America is like a giant salad
Imagine a world where everyone is
green.
This world wouldn’t be much
different from the place we live:
These green people — let’s call them
Grcendroids — like to cat, sleep, and
watch television, just like their Earth
brothers and sisters.
Young Grcendroids attend college
so they can join the older civilians in
the 9-to-5 work world upon gradua
tion. Greendroid parents want to send
their children to the best schools
where they won’t have to worry about
drugs and weapons in the classroom.
When Grcendroids reach age 65, they
receive a social security check every
month from their government and arc
eligible for 10 percent discounts at all
local restaurants.
The only way the Greendroid
world is different from our own is
that everyone has the same skin color,
comes from the same culture, speaks
the same language, cats the same
food, practices the same religion and
wears the same style of clothing. The
Greendroid world is as homogenous
as all 200 pieces of paper in a
notebook.
I suppose some people think the
idea of idenlicalness is nice. Some
insist we should look at everyone as if
they were no different from ourselves.
Politically correct scholars are
spreading the message that people
must be “color blind” in order to
think of the next person as equal.
Let me explain. Being color blind
is pretending that the person of color
sitting next to you is no different. If
you arc successful at achieving color
blind status, you will often catch
yourself saying things such as “Oh, I
don’t even think of Bill as a black
man” or “I forget that Sue is Chinese,
because she doesn’t act, you know,
We shouldn't have to ignore one
another 's colors. Appreciate me for
being Korean, and I'll appreciate
you for being German or Irish.
1
Oriental.”
Although color blindness may
seem like a good idea, it actually is an
unrealistic and silly notion. We arc so
afraid of being considered racist that
we think the only way to cure
ourselves of this ailment is to ignore
race as an issue.
People love the idea of America
being the great melting pot — people
of all races and ethnicities coming
together and literally melting away
their heritage to create people who
arc the same. However, I don’t want
to contribute to a melting pot, because
1 don’t want to lose my background
as a Korean American.
I don’t want my children to grow
up believing that being Korean is no
different than being white, black, or
Portuguese. The truth is, we arc all
different.
And being different isn’t such a
bad thing.
America should instead be thought
of as a giant salad. A salad consists of
green lettuce, red tomatoes, brown
mushrooms, white onions and orange
carrots. If you take out the carrots,
you still would have a salad, but it
wouldn’t be as good. Take out
everything except the lettuce, and you
no longer have a salad. Every
vegetable equally contributes to the
salad. One vegetable alone doesn’t
make a good salad.
We shouldn’t have to ignore one
another’s colors. Appreciate me for
being Korean, and I’ll appreciate you
for being German or Irish.
It’s true that my race doesn’t make
me a fundamentally different person.
I’m a college student, and I worry
about my future just like the next
person. But my race docs help me see
things in a different light. The same
is true about my religious beliefs, my
family values and the high school I
attended.
If we were all the same, this world
would be a boring place. We wouldn’t
want to travel to Europe because it
would look just like America. There
wouldn’t be foods such as lasagna,
burrilos, corned beef and won-ton
soup. We wouldn’t have the Spanish
channel or the Chicago Korean
Times. We’d be forced to eat hot dogs
and hamburgers while watching soap
operas all day.
The Grecndroids are all the same.
You’ve met one Greendroid, you’ve
met them all. We, however, should
not pretend we arc identical; instead,
we should acknowledge our differenc
es.
Now, what kind of dressing did
you want with your salad?
Stock fi a junior secondary education
major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist.
Racial definitions usually dumb
Last week a while friend of mine
asked me about the O.J. Simpson
ease. He said, “I heard he really
wasn’t black anymore — that he had
become white.” He waited for my
reply.
I had so many things to say. I
didn’t know where to begin. I could
have said, “Listen, you white son of a
bitch, what the hell do you know
about being black?" But I didn't.
I could have said, “Yeah, that
black bastard betrayed his race." But I
didn’t. Instead, I chickened out and
simply said, “Oh?” And I’ve been
talking about my friend behind his
back for his ridiculous assertion ever
since.
As I try to sort out this business
about who is black and who isn’t. I’ve
decided first to look at the color of the
person talking. If their skin is at least
as dark as the person about whose
blackness they are talking, fine.
If they arc lighter, their opinion
can’t be as valuable. 1 mean, really!
Can a white person tell a black
person what it means to be black? I
don’t think so.
Black people know what color
they arc. How could we forget? We
also know we arc not supposed to be
white. We don’t need any reminders
about what it means to be thought of
as, GASP, an Uncle Tom. (That’s
slang for a black person acting white
or for one who invests more time
disassociating oneself from black
culture than identifying with it.)
The term “Uncle Tom” isn’t used
as much as it used to be, but the sin of
not acting black enough persists. The
punishment can mean strikes against
all blacks.
Blacks know what kind of
responsibilities the “house nigger”
has to the rest of the black race. One
mistake can turn the massa’ on us.
Damn it, O.J., you made it harder for
us blacks to move up. You blew it!
You had everything — except a dark
brown woman — and you were /
arrested for killing a white woman.
7he term “Uncle Tom ” isn t used as
much as it used to be, but the sin of
not acting black enough persists.
The punishment can mean strikes
against all blacks.
Just what the hell is wrong with you,
BOY?
Being anything but black is one of
the nine deadly sins: talking white,
walking white, dancing while, dating
white, marrying white, not having
answers ready for people who ask
about black issues, voting Republican,
not being seen with enough black
people, and finally, criticizing anyone
who is black.
Blacks commit these sins at the
risk of being accused of the worst sin
of all: wanting to be anything other
than black. Neither O.J. Simpson nor
any other black person is supposed to
want to be anything but black. Don’t
forget your place.
Recently, I’ve heard a lot of talk
about how O.J. Simpson isn’t really
black. Apparently, his lifestyle turned
him into kind of an aspiring or
wanna-bc white, and that seems to be
a strike against him.
I’ve heard both blacks and whiles
saying O.J. Simpson’s situation
somehow is tied to having forsaken
his blackness. The punishment for
forsaking your race is banishment. No
one group wants you except those
who also have forsaken their race or
those who don’t care.
Whites and blacks now can say,
“Thai’s what he gets for being so
white, so it serves him right. It is as
if it’s OK to be in “whitcy’s” house,
but don’t make them regret letting
you in. And for God’s sake, don’t
embarrass blacks and make it harder
for us to get in when it’s our turn. It
seems that unless your name is
Vanilla Ice, it’s OK to be white and
act black. So why isn’t it OK to be
black and act while?
Once you arc found guilty of one
of the nine deadly sins, black folks
who don’t commit them don’t like
you. White folks, on the other hand,
like you even more.
As a black man who has been
found guilty, been tried and been
convicted of several such “sias” in
different combinations over the years,
I can tell you, sometimes it gets
lonely at the top. Just kidding.
What docs it mean to be black
anyway? Is it all about being poor,
oppressed, mad at white people and
having mostly black friends? If that’s
what being black is all about, no,
thank you.
If it means being a whole person,
with lots of different kinds of friends
(which most people don’t have), and
being able to move about in society
with success, yes, thank you.
Discussing what O.J. Simpson
seems to have done in his life because
of his lifestyle is a ridiculous racist
thing to do. Oh yes, blacks can have
racist attitudes too. For blacks to
stoop solely to a race-based explana
tion for things is exactly what we’ve
been telling whites to stop doing.
And that’s a part of being black I
don’t want any part of.
' Shanks is a graduate student and a
Dally Nebraskan columnist.
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