American’s Without Race

What an exciting year to be an American. As I stood in line to vote I thought to myself how exciting it was just to have the right to vote. There was a young woman behind me that was voting for the first time. She was really nervous. I told her if she voted for the winner or not she would still feel great pride in the fact that she participated. The man ahead of me told her she would walk a little taller when she left that day.

It did not matter if the people standing in line with me were black or brown or white. We were all American’s. I live in an area of town where I am the minority. Occasionally I am treated with great distain. Twice I have stood in line at a fast food restraunt and the cashier waited on the person that came in after me and totally ignored the fact that I was even there. My point is racism is alive and well in our society.

It breaks my heart to know that so many men and women have died for the freedoms we enjoy and we can not even treat one another with respect. I believe that untill we stop trying to classify everyone by race it will never change. Why is it that we have to know the demographics of every race in America.

I believe that change will not come untill we stop the classifications. Why is it on every form we fill out the question of race is even on it? We will never get past racism untill we stop the need to know everyone’s race. Shouldn’t the question be ‘Are you an American’? Not are you Native American, Caucaian, African American or Hispanic, but ‘Are you an American?’ What a fabulous shift in consciousness that would be.

I think that from now on every time I see the question of race on a form I will check other and write in ‘American’. For us to truley be a united people we have to break our own barriers before we can break the barriers that outsiders place on us. Let’s truley be a United People living in the greatest nation of the United States of America.