnny didn't want to go into details about what happened. But eventually, he told me what those beatings were like.

If you could imagine yourself being in bed, asleep, and somebody throwing your sheet over your head and you're suddenly being pummeled by a bunch of guys. That's pretty intense. At 14 years old, feeling that you have no sanctuary at all, feeling that you're really not safe from getting beat up, and that you're doing it not just for yourself, but for a movement that's larger than yourself, taking that kind of beating, and it hurts when you get hit.

Then you don't sleep the rest of the night because you don't know if they're coming back. You're crying. You're angry. You're hurt.

The next day, when you go out to breakfast, you're looking around, trying to see if you can identify everybody that did it because of how maybe they're looking at you. You wonder if everybody else knows, and if they're laughing behind your back. It's humiliating, but it also it made me angry. It made me hostile in some ways.

After his freshman year, things got better for Johnny. The upperclassmen who beat him graduated. He settled in, sang in the glee club, made new friends. He learned that he could perform as well or better than white people. The beatings, that was just one part of his experience at VES.

I was pretty aware that I was going to be an ambassador, a pioneer, a lab rat. So I was pretty aware that what I was being asked to do was bigger than me. But I didn't really want to be a racial ambassador. I just wanted to be a kid growing up, going to school.

I explained to him that one of the goals of the program was to teach white kids about Black people-- to benefit the white guys, like the bullies who came into his room at night. The fact that he was beat up is part of that experiment, The Foundation never knew about that.

I don't recall anybody from The Stouffer Foundation talking to me at all after I was admitted into VES. And I could be wrong about that, but I don't recall ever having a conversation with anyone to follow up and see how was I doing, how was it working out or whatever. So I did feel, at that point, like I had been thrown into this thing and then, if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't.

But I didn't feel used. I didn't blame them. I felt like they had given me an opportunity and I appreciated the opportunity.

Johnny reluctantly told me two names of people who had beaten him. One of the guys is dead. I tried the other multiple times, but he didn't respond. I talked to Johnny's roommate from the time, and he confirmed that this happened. He said it happened to him, too. He told me there was one guy who was so racist, so hostile towards him, that he had fantasies of pushing the kid off the dorm roof.

Anne Forsyth and The Stouffer Foundation eventually ran out of money in 1976. In the '70s, there were just a few more Black students. Eventually, more Black students started going to VES in the '80s. Not through any formal effort-- more people just started applying. And today, a little less than 9% of the student population is Black. There are other students of color, as well. Two of the Stouffer scholars have been on the board at VES. Bill has a scholarship for Black students in his name. So one of the goals of Stouffer-- integrating these schools-- that's happened in 20 schools. Another-- providing opportunity for Black students-- that's the clearest victory in this effort.

Marvin and Bill are both doctors now. Bill went to Harvard. Marvin decided to go to the best historically Black college in the country, Howard University. He was tired of representing all Black people. Among the other 140 Stouffer scholars, there are doctors, lawyers, a political operative, a judge, teachers, corporate leaders. But what about the goal that made Anne Forsyth want to do this in the first place-- the idea that this would change the hearts and minds of white students? Someone did try to measure this.

In 1973, John Ehle commissioned a survey of students' attitudes about race in the prep schools they integrated, but it wasn't scientifically done. And a few students wrote letters asking things like, why the questionnaire on Black students when there are only three in the whole school?

We conducted our own unscientific survey and called around to a bunch of white VES alums. Most didn't want to engage the question at all. They didn't want to talk about race head-on. We heard a lot of polite dodges about how color didn't mean anything or we didn't see them as Black. We saw them as classmates. Or I don't remember it being an issue.

But I was able to find one guy who seemed changed and who was game to talk about it. John Harman, class of '72, the same class as Johnny Halloway, the guy who didn't show up at reunion. John Harman came to VES from Tazewell, Virginia, a town of about 4,000. Growing up, the legacy of Jim Crow was all around him. His family used to go to the theater on Main Street, where Blacks had to sit in the balcony. His father was a lawyer who used the town's Confederate soldier statue as a landmark.

