Onyx View with Kamryn Adams  

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  Date / Time: 1/23/2009 9:18 PM UTC

  AMERICA: Melting Pot or Salad Bowl
  

   Friday, January 23, 2009
  
  America has long been known as the melting pot but I say it's more like a salad bowl. If you looked out onto the masses that gathered across Washington DC this week the different races, genders, sizes, heights of people were noticeable and unique from the person standing next to them.  A melting pot melts many different elements into one consistent mixture. It is a mixture of homogeneous content where one ingredient is no longer discernable from the next.  America is not so.  The greatness of our nation is the diversity we bring. Unlike other nations of "sameness", this country is great because of the variety of people and cultures among us.  To be "American" is to be surrounded by diversity while honoring freedom to be whom and what you dream. 

   

  I've often felt it disrespectful for someone to contend that they are colorblind and "don't see color". First, unless you are indeed afflicted with deuteranopia you can see color.  If you know my shirt is pink then you know my skin is brown.  Second, to ignore the color of my skin, also means you ignore my value and the experiences that I bring to the table. I don't need you to ignore my color. I need you to accept it without contempt.

   

  Cynics argue that President Obama was victorious because he was half-white and was more palatable for White America to accept.  Say it ain't so, Joe Six pack!  Anyone that has watched President Obama step out of his car, walk down a hallway, put on a pair of sunglasses, or kiss his wife...knows that he is undeniably a Brotha'.  I'll argue to the cynical and hopeless that voting America...not everyone votes... was able to see his Blackness along with his intellect, his compassion, his vision, and his ability to lead people.  This is a skill that underexposed, uncultured Americans do not have...be they White or Black.  It is the ability to see my skin and my skill that make you "colorblind".  If you can see my brown skin and not let it overshadow my education, my values, my dream, then you are in good company....the company I keep.

   

  People ask "Does the election of President Obama put us in a post racial America?"  No!  But let's hope it moves us closer to a post-racist America. Look around you and see all the colors of Americans. All Americans (except for Native American people) have one thing in common:  Your ancestors came from somewhere else. Before you suggest that I go back to Africa, you might want to consider a ticket back to Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, China, Australia, India, England, or Japan. Because, based upon my history, I did not ask to be brought here, but you can believe, I am here to stay.

   

  This is TOYi Talk.  Always Authentic, Sometimes with Attitude.

  • Tags:
  • Race
  • Barak Obama
  • Toyi Ward
  • Melting Pot
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