Dear America,

You know, if the black people in America want to call themselves "African-Americans", shouldn't anyone who appear "white" in America be called European-Americans? 

If based upon the territory from which we come, wouldn't this make much more sense?  And wouldn't the intellectual, European, anti-American, elitists love it!

And just where in fact did "Caucasian" come from anyway?  Sounds so scientific, so neanderthal, so old world.

Thanks to Wikipedia-- don't you love access to the "www", the whole world is at our fingertips -- I have discovered the root of the word, Caucasian. 

In the 1800's, a German scientist and anthropologist by the name of Johann Frederich Blumenbach, invented the term to characterize the "beautiful race of men"  found at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, particularly to the area at the southern slope known as the Georgian region. The ranges signified the divide between the Black and Caspian Seas, and were considered the border of Europe.

Having no idea about any of this, wikipedia goes on to mention that the term is considered quite "controversial" today, saying this:

"rejected by academics and political activists who view any system of categorizing humanity based on physical type as an obsolete 19th Century racism. and human genome studies have shown there is no single and simple genetic definition equivalent to 'Caucasian'."

Had no idea about that either.  Here I am just bouncing along, singing a song, and then bam, "you, G, can't be dignified by a proper label from which you come."  What's a girl to do.

But isn't it worse being labeled in such a way that reminds us all of one of the greatest travesties in history where the African was brought to America as a slave?  Simply making a matter of subjective record, the words we choose to describe ourselves may very well be the root of the problem; being that what we think about over and over and over again (as thoughts are things, right, and carry a life force of their very own), the articulation then becomes this twisted connection to something profane and unjust almost every time we open our mouth and give characterization to someone of color in saying "African-American".

'Oh, you're an African-American, was that your great, great grandpa, or your grandma, abused as a cotton picker by my great, great grand-daddy?'

I, on the other hand, have no business being called anything; with built in obsolescence, Caucasian is no more justified or accurate in and of itself.  That bites.

Oh wait,
I know, I know...Mr. Kotter, Mr Kotter, pick me!

I got it. I got it. I know what we can do.

Let's just call ourselves AMERICANS (whoa dude, right on).

True blue, red, white and purple... chocolate and vanilla, from Five Spice to cinnamon to paprika to chili pepper, from generations of old to the generation of now... We are simply AMERICAN.

That is what we are; and until the day we stop calling each other names honoring a dark past over a bright future (and including, but not limited to, a liar, nazi, nigger or stupid), we will never find the yummy, fluid, ooey-gooey center of the tootsie-pop waiting for us all to enjoy; we've been working on that sucker for way too long now and have no idea the pleasure that awaits with only taking one big bite ... begging the question, just how many licks does it take?

I know, I know.  How elementary to call us all Americans.  Doesn't that oversimplify the beauty and dynamics of our melting pot culture, rolling us all into one like that, watering down the very thing that made us the ultimate destination in the first place? How unfair. How homogenized.  How un-American; all the while throwing the tootsie pop under the bus as we speak.

Well I say, calling us all anything but simply AMERICAN is really the crime. 

It says to me, let's continue to segregate and divide us in a way that sounds virtually okay--  beckoning the heartstrings of the politically correct -- while swallowing the ooey gooey center and all whole; choking on the most ignorant American affirmation of them all; for haven't we all been raised properly, indoctrinated with notion that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts; realizing the synergy of knowing that separately we cannot compare to that of the full effects and value of putting all the parts together.

Sure, there is an added interest, blah blah, blah blah blah, as the 10 year census figures are necessary and vital,blah blah, blah blah blah, to seeing what makes up the ingredients of our fine melting pot culture blah blah blah; there is that.  But here's the thing, every time we categorize and label, we cause immediate separation; you are this and I am that. Period. The line is drawn. The damages been done.

The concept of duality of trying to remain united while at the same time divided is futile; in any given moment one wins out over the other.

I say, we are AMERICAN.  That's it.

Instead of meeting the challenges of today coming from the place as one, as Americans, and Americans only, we are damaging the integrity of the bloody hell, last two hundred years, by George.  We escaped England and all of Europe to become a new nation; we separated, no divorced, England et al and didn't hold onto the name when we left for a reason.  We let it all go.

Yes, the Africans who came to America was not by choice in the beginning; but today, it is! 

Did you know:

•  that up until about 1910, 90% of African-Americans lived in the south
•  and according to records from the year 2000, 54% still do. 
• Woodrow Wilson, the first southern Democrat elected to the office of the President, felt it would be better for all of us, both black Americans and white Americans, to introduce segregation in the Federal Government. 
• Today there are roughly 40 million African-Americans, residing mostly in urban areas, the highest population in New York, with Chicago coming in second. 
• Obama received the largest proportion of the white vote since Jimmy Carter; also gaining an overwhelming 95% of the black vote. 
• In the previous election of 2004, 88% of the black vote went to Kerry and 11% to Bush.

I'm sure Obama's color of skin had nothing to do with how the black community, including Powell, cast their vote; that observation would not only be wrong for me to make, but may very well hint at a racial charge that is simply untrue.

But if you go back in time searching the www on your own-- look it up, I double-dog-dare-you --  you will find that time and time again, it was the white boy, the Southern Democrat, who made such sacrificial errors in judgment.  It is those guys who we should ALL be mad at; not the every day American standing around the water cooler who just wants us all to get along.

And on a personal side note:  I am an actual descendent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and proud of it.  In as much as my family settled in the North, and later, also in Kansas, we never settled  in the South; you can whistle dixie (Theme song of the day with a click on"Dear America" above) until the cows come home, but I will have no part in recognizing responsibility for what the southern boys did, or how I can only imagine the south continues to this day damaging the common threads that hold this country together; having said that, the Real Housewives of Atlanta don't seem to be doing too badly, and certainly, so much fun to watch.

The everyday Caucasian-American shares the values with the everyday African-American in wanting to teach us all, not only the gift that our shared past brings, but the lesson in learning from our mistakes and to live in the present moment.  And to be clear, as all Americans should agree, we mustn't dwell on it; you know how your tongue gets after awhile, sucking on the hard candy shell, you get to the point where you just gotta stop or suffer the consequences of losing the feeling altogether.

Make it a Good Day, G