John Harman

And he'd say, when you get on Main Street in Tazewell, find a Confederate soldier, and he's looking across the street, right in my office window. There was a pretty good, old Southern, Confederate flag, pickup truck culture back there. The word [BLEEP] was just used without even thinking. It was just no animosity, necessarily, but just a notion of they're them, and we's us, and we're probably inherently different. And it's a small town. You just didn't interact with them.

Do you think that you were racist when you got to VES?

Probably. Probably. Not in an overt, hostile way, but I'm sure I had attitudes that would be fairly described as racist, sure.

Was Jerrauld your first Black friend?

Oh, sure. Sure, absolutely.

Jerrauld was another Stouffer scholar. John says that he and Jerrauld really got to know each other junior year. They were on the yearbook staff together, John working as a photographer, and Jerrauld as an editor. And they used to joke around about how different they were. John was a white country boy who was seldom without his .22 rifle, and Jerrauld was a Black kid from Norfolk, the big city, in John's eyes.

John went on to work as an engineer for the railroad. He had a lot of Black coworkers, and he says, outside of VES, it was his first daily close contact with Black people. And his experience at VES prepped him for that. He says he understood they were the same as him. He didn't interact much with his Black coworkers socially, but he says he became less racist over time.

There was no epiphany, where you smack your forehead and go, wow! It's more like watching it get dark at night. You can't really watch it happen as it happens, but it just ends up being dark. I guess that's the way learning is. You don't really realize it's happening until all of the sudden you realize, huh, there's a change in me.

It's a really lovely thought, I just kind of wish he'd used a sunrise metaphor instead.

At the reunion, John heard that Jerrauld and the other Black students were put into his school partly for his benefit, to change his thinking. I told him how a couple got beat up. They faced racial slurs. Was it fair to put that on them?

I'm sorry it happened. I never realized the racial crap that they put up with. I think it's a fair question, what you're asking, but I don't see a way around it. There is no way you're going to take young, southern, white males of privilege and educate them in diverse ways without exposing them to Black students. And you're going to be asking a lot of the Blacks what you're going to put in that situation.

He said he thought about Jerrauld for years when they weren't in touch. He'd see things on the news, especially things going on in the country, like Charlottesville, and think about Jerrauld and wonder what he thought. He wanted to hear his opinion.

I ran that by Jerrauld. It was a surprise to him. I believe John when he tells me his experience with Jerrauld changed him. By the time he had two high school-aged daughters, he could point to what that change meant.

I can recall coming in after work or something, and maybe it'd be 8 o'clock at night and there'd be a half a dozen kids up here with pizzas from Little Caesar's, and there might be two Black guys in there. My attitude when I was growing up would have been, what are they doing here? As opposed to, instead, now, it's just like, hey, look who's here. It's just a bunch of kids here. I knew them and I liked them, and I was glad to have them in the house. And without VES, I probably wouldn't have that attitude. And I actually was aware of that, looking at it and sort of thinking, damn, John, you've come a ways since you were a young man.

When Anne Forsyth started this experiment in the '60s, her vision was way grander than this. She was picturing future titans of industry, governors and senators whose prejudice would be melted away. And she launched this idealistic project not really knowing what she was doing, but taking her best shot. I think she never would have pictured this as one of the results-- a middle-aged white man stumbling onto a pizza party and thinking everything was all right, and in a sense, looking back over years that he wasn't all right before. It's so modest, but it's something.

Mosi Secret. He's an Eric and Wendy Schmidt fellow at New America. He's working on a book about the Stouffer experiment. At our website this week, you can see pictures of Bill and Marvin as freshmen and seniors and read part of their applications. That's thisamericanlife.org.

[MUSIC - "MAYBE IT'LL RUB OFF" BY TOWER OF POWER]

Our program was produced today by Susan Burton. Our staff includes Elise Bergerson, Ben Calhoun, Zoe Chace, Dana Chivvis, Sean Cole, Neil Drumming, Stephanie Foo, Chana Joffe-Walt, Mariya Karimjee, Jonathan Menjivar, BA Parker, Robyn Semien, Alissa Shipp, Lily Sullivan, Christopher Swetala, Matt Tierney, and Diane Wu. Our senior producer is Brian Reed.

