How do young Americans see themselves as Americans? ASU researchers are trying to find out

ASU researchers are trying get a sense about how this country’s 18- to 30-year-olds perceive their status and identity as Americans. The Arizona Youth Identity Project asks questions in separate waves. And, he found some interesting things, especially when it comes to how this population thinks about the American flag.

Kris Vera-Phillips, Ph.D. candidate and faculty associate at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, joined The Show to talk about what he hopes to learn with these questions.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: And Kris, what were you hoping to find out first with these questions?

KRIS VERA-PHILLIPS: Finally, our large research group, we were interested in the ways that young people in Arizona, how they identify and their perspectives on, you know, life in general in general, especially in the face of changing economic conditions, a political conditions and just everything tends to be very fluid for them.

So with that perspective, that’s how we got into the idea of ​​doing multiple waves of interviews with our participants. And then finally we got to the mixed methods part where we did surveys as well as photo-voice methods.

BRODIE: So how did you try to gauge these things with them? What kind of things did you ask them? And you know, how did you try to get some of the things out?

VERA-PHILLIPS: I had a guide, you know, just an interview, and I was basically asking them questions like, what does being American mean to you? What does it mean to feel American? And also, what does it mean to act American?

And especially because they answered us, not only in these conversations we have, but also through those who agreed to do the photo-voice part, they also answered with images of the photos they took, such as and pictures and graphics. they found online to be able to answer.

BRODIE: And it looks like a lot of those images that you’ve come back to include the American flag in some capacity.

VERA-PHILLIPS: Yes. Yes. And that was actually very interesting to us because we didn’t mention the American flag anywhere in the questions. This all came out really organically from our participants. So when you know the idea of ​​like, what it means to be American and feel American, they sent pictures, more than 140 pictures of the flag. And then there were also flag iterations.

Especially because I think people are very used to, really tech savvy, sometimes when it comes to finding images, they can find an image that’s just OK, that’s what I mean about the flag, changes to the flag, you know, the flag in different contexts and what have you. And this is, this is what I found.

BRODIE: How many different contexts were there, there were, there were different kinds of contexts where people were using flags that were maybe at odds with each other.

VERA-PHILLIPS: Potentially contradictory, I think odds is the right word. I would say that different opinions, you know, be just a little bit more acceptable. And what it comes down to I think is when people presented the flag as something, what does it mean to be American. And I think that’s in the context of who I am and where I come from and also what’s going on in society.

So for some people, there’s the traditional idea of ​​the flag, whether it’s a flag and a member of their family who served our country in war and military service. There may be some people who see the flag as a unifying symbol. Again, going back to that idea of ​​American citizenship and patriotism, but there’s also something that came up, especially again, going back to the flag being used as a symbol that you see a lot at Trump rallies, for example, MAGA rallies and whatnot i have

So what we also found from our data was that there was this idea of ​​a symbolic appropriation of the flag that was not necessarily unifying, but different. And we did this isn’t the first time we’ve seen it before. If you go back to the 911 attacks, right, especially people who don’t outwardly look American, they use the flag as a sign of defense saying I’m on your team too.

But then finally when we went through our wave of interviews, it happened, we did a round of interviews right after President Biden’s 100 days in office. And in that time frame, when I was asking people about the flag, people who felt that the flag was changing and that it was also a divisive symbol, they saw that, you know what, maybe it’s not so much anymore, more like . .

BRODIE: Did you find anything about flags other than the American flag? Because there’s been so much discussion about other flags, either throughout history or newer flags that, you know, have become popular over the years that either have very specific meetings or meetings that are a little bit different from from the initial ones. .

VERA-PHILLIPS: Sure, sure. Which we did, just looking for some of the flags, not necessarily official flags per se, but because we have a large sample again, where white participants, Latinos, Latinos, indigenous community participants. We’ve had flag changes that would involve and, for example, the Mexican flag, I think it’s just a way for people to say that not only are we a part of this country that we live here, we work here. here we live here we may die here. But at the same time, there are other parts of your identity that aren’t just red, white and blue.

BRODIE: What were some of the other non-flag images that you got? I’m curious what other symbols or images people thought said American or made them feel American?

VERA-PHILLIPS: Definitely the colors. Some people went with colors and symbols. So as one, this Native American woman from Flagstaff, she was wearing red, white and blue on her shirt. Plus, they’re a little scrunchy in rings too. And then she said in her caption today, we want to ask you what it means to be American, so that was the prompt. And then he wrote Celebrating Fourth of July because I show it on the outside.

So there’s this idea of ​​where we come from, you know, how we show our identity, whether it’s in colors or the flag, it goes back to that, the theoretical and collective basis of essence. And again, you see that a lot in the religious symbols, for example, whether it’s the cross or what have you, or sporting events that wear those colors and bring people together, whether they’re you know, strangers or have something, their common common ground might be expressed in these symbols.

BRODIE: So what are you doing? Like, what do you think, what do you think it all means?

VERA-PHILLIPS: I think, for me, what’s really interesting about this is that we have a way of being able to articulate what we think of as identity, representation, and what we think of as normal. And again, the really cool thing is like there’s no definition that unites us or one definition of what it means to be an American or one definition of what it means to be a decent human being.

And also, you know, how we move in this space, whether it’s, you know, Arizona Phoenix or, or the United States of America, our place in this society shouldn’t be based on whether you belong or not. It should just be based on who you are, what you believe, and trust that that’s enough to be, you know, someone who contributes to society and maybe even makes it a better place.