“Blan, blan”—this is what the children of Haiti referred to me as. I took no offense to it. They were simply describing what they saw…white. My skin was white in comparison to their dark complexions, so in recognizing that difference, the children said it how it was: I’m white. But I’m technically a French-Canadian…and a German…so what is white? And while we’re at it, what is black? And where do we draw the line? I don’t believe that diversity is as clear as black and white.
We place anyone that is not Latino, Asian, Hispanic, African-American, Native American or Hawaiian in the white category…if they have light skin. But what really is white? Saying someone is white tells me nothing except that they have light colored skin. The same that saying someone is black tells me nothing but the fact that they have dark colored skin, yet for some reason society thinks that the terms white and black are appropriate when describing the culture of people. And because of that, the terms white and black have gotten a stigma. They have stereotypes and qualities associated with them. Terms that should only be used in the same simplicity of those Haitian children, has been turned into a way to describe diversity. I could look at someone and say, “She is white,” then I could talk with her and discover that she is Latina. Saying she is white should not be a bad thing, and it shouldn