[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS]

Research help from Michelle Harris. Music help from Damien Graef.

This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. Thanks, as always, to our program's co-founder, Mr. Torey Malatia. You know, he went to a concert years ago and it really influenced his style of singing in the shower.

So even now, I sound a lot like a 13-year-old Hilary Duff.

I'm Ira Glass. Back next week with more stories of This American Life.

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That Viral Essay Wasn’t About Age Gaps. It Was About Marrying Rich.

But both tactics are flawed if you want to have any hope of becoming yourself..

Women are wisest, a viral essay in New York magazine’s the Cut argues , to maximize their most valuable cultural assets— youth and beauty—and marry older men when they’re still very young. Doing so, 27-year-old writer Grazie Sophia Christie writes, opens up a life of ease, and gets women off of a male-defined timeline that has our professional and reproductive lives crashing irreconcilably into each other. Sure, she says, there are concessions, like one’s freedom and entire independent identity. But those are small gives in comparison to a life in which a person has no adult responsibilities, including the responsibility to become oneself.

This is all framed as rational, perhaps even feminist advice, a way for women to quit playing by men’s rules and to reject exploitative capitalist demands—a choice the writer argues is the most obviously intelligent one. That other Harvard undergraduates did not busy themselves trying to attract wealthy or soon-to-be-wealthy men seems to flummox her (taking her “high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out” to the Harvard Business School library, “I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence”). But it’s nothing more than a recycling of some of the oldest advice around: For women to mold themselves around more-powerful men, to never grow into independent adults, and to find happiness in a state of perpetual pre-adolescence, submission, and dependence. These are odd choices for an aspiring writer (one wonders what, exactly, a girl who never wants to grow up and has no idea who she is beyond what a man has made her into could possibly have to write about). And it’s bad advice for most human beings, at least if what most human beings seek are meaningful and happy lives.

But this is not an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying older men. It is an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying rich men. Most of the purported upsides—a paid-for apartment, paid-for vacations, lives split between Miami and London—are less about her husband’s age than his wealth. Every 20-year-old in the country could decide to marry a thirtysomething and she wouldn’t suddenly be gifted an eternal vacation.

Which is part of what makes the framing of this as an age-gap essay both strange and revealing. The benefits the writer derives from her relationship come from her partner’s money. But the things she gives up are the result of both their profound financial inequality and her relative youth. Compared to her and her peers, she writes, her husband “struck me instead as so finished, formed.” By contrast, “At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self.” The idea of having to take responsibility for her own life was profoundly unappealing, as “adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations.” Tying herself to an older man gave her an out, a way to skip the work of becoming an adult by allowing a father-husband to mold her to his desires. “My husband isn’t my partner,” she writes. “He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did.”

These, by the way, are the things she says are benefits of marrying older.

The downsides are many, including a basic inability to express a full range of human emotion (“I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that constrains the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him”) and an understanding that she owes back, in some other form, what he materially provides (the most revealing line in the essay may be when she claims that “when someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them”). It is clear that part of what she has paid in exchange for a paid-for life is a total lack of any sense of self, and a tacit agreement not to pursue one. “If he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive,” she writes, “but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials.”

Reading Christie’s essay, I thought of another one: Joan Didion’s on self-respect , in which Didion argues that “character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.” If we lack self-respect, “we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out—since our self-image is untenable—their false notions of us.” Self-respect may not make life effortless and easy. But it means that whenever “we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously un- comfortable bed, the one we make ourselves,” at least we can fall asleep.

It can feel catty to publicly criticize another woman’s romantic choices, and doing so inevitably opens one up to accusations of jealousy or pettiness. But the stories we tell about marriage, love, partnership, and gender matter, especially when they’re told in major culture-shaping magazines. And it’s equally as condescending to say that women’s choices are off-limits for critique, especially when those choices are shared as universal advice, and especially when they neatly dovetail with resurgent conservative efforts to make women’s lives smaller and less independent. “Marry rich” is, as labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards put it in Bloomberg, essentially the Republican plan for mothers. The model of marriage as a hierarchy with a breadwinning man on top and a younger, dependent, submissive woman meeting his needs and those of their children is not exactly a fresh or groundbreaking ideal. It’s a model that kept women trapped and miserable for centuries.

