Cultural Thoughts By Ben

Okay, I have been teaching at a couple of companies this past week for the language school. One is E-on, which is an electric company, and the other is T-com (T-mobile). I have to teach them business English for use around the office and international business. I have 5 groups all together each with only about 5-7 people in them and one private session. The guys are nice, they are all older of course but they are respectful. I have gone over things like what to ask at the airport, job interviews, and presentations. I also explained what "appropriate" means. For example: "It is not appropriate to talk about sex at work." "It is appropriate to talk about sports at work." One topic we talked about was race. They were confused about what that meant so I broke down for them. This leads into my thought.

We listed the various races in the United States (Hispanic, Asian, White, etc.) They were confused about "White" instead of "European American" since we say "African American" and "Native American." I explained that we also say "Caucasian" and "Anglo". They got even more confused saying "that is just the saxons and specific parts of Europe." They asked, "If you are a Hungarian who moved to the US are you still 'White'?" which I responded "yes." I believe they have a really good point and question: "Why not label it 'European American' instead of 'White'?" You see we call everyone who we think of as black "African American." Which sounds good but we also call people with ancestry in Jamaica, Aboriginal Australia, Brazil, etc. "African American." Which of course makes no real sense. Also we say "Latin American" even if your from Spain or Brazil. It seems that the term "European American" would easily fit in this mix. Of course some groups don't have a label. If you are from India you are suppose to check "Asian." However, "Asian" is suppose to refer to oriental heritage. If you are from the Middle East it is rare to find "Arabic" or "Middle Eastern" on most documents. Of course if you think about it, why do we label anyway. There is no real true "American" race after all. However, the argument can rightfully be made that Native Americans are true Americans. But it really shouldn't matter what your race is. The U.S. is so multicultural there is no point. We seem to have a desire to label everything when it isn't necessary. We are all human so who gives a crap what area of the world your 10th generation grandparents lived in. It is fun and exciting to figure it out for historical desires and getting in touch with your culture. But when you are applying to college, jobs, taxes whatever it shouldn't matter. For the record I am not trying to get in an Affirmative Action debate nor am I saying that we should forget all racial hate that has existed in our country. I am just saying that in the U.S. we are all citizens with (what is suppose to be) the same rights and freedoms. I know I am simplifying and there are a million arguments dealing with things like documenting equality, providing social services, distribution of wealth, etc. that could be stated. I am just stating that the current labels are not accurate as they stand and they never will be. I guess we could fix more labels to try and cover everybody but the check list would take up two pages alone. So why not let it go and just simply be "Americans."

I love learning about my own family history and my wife's as well. However, we are both American even though she has Scandinavian heritage and I have English heritage. The school I used to teach at was over 70% African American. While there I felt no need or desire to keep up with the number of Latino or White kids I had. They were all just my students and future citizens. In my mind they were and are just Eric, Jazzmine, Diamond, Jacob, Icyessis, Alvaro, Jaqueline, Ali, Muhammed, etc. They are all going to grow up and be part of this country and they don't need to be slapped with a label right out of the gate. They just need to be treated with kindness and respect like all American citizens should be treating each other. Being in Hungary if I see another American I could care less what race they are. In my eyes they are part of the American family and I will be more than happy to shake their hand.