I Am An American

I am an American.

I can enjoy a walk down the street without someone judging me by the color of my skin, because I am truly an American.

I have blue eyes and blonde hair, with a straight smile, but most importantly, I have white skin. I see people of different races say racial slurs--but of course they don't mean it in a racist way--they think it’s funny.

They say "nigga" and laugh, while that one black woman in the back is offended, but she can't say anything because the president says it’s okay, she doesn't belong anyway. All because of the color of her skin.

Honest Abe has been gone a long time, yet we did a 180. We no longer support the free, we categorize the different. Instead of welcoming and helping, we build walls to keep people out.

This is not the American way, once immigrants ourselves, Jamestown failures, but the Native Americans helped us, and we repaid them by assigning them reservations and shoving them in a corner.

Americans feel superior as they look down on the "little people." A little boy watches Mr. President tell the country someone doesn't belong because they have brown skin, he goes to school--his friends heard it too. Now they "guess" who will be deported, who needs to go "back to where they came from."

Now... the sad part. That little girl that got picked out, who's family has lived in America for generations, goes home. She tells her mother what happened, asks why she was born with this skin color--asks why she is different.

Next thing we know, a young African American college student works as a waitress, and some rich white guy tells her what to do, sends a racial slur her way. We just thought slavery was a term from our past.

History is repeating itself, and in this moment as I watch an exchange student in my college class, I see a blimp of the future, and it is terrifying. This nation of the "free" has lost all meaning of the word. We have leaders that take too much and aren't as willing to give when it is necessary. American doesn’t mean strong, free, and independent anymore. It has a new meaning… selfish, egotistical, and greedy.

We are supposed to be one nation under God, but all I see is one nation that is pretending to be above God. We have a statue that represents us, The Statue of Liberty. Once a sign that immigrants were close to the freedom they dreamed of--the freedom they needed.

I have realized this isn't a nation to be proud of, this is no longer a nation of the "free."

This is a nation that weeds out the different, tells them to go away.

We don't want them here.

I miss when it was a badge of honor to say, "I am an American!" I miss when I could stand by my diverse group of friends and we could all say... "We are American"

In 2008, we elected the first African American president into office, a monumental accomplishment. Yet, if you look who is in office today, ask yourself how we have fallen so far. Ask yourself if you want a country that pushes the “different” people away. Ask yourself if you agree.

If the answer is yes, then I feel sorry for you, along with “Mr. President.” If you feel so vulnerable in this country, the “greatest country in the world” then why do you feel that others shouldn’t be here? Let’s all face the facts that if we continue to segregate and judge foreigners, America wouldn’t be America anymore. Each one of us, the African Americans, the Arabians, the Japanese, the French, and all others, make up America, it’s what makes us, us. We don’t have a specific color, or ethnicity. We are diverse! We are unique… that’s what makes it the greatest country, because anyone can be an American. You don’t have to be white, with blonde hair and blue eyes. You just have to have a fire in your soul that lets you believe, that helps you rise up and fight for what you believe in. That’s what our ancestors did—they fought, and without them, we wouldn’t even be America.

So to those that people say "don't belong." Do not be deterred. You have a soul of passion, and hope. You carry with you a cultural difference that you deserve to be proud of. Do not let anyone tell you that "you are not American enough." You are all that you need to be, and more. Accept yourself for who you are, skin color and all.