It’s also one that profoundly stunted women’s intellectual and personal growth. In her essay for the Cut, Christie seems to believe that a life of ease will abet a life freed up for creative endeavors, and happiness. But there’s little evidence that having material abundance and little adversity actually makes people happy, let alone more creatively generativ e . Having one’s basic material needs met does seem to be a prerequisite for happiness. But a meaningful life requires some sense of self, an ability to look outward rather than inward, and the intellectual and experiential layers that come with facing hardship and surmounting it.

A good and happy life is not a life in which all is easy. A good and happy life (and here I am borrowing from centuries of philosophers and scholars) is one characterized by the pursuit of meaning and knowledge, by deep connections with and service to other people (and not just to your husband and children), and by the kind of rich self-knowledge and satisfaction that comes from owning one’s choices, taking responsibility for one’s life, and doing the difficult and endless work of growing into a fully-formed person—and then evolving again. Handing everything about one’s life over to an authority figure, from the big decisions to the minute details, may seem like a path to ease for those who cannot stomach the obligations and opportunities of their own freedom. It’s really an intellectual and emotional dead end.

And what kind of man seeks out a marriage like this, in which his only job is to provide, but very much is owed? What kind of man desires, as the writer cast herself, a raw lump of clay to be molded to simply fill in whatever cracks in his life needed filling? And if the transaction is money and guidance in exchange for youth, beauty, and pliability, what happens when the young, beautiful, and pliable party inevitably ages and perhaps feels her backbone begin to harden? What happens if she has children?

The thing about using youth and beauty as a currency is that those assets depreciate pretty rapidly. There is a nearly endless supply of young and beautiful women, with more added each year. There are smaller numbers of wealthy older men, and the pool winnows down even further if one presumes, as Christie does, that many of these men want to date and marry compliant twentysomethings. If youth and beauty are what you’re exchanging for a man’s resources, you’d better make sure there’s something else there—like the basic ability to provide for yourself, or at the very least a sense of self—to back that exchange up.

It is hard to be an adult woman; it’s hard to be an adult, period. And many women in our era of unfinished feminism no doubt find plenty to envy about a life in which they don’t have to work tirelessly to barely make ends meet, don’t have to manage the needs of both children and man-children, could simply be taken care of for once. This may also explain some of the social media fascination with Trad Wives and stay-at-home girlfriends (some of that fascination is also, I suspect, simply a sexual submission fetish , but that’s another column). Fantasies of leisure reflect a real need for it, and American women would be far better off—happier, freer—if time and resources were not so often so constrained, and doled out so inequitably.

But the way out is not actually found in submission, and certainly not in electing to be carried by a man who could choose to drop you at any time. That’s not a life of ease. It’s a life of perpetual insecurity, knowing your spouse believes your value is decreasing by the day while his—an actual dollar figure—rises. A life in which one simply allows another adult to do all the deciding for them is a stunted life, one of profound smallness—even if the vacations are nice.

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The War in Gaza and the Emerging Rift in American Jewish Life

A conversation on whether liberalism and Zionism can continue to coexist for American Jews.

By Peter Beinart and Max Strasser

Produced by Jillian Weinberger

In this interview with the Times Opinion editor Max Strasser, the journalist Peter Beinart explores what he calls the twin pillars of American Jewish life: Zionism and liberalism. Beinart argues that the two are fundamentally in conflict with each other, a longstanding tension that has become even more fraught since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated in Gaza. In this conversation, Beinart makes the case for liberalism over Zionism and calls on the American Jewish community to see that “Palestinian equality doesn’t need to be a threat to Jewish safety.”

Below is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation.

“The Opinions” is a collection of audio essays from Times Opinion. To listen to this piece, click the play button below.

Open this article in the New York Times Audio app on iOS.

Max Strasser: Peter, hi.

