Military Review English Edition November December 2016 | Page 13

NATIONAL IDENTITY

faded from sight. Globalization, multiculturalism,
cosmopolitanism, immigration, subnationalism, and
anti-nationalism had battered American consciousness.
Ethnic, racial, and gender identities came to the fore. In
contrast to their predecessors, many immigrants were
ampersands, maintaining dual loyalties and dual citizenships. A massive Hispanic influx raised questions concerning America’s linguistic and cultural unity. Corporate
executives, professionals, and Information Age technocrats espoused cosmopolitan over national identities. The
teaching of national history gave way to the teaching of
ethnic and racial histories. The celebration of diversity
replaced emphasis on what Americans had in common.
The national unity and sense of national identity created
by work and war in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and consolidated in the world wars of the twentieth
century seemed to be eroding. By 2000, America was, in
many respects, less a nation than it had been for a century. The Stars and Stripes were at half-mast and other flags
flew higher on the flagpole of American identities.
The challenges to the salience of American national identity from other-national, subnational, and
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2016

May Day demonstrators seek amnesty and other rights for immigrants
1 May 2006 in downtown Los Angeles, California. May Day—the International Workers Day observed in Asia, most of Europe, and Mexico, but not officially recognized in the United States due to its communist associations—coincided with The Great American Boycott, a
one-day boycott of U.S. schools and businesses by immigrants in the
United States, conducted mainly by people of Latin American origin.
(Photo courtesy of Jonathan McIntosh)

transnational identities were epitomized in several
events of the 1990s.
Other-National Identities. At a Gold Cup soccer game between Mexico and the United States in
February 1998, the 91,255 fans were immersed in a “sea
of red, white, and green flags”; they booed when “The
Star-Spangled Banner” was played; they “pelted” the U.S.
players “with debris and cups of what might have been
water, beer or worse”; and they attacked with “fruit and
cups of beer” a few fans who tried to raise an American
flag. This game took place not in Mexico City but in Los
Angeles. “Something’s wrong when I can’t even raise an
American flag in my own country,” a U.S. fan commented, as he ducked a lemon going by his head. “Playing in
11