Marie Arana focus’s her thesis on how “progress has outpaced vocabulary” in her Washington Post editorial by her use of evidence and analyses. Arana discussed the issues that regarded the racial boundaries that the color of skin would limit their heritage. That just because you are a multicultural mix, it wouldn’t matter as much to other people because they only see what you look like. Arana writes: “Isn’t it time for the language to move on?”, I believe it is.
I feel that our “vocabulary” and “language” has been long over due to mature. The reason I feel that Arana is right is because I see it happening everywhere I turn. People don’t take a second glance to look at someone. They only see what their eyes can tell them and eyes can sometimes be deceiving. Arana tells the story of when she met the child from two cultures, of Germany and African America. “I am fifty percent German. But no one who sees me believes it.” said a college student from Pittsburgh, because her skin tone was brown. Obama is also another live, modern example because he is not only African American, but he is also half white. He is not our first black president, “He is our first biracial, bicultural president. He is more then the personification of African American achievement. He is a bridge between races, a living symbol of tolerance, a signal that strict racial categories must go.” In the first place, I had no idea Barack Obama was half white. I always hear him being referred to as the “black president”, how this was a great achievement for “black people”. But he is more then just black, he is of all cultures like we are. This isn’t just an achievement for blacks but for America as a whole to be considered as “racially sophisticated enough to elect a non-white president.”
In every example Arana provided in her article, she would also include an analyzation to help pull her point across even further. By bringing up famous people in today’s modern world I was able to relate to her message even more. “We see it in Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Ben Kingsley, Nancy Kwan, Ne-Yo, Mariah Carey ... we insist on calling these hybrids by a reductive name ... even they label themselves by the apparent color of their skin. With language like that, how can we claim to live in a post-racial society?” She broke down what race corresponded with each person based on solely appearances so that we could realize how this type of judgement is everywhere.
In 2004, Obama gave a speech towards the Democratic National Convention. Obama declared “there is not a black America and a white America ... There’s the United States of America.” Our country has made so many advances through out the years, from slave times to now liberty, equality, and freedom. However, I feel that just because we have overcome most of the racial tension, it doesn’t mean that we are completely free of it. I have personally gone through times where people think they can tell what I am just from my skin. I am constantly mistaken for a Mexican American. The reason for that is usually because Americans are not commonly exposed to latinos outside the borders of Mexico. Automatically it is assumed that because I am fluent in spanish, I am Mexican.
Its what we learned in kindergarden. Not to judge a book by its cover, and not to judge a person by appearance. I believe we are mature enough to try and apply that to our life and the way we view others and the world. We are all different, and that diversity is what brings us all together.
Obama and Race Article
He's Not Black by Marie Arana
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