Peter Beinart: Hi.

Max Strasser: Your recent guest essay starts with the idea that there are two pillars of American Jewish life: liberalism and Zionism — progressive politics and support for Israel. Let’s start with the first one.

Tell me about where American Jews have tended to fall politically, at least until now. And in what ways have liberalism and Zionism been really integral to American Jewish identity?

Peter Beinart: Since American Jews came to the United States in large numbers in the early 20th century, they have identified on the left politically. Some of them came with socialist or communist backgrounds from Eastern Europe, and they merged that — certainly under Franklin Roosevelt — into American liberalism.

American Jews have voted for the Democratic Party in every presidential race since the 1930s in large numbers. They’ve been overrepresented in the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the L.G.B.T. movement, the labor movement. And so this has been one of the things that I think defines how many American Jews see themselves, as a group of people who have a history of oppression and want to be on the side of other people who are struggling for equality.

Zionism was also a force in American Jewish life from the early 20th century, but it really became dominant after the 1967 war, when American Jews were filled with pride by Israel’s victory and felt that the sense of powerlessness of the Holocaust had in some ways been overcome by Israel’s military success. So starting in the 1970s, you really start to see that Zionism becomes a dominant ethos in American Jewish organizations. And those organizations also claim — most of them — that they are liberal organizations. So liberalism and Zionism sit alongside one another as the dominant creeds in American Jewish life.

Max Strasser: But there’s a tension here, right? American Jews celebrate Jewish participation in the civil rights movement. But Israel, which they have this great loyalty to, has certainly not lived up to the ideals that Martin Luther King promoted — democracy, equality, civil rights. So how did our community hold on to both liberalism and Zionism simultaneously for so long?

Peter Beinart: Yes, the two ideologies, if you think about them, are really quite dissonant with one another. American Jews have tended to support the idea of equal citizenship in a government that is secular and doesn’t prefer any racial or religious group. But Zionism — certainly the political Zionism that has structured the Israeli state since Israel’s creation — is based on the idea that this is a state essentially for Jews, for the safety and representation, above all, of Jews.

I think that American Jews were able to hold those two ideologies together because there were not strong voices pointing out the illiberalism of Zionism in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, but in the last decade or so, I think that’s begun to change.

Max Strasser: I think that’s especially true since Oct. 7. Oct. 7 was, to me, the most seismic event in Israel-Palestine in my lifetime. I don’t know if you feel the same way. It’s really changed the trajectory of the conflict and how we talk about it. Part of that is because of the horror of Hamas’s attack and how that’s shaken people. But it’s also because of the way Israel has responded: As of right now, more than 32,000 Palestinians killed, and Gaza is on the brink of a famine that humanitarian agencies say Israel could prevent. Do you think that’s part of what’s changing the conversation also?

Peter Beinart: I think there were changes that were underway before Oct. 7, but they’ve been accelerated.

For the last decade or so, roughly, you could say the American left has been moving in a more pro-Palestine direction. Interestingly, if you go back decades earlier, Israel was often considered a leftist cause in the United States. But as Israel has moved to the right politically, more people on the left, I think, have started to identify with the Palestinian cause. But it wasn’t necessarily a dominant political issue until Oct. 7.

What Oct. 7 did was put this issue on the front page. The pro-Palestine sentiment that existed among kind of leftist activists all of a sudden went from being one of their concerns to being among their top concerns. That has produced a really unprecedented movement for Palestinian rights and against this war on the left, and that has started to change the culture of many of the institutions in which Jews reside. This leftist pro-Palestine politics has started to change American liberalism in ways that make it harder and more uncomfortable to hold liberalism and Zionism alongside one another.

Max Strasser: What does this shift mean for mainstream Jewish institutions that remain committed to Zionism?

Peter Beinart: I think mainstream American Jewish organizations that see their fundamental goal as protecting Israel are seeing that liberalism and the Democratic Party are becoming less hospitable.

