When red, white and blue is brown, black and white

TownHall.com ^ | Thursday, July 3, 2003 | Suzanne Fields

[JohnHuang2]

Americans have thrived in the melting pot. We haven't been a purebred strain since Captain John Smith married Pocahontas. Intermarriage and immigration make us a lumpy and colorful stew.

We frequently ask each other about our origins. In the bad old days of segregation, origins abetted racism. Identification with the "old country" was a tool for discrimination, too. Today, curiosity about roots is rarely sought to elicit prejudice, but used (and now validated by the Supreme Court) to confer victimhood. That's too bad. Most Americans are a tolerant lot. We take pride in our mixed heritage.

We celebrate all of us on the Fourth of July. While our original independence meant the English here separated from the English over there, a lot of the ocean blue has passed under lots of ships since then.

My bloodlines, like most of the people I know, are decidedly mixed. My father was born in Russia, my mother in Canada. Four grandparents came from Russia, Poland and Lithuania. My three children were born in Washington. Our two grandsons have a Chilean father who was raised a Catholic by a mother whose roots go back to Spain before the Jews were evicted in 1492. His father was French and English.

[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, July 3, 2003

Quote of the Day by fightinJAG

[BenLurkin]

IIRC it was not John Smith who married Pocahantas.

[Jemian]

You are exactly correct. Pocahontas married John Rolf.

[cyborg]

I always thought it was John Smith. besides that, the article further mentions that more and more students are not indicating race/ethnicity on applications. Colleges will eventually get the message that young people don't care.

[kuma]

Which is why conservatives need to sell MERITOCRACY more than ever. Playing group politics will get us no where in the end. We must distinguish ourselves not just pick up the 'rats bad habits.