state of the race

I am white.  I don’t like being labelled white or even Caucasian. But because I’m in the race majority for the time being (though this is supposed to change sometime in the next fifteen years and whites will be in the minority), I carry a burden. In the U.S. we still have never made it past the race issue.  When my forbears came to this country in the early 1900’s, they were labeled dumb Pollacks. That wasn’t nice; the Polish worked hard, taking menial labor in the coal mines and working three jobs to make life easier for their children.

 

This is where I get upset.  I’m trying to be respectful since I am a guest of AR. I don’t understand why black people (and hey, I have two half black nephews, so I am not racist) are frequently changing what white people are supposed to call them. Colored? Not anymore. African American? The label du jour. But I know a lot of black people who are not from Africa and they resent the label. Asians don’t seem to be too upset about being called…. Asian.  Native Americans used to be Indians, but I don’t get the same sense of them having a chip on their shoulder about being or being called Native Americans.  Hispanics?  They deal with their label, too.

 

Where am I going with this? Well, as a white person, I wonder why African Americans have their own television network and awards program. When whites become the minority in the U.S. — and in 2012 white babies born in the U.S were in the minority, and whites are projected to be in the minority by 2043 — I don’t think we will have the white equivalent of the NAACP. I don’t foresee whites getting that coveted college scholarship or reduction in tuition because they will be the minority. The Hispanics do have their own TV shows, but I don’t see them pushing their agenda, which is equality, I think. Maybe superiority?  I don’t know.

 

Because, if you ask me, we are all equal.  All races.  We now have a black president.  I never voted based on race, so the black president thing isn’t about Obama being half white and half black. But a lot of people make it about that very thing.  Which then diminishes the equality of the situation.

 

I didn’t like when Obama chimed in about the George Zimmerman trial saying Trayvon was an African American (true) killed by a white person (not true). Zimmerman is half Hispanic. There they go again, making it about race. It isn’t. If I see a white teen walking around with his hoodie pulled up, a part of me becomes watchful. He could be any color and my guard might go up. To me, this was not about race.  But some made it about race… again.

 

One more thing.  If black people ever say they want reparations for their ancestors being slaves, I am opting out.  I didn’t have a slave. My ancestors didn’t have slaves either. They were dirt poor, eking out an existence in Eastern Europe.  Which is why they made the trip to America. If anything, I want reparations for my ancestors being labeled dumb and being treated like dirt. That hurts me that my forebears were labeled and treated poorly by other people’s ancestors in America.

 

See where this leads? To craziness. Race is not an issue anymore.  Black people are afforded the same opportunities as any other race in America.  We all have to work hard and grasp for that brass ring if we want to make it here. So please, stop talking about race and start exerting your energies toward making your world better. But if we’re going to continue this tedious discussion about race and what different races need and demand, then you need to call me what I am.  An Eastern European American.

Here’s to not having to check a box on forms stating our race. Here’s to equality for all.

 

Thanks for listening.

 

Respectfully,

DEE