No offense intended:
I feel like I am a minority. So many other ethnicities are are among the natives of the United States. When down in Orlando Florida, I swear there were less white people than any other ethnicity. Furthermore, other ethnic groups get to celebrate their heritage, but I am stuck trying to hide mine. Mexicans have Cinco de Mayo, African American's have Martin Luther King Jr. Day and a whole Black History Month, and on and on. Sometimes the pressure around diversity and equality makes my head spin. There are so many politically correct sayings about what we call other people that I am not even sure which the current one is on any given day. Is 'Black' wrong to say? Is African American misleading? Should they be American Africans to show that they have been born in this country?
The whole issue of ethnicity becomes even more muddled for me. I feel extreme guilt over the way my white ancestors raped America, killing the Natives and using African slaves to build the country. On the other hand, I am in no way responsible for this. The other side of the coin is that these oppressed people blame my current kind for their past and current problems. Maybe once I stop feeling guilt, they will stop feeling anger. I wonder if it is right to try to repay the current generations back for the way we treated their ancestors. I am told that Affirmative Action can cause major headaches for employees when they have to fulfill an ethnic quota over a quality quota. One guy has told me that he was looking to hire someone and was presented with a less-than-qualified African American and a more than qualified Caucasian, but because he needed to follow the law, he had to hire the African American. I wonder if the ethnic minorities feel guilty about not being qualified for certain jobs, but getting them anyway because of the color of their skin.
I often muse over why skin color is such a large issue. One would think that the rainbow of colors of humankind would be an asset to be proud of, rather than all people being stuck with the same color skin. I truly believe, like some people say, that \"Black is Beautiful.\" In the same way, so are the colors white and yellow and red. These oversimplification of colors can be seen as insulting. I am not white. I am some type of beach or tan color. Native Americans are not brick red, but shades of a different variety. I even wonder why race is something we spend time thinking about when not thinking about the differences might just allow for unity. If I was not constantly reminded about race, I think I would see past the issue in a way that I can't when everybody is talking about the topic.
Two African American friends in my high school class were consumed with their Black identity. They felt that they were constantly thought less of because of the color of their skin. I only thought less of them because they could not stop thinking about the color of their skin. I even told them to get over the issue and just go on living a happy life. One is not going to end racism by constantly yapping about it, but only by forgetting about it and having our children grow up without even knowing that their is some type of problem with people of a different color. This all boils down to the idea that we need to stop focusing on the differences, but instead contemplate the beauty of our common human bond. We are all of one blood. We are all of one kind. We are the human race, and not a species of different races.
I feel like I am a minority. So many other ethnicities are are among the natives of the United States. When down in Orlando Florida, I swear there were less white people than any other ethnicity. Furthermore, other ethnic groups get to celebrate their heritage, but I am stuck trying to hide mine. Mexicans have Cinco de Mayo, African American's have Martin Luther King Jr. Day and a whole Black History Month, and on and on. Sometimes the pressure around diversity and equality makes my head spin. There are so many politically correct sayings about what we call other people that I am not even sure which the current one is on any given day. Is 'Black' wrong to say? Is African American misleading? Should they be American Africans to show that they have been born in this country?
The whole issue of ethnicity becomes even more muddled for me. I feel extreme guilt over the way my white ancestors raped America, killing the Natives and using African slaves to build the country. On the other hand, I am in no way responsible for this. The other side of the coin is that these oppressed people blame my current kind for their past and current problems. Maybe once I stop feeling guilt, they will stop feeling anger. I wonder if it is right to try to repay the current generations back for the way we treated their ancestors. I am told that Affirmative Action can cause major headaches for employees when they have to fulfill an ethnic quota over a quality quota. One guy has told me that he was looking to hire someone and was presented with a less-than-qualified African American and a more than qualified Caucasian, but because he needed to follow the law, he had to hire the African American. I wonder if the ethnic minorities feel guilty about not being qualified for certain jobs, but getting them anyway because of the color of their skin.
I often muse over why skin color is such a large issue. One would think that the rainbow of colors of humankind would be an asset to be proud of, rather than all people being stuck with the same color skin. I truly believe, like some people say, that \"Black is Beautiful.\" In the same way, so are the colors white and yellow and red. These oversimplification of colors can be seen as insulting. I am not white. I am some type of beach or tan color. Native Americans are not brick red, but shades of a different variety. I even wonder why race is something we spend time thinking about when not thinking about the differences might just allow for unity. If I was not constantly reminded about race, I think I would see past the issue in a way that I can't when everybody is talking about the topic.
Two African American friends in my high school class were consumed with their Black identity. They felt that they were constantly thought less of because of the color of their skin. I only thought less of them because they could not stop thinking about the color of their skin. I even told them to get over the issue and just go on living a happy life. One is not going to end racism by constantly yapping about it, but only by forgetting about it and having our children grow up without even knowing that their is some type of problem with people of a different color. This all boils down to the idea that we need to stop focusing on the differences, but instead contemplate the beauty of our common human bond. We are all of one blood. We are all of one kind. We are the human race, and not a species of different races.
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