Yes, there are many Democratic politicians, like Joe Biden, who are still very, very pro-Israel. But the Jewish organizations can see that at the grass roots of the Democratic Party, especially among younger people, there’s been a dramatic shift. They can see that pro-Palestine activism is really growing. And so they are responding by making a kind of an alignment with forces on the political right because the pro-Israel consensus remains strong in the Republican Party and because Republicans have their own reason for wanting to try to suppress this leftist pro-Palestine activism. They identify it with a larger agenda, which they call woke, which they see as a threat.

Max Strasser: You write in the essay that this alliance that’s forming between Zionist institutions and Republicans and other forces on the right — it’s an uncomfortable one for a lot of American Jews. Can you talk a little bit about how liberal Zionists are trying to make sense of that and reconcile that tension?

Peter Beinart: Yes, it’s uncomfortable because most American Jews are still voting for the Democratic Party and seeing themselves in some ways as liberals. But the institutions that speak for them are moving into closer alignment with the Republican Party.

For instance, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, probably the most powerful pro-Israel, largely Jewish organization, endorsed a large number of insurrectionists — people who did not support certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory — and that’s very uncomfortable for many American Jews. But for the time being, I think they are able to still hold these two things because there are enough pro-Israel Democrats in politics that they can still support. But I think that in the years to come, there may be fewer of those and that holding these two things will be harder.

Max Strasser: We’ve talked about the uncomfortable alliance that’s happening on the right, but what about on the other side? The Palestine solidarity movement, it’s definitely growing. It’s growing rapidly. It’s growing in the amount of attention that it gets. But how do you think progressive Jews fit in?

Peter Beinart: On the one hand, there are a substantial number of Jews who are in the Palestine solidarity movement now through groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now. But that movement, as it’s growing stronger, has also been growing more radical.

I think it’s been radicalized by Israel’s move to the right and now by this destruction of Gaza, which is making people so, so upset. And so what we’re seeing in the Palestine solidarity movement is that the language of equal coexistence, which was stronger a couple of decades ago, has receded a bit in Palestine discourse. That’s not to say that the movement is saying, “The Jews need to be kicked out of Israel.” We’re not hearing that. But there’s not a vision that’s being articulated that actually explains where Israeli Jews really fit into a vision of Palestine liberation.

I think that puts the Jews in this movement in a slightly awkward place. They want to oppose the war. They want to support Palestine liberation, as I do myself. And yet I urge in this essay that they should be willing to speak out in defense of a vision of coexistence that explains where Israeli Jews fit into this vision of Palestinian liberation.

Max Strasser: I’m going to take advantage of the fact that you mentioned your own views here, and I want to ask you a question. You wrote this landmark piece in 2010 in The New York Review of Books about the failure of the American Jewish establishment, and a decade later, you wrote a piece for The Times called “ I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State .” What has your experience been like, making that ideological migration?

Peter Beinart: Yeah, I guess you could say the essay in some ways is a little bit autobiographical because I, for most of my adult life, identified myself as a liberal and also as a political Zionist, someone who supports a Jewish state. And over time, I felt like I was forced to reconsider that because there seemed no prospect of Palestinians getting their own state alongside Israel but also because the notion of group supremacy — of Jewish supremacy — started to become more and more uncomfortable to me as I noticed how similar it was to the voices in America who were talking about maintaining a demographic majority and seemed to have a vision of first- and second-class citizens.

It was really through reading and listening to Palestinians who had for a long time been making these deeper critiques that I began to move toward the idea that I should try to square my support for equality under the law in America with the vision of equality under the law in Israel-Palestine.

It hasn’t always been an easy or comfortable journey. At times it’s been quite a painful one. But I felt like, as a writer, I had to go with where my mind and my heart were taking me if I was going to be able to write with any integrity. And although it has ruptured some relationships for me, as it has for other American Jews who’ve gone on my path, it’s also led to a new set of relationships that I couldn’t quite have imagined. And those are very gratifying to me.

Max Strasser: In your essay you quote Adam Shatz of The London Review of Books talking about this double homelessness of anti-Zionist and post-Zionist Jews and how that’s a really uncomfortable place to be a lot of the time. There’s a lot of discomfort all around here, isn’t there?

Peter Beinart: Yeah, there is. And I can’t — you know, everyone has to figure that out for themselves. For me, at a personal level, what I try to remember is that I see the Jewish community as a kind of imagined extended family. And so you have responsibilities to maintain connections to that extended family, just like to your immediate family, even if you have very, very deep disagreements.

And it’s important to try to find the points of commonality. And I also think it’s really important that while American Jews need to listen very carefully to Palestinians — and I have learned, myself, so deeply from reading Palestinians — it’s also important for us to remember that Palestinians are not a monolith. And that even though Israel is oppressing Palestinians, it doesn’t mean that Jews don’t have the right to have our own opinions and our own moral visions and that we have something to contribute to this discourse that I hope would bring the liberation of both peoples.

Max Strasser: Speaking of the Jewish community broadly — the extended family, as you described it — what do you hope that the community prioritizes in the future?

Peter Beinart: I hope that in the future, more people will look at the tensions and come to see that there is a real danger if we make an exception for Israel from our general liberal principles.

The danger is that if we say, “Yes, we believe in equality under the law everywhere, but we need to make an exception for Israel because we’re a small people who have been persecuted and we can’t afford it,” then it makes it easier for other people to say they want those same exceptions, whether it’s in India, whether it’s in Hungary, whether it’s in the United States.

And then we are, it seems to me, able to really be on the side of a global struggle for equality under the law against the forces of ethnonationalism and supremacy that are powerful everywhere.

So I would hope that more American Jews, as uncomfortable as it is, would look at these contradictions and also find ways of overcoming this deep-seated fear that we have of Palestinians. Often a fear that’s, I think, enhanced by the fact that there isn’t much engagement between Jewish institutions and Palestinians. I hope we see that Palestinian equality doesn’t need to be a threat to Jewish safety, that in the long term, actually, that Jews may be more safe living alongside Palestinians who are free and equal than Palestinians who are subjugated.

Max Strasser: Peter, thanks for doing this.

Peter Beinart: My pleasure.

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Original music by Pat McCusker, Carole Sabouraud and Efim Shapiro. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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Celebrate National Arab American Heritage Month with the Arts!

The Gardens Dress by Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim. Photo by Wafa Ghnaim; (In) Beautification, 1333 , 2011, by Tarek Al Ghoussein, a Kuwaiti of Palestinian origin. Image courtesy of the artist and the Third Line; The Birds by Feral Abbasi-Ghmaim. Photo by Wafa Ghnaim; Harem Revisited #36 , 2012, by Lalla Essaydi of Morocco. Image courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery

April is National Arab American Heritage Month, and this year’s theme is “Celebrating Arab American Resilience and Diversity.”

Nearly four million Americans trace their roots to an Arab country. Arab Americans are diverse ethnically, religiously, politically, and artistically.  

The National Endowment for the Arts celebrates all of the Arab American artists, culture bearers, and arts workers who have helped others to heal, to find connection, and to thrive. Arab Americans have had—and continue to have—a profound impact on the landscape of arts and culture in America. Through a range of mediums, Arab American artists invite us to expand our understanding about ourselves and the world around us. Sherin Guirguis is a visual artist whose work draws on history and narrative to share stories that engage audiences in a dialogue about power, agency, and social transformation through art. Nahid Hagigat is a visual artist who combines her paintings with her own life stories.  And of course, one of the most famous Arab American artists, Kahlil Gibran was a poet, artist, and author in both the English and Arabic languages.  

Through their leadership and service on the National Council on the Arts, which advises the NEA and votes on all proposed grants, Council Members Ishmael Ahmed and Kinan Azmeh bring their experiences and perspectives to lift up communities through the power of the arts. Ahmed created Detroit’s annual Concert of Colors over 30 years ago, to bring free world music concerts to the city every summer and was a founding force in the creation of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Azmeh is a New York-based world-renowned clarinetist and composer whose work seeks to transcend barriers, lift up humanity and unite all people.

These artists, and many others, are integral to helping educate the world about the many facets of Arab cultures, including art, humanities, politics, gender relations, history, and religions. This April, the NEA encourages you to learn more about Arab American Heritage through the arts.

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