Congratulations to Meb Keflezighi of Eritrean descent, who won the New York City Marathon last Sunday and was the first Yankee to try to to so since 1982!
Why did I mention that he was born in Eritrea? As a result of critics say that an immigrant like Keflezighi who moved to the U.S. at age twelve isn’t a legitimate American.
A post on Letsrun.com said:
Provide us all a break. It’s just another African marathon winner.
How about creating that African-Yank?
Silly me. I thought that naturalized Yankee voters equal American citizens at birth with the identical rights and privileges (with the exception of obtaining to be the President of the United States). Leaving that debate aside, however, the idea that East Africans are genetically endowed for marathon running has conjointly clouded Keflezighi’s celebration.
The success of distance runners from Kenya and Ethiopia has fostered a lore of East Africans as genetically gifted, unbeatable, dominant because of their biology. Scientists have searched for - however not found - genes specific to East Africans that could account for his or her distance ability, said John Hoberman, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies race and sports.
Truly Yank? Dialogue Dogs a Triumph in the Marathon - NYTimes.com
Little question Keflezighi has genes which enhance his physiological capabilities for endurance and different traits found in winning marathoners. This does not mean that Keflezighi is any a lot of or less Yankee than alternative non-East African runners who have the same genes.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “nationality” in 2 components:
nationality
noun (pl. nationalities) one the status of belonging to a explicit nation. 2 an ethnic cluster forming a half of one or more political nations.
While ethnic groups are mentioned, the U.S. is clearly a rustic of many ethnic groups thus genes ought to not be part of the talk when discussing whether someone is Yankee or not.
Quite frankly, I’m not even sure what makes an individual Yankee and I don’t assume anyone else does either. I hold an Yankee passport and spent the years between ages half dozen and 26 within the U.S. I’ve lived in six different countries in the past 10 years and hence, my national identity is slightly muddled. My son is even additional confused. He holds an Yank passport similarly however has never lived in the U.S although he’s lived in four totally different countries in his seven years. He was born in Japan thus some days he says that he’s Japanese and now that he lives in Singapore, he typically says he’s Singaporean. I’m sure some people would say he’s not American at all.
It might be less complicated to mention we’re global citizens with ties to a lot of than one country. Truth be told, I’m proud to mention I’m Chinese-Yank with the accent to prove it.
Edited to add this video of Meb Keflezighi on David Letterman:
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