What makes a "real American"? Americans agree, mostly

(CNN)The trait most important to being a "real American" is to believe in treating people equally, according to a Grinnell College poll released on Monday. Offered a list of traits, 90% of respondents said treating people equally is very important, followed by taking personal responsibility for one's actions (88% said that was very important), accepting people of different racial backgrounds (81%), and supporting the US Constitution (80%).

The least important traits were being a Christian (55% said it was not important), having been born in America (49%), and having lived in America most of one's life (45%).

Republicans and Democrats have different views on what makes a "real American," however. The top three traits for Republicans include taking responsibility for one's actions (94% very important), supporting the US constitution (93%), and treating people equally (90%).

Democrats agreed in seeing equal treatment and personal responsibility as very important traits, but included accepting people of different racial backgrounds in their top three (88% said it was very important).

The biggest difference between the parties is among those who rate speaking English as very important to being an American. Sixty-two percent of Republicans believed speaking English was very important to being a "real American" compared to only 29% of Democrats and 44% of independents.

Despite the belief that treating everyone equally makes a real American, most Americans think there's still a lot of discrimination against certain groups. Fifty-eight percent said that Muslims experience a lot of discrimination living in the US, followed by LGBT people (52%), and African Americans (52%). The least likely groups to experience discrimination, according to the poll, were white men (45%, virtually no discrimination), atheists (37%), and Christians (35%).

veya_victaous wrote:fucking terrifying that 45% think being Christian is part of being a secular nationality