I'm Not White, I'm American

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The SAT. Medical forms. College applications. These papers, and many more, ask you to "select your race" from a list similar to this: African American, Latino, Pacific Islander, Asian, and White. I always skip this portion of paperwork for one reason: I'm not white, I'm American.

I was born as an American citizen. Both my parents are citizens, and so are their parents. There are two other ways to have American citizenship: naturalization and by marrying a citizen. All citizens are equal, no matter how they joined our nation. Moreover, American citizens are American. 

Well, yeah, duh, of course they are. But think about it. If we're American, then why are we labeled based on this imaginary categorizer called "race"? We are not the nationality of our ancestors - we are the nationality of our citizenship, no matter our skin color. 

Americans are losing pride in their country. This is understandable, owing to the degradation of the presidential office and hypocrisy of mainstream media. But if we dig a little deeper, and look at the past, more specifically at our country's heroism, integrity, adaptability, ingenuity, and patriotism, then we can begin to see that America is actually awesome. Cancel culture and mainstream media are pushing a false narrative that balloons America's historical faults and smothers its successes. They don't want us to hear the truth. Because if we all knew that America is worth fighting for, we would be unstoppable. We could stop Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and many others from running our country into the ground. Maybe if more people knew how great America is, then we wouldn't be so quick to label our fellow citizens. 

I don't have a problem with appreciating family culture and history.  I'm not suggesting that we do away with the traditions of the country one's family came from. But words are important. What we call ourselves and how we refer to others matters. So let Americans be Americans. Stop mislabeling our citizens. Most of the time, there's no need to mention a person's appearance anyway. 

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