On a scale of 1 through 10, how American are u?

Subtract points if you were born outside of the United States, may secretly not be Christian, can speak another language besides English, or have a "funny" sounding name among other things.

As undocumented students, the question of how American we are is constantly at the forefront even though we've been educated in American schools as young children, speak English, watch American TV and even try to be as politically active as we possibly can without crossing legal boundaries that deny us political agency. Registering citizens to vote or phone banking for Barack Obama is nothing new for those of us who are so aware of our lack of rights from those who take their rights for granted.

Here's a great article in the SF News "American by Choice." The writer, Jeff Yang discusses the contradictions present in the presidential election about how the Republicans are measuring Americanness, and thus in fact judging all of us. He also interestingly asks which Americans are more dedicated--those born here by chance and accident, or those who leave all they know, learn another culture and go through the legalization process which is emotionally, physically and financially draining to gain a piece of paper that will give them citizenship? While he leaves out of his discussion of Americanness in regards to undocumented immigrants, I'm confident that he'd agree that those who are working hard to create a path to citizenship for themselves while being even more rejected than documented non-citizens, should be lauded at its highest level.