What is an American

An interesting question, and I am not thinking of how it takes to get citizenship but what traits are representative of the title American. I ask this because multiple times I have been questioned on my American citizenship. The first time this happened was in Morocco, I was laying on the beach in Agadir which is largely frequented by Europeans and the Moroccan man, running the place we rented our lounge chairs from came up to talk to us, or really flirt with my friend Amelia. As the conversation started he asked what nationality we were and we all said American. At some point after we said that he turns to me and says, you are not American. At first I thought he was joking and just laughed it off. However, after he kept insisting I was not American, I got a little irritated and started to give him a list of reasons why I was American. I did just about everything short of showing him my passport. Why I am not sure, it’s not as if he was border patrol but I was a little annoyed that he kept insisting there was no way I was American. At one point he even made the point that he knows Moroccan’s who had been in the United States who could speak better English than me. The conversation got more comical from there when he accused our friend Robin of also not being American, saying she was a sweet polish girl, and that only our blond friend Amelia was a “real” American.
I am aware that even in the U.S. I have been asked multiple time, “What am I?” or someone will just throw out their best guess out there, which is always pretty random. Though I am pretty sure French or Italian are a stretch. I have gotten those, along with just about every other mildly tan people. For the record I am African American and Irish.

So Mysterious.

 By no means am I complaining about this confusion because in fact I blend in pretty well in the Middle East and North Africa. In both Morocco and Jordan when I am by myself, most people usually speak to me in Arabic first. After about a few minutes of my confused face staring back, I attempt to use some of the Arabic I know. Unfortunately Moroccan Arabic and Jordanian Arabic are basically two separate languages so I usually end up just trying English (typical American behavior coming from obviously not an American).  I have also gotten observations from friends here that, I just don’t look American.
So this brings me back to my original point of what is an American not as we see ourselves but as the world sees us, and unfortunately it seems it is through a very narrow frame. In most countries ethnic traits can still be associated with citizenship and national identity. The American melting pot just doesn’t fit in. Hopefully, as American society changes so does the international perception of the typical American. Until then I will enjoy not having to be accused of being an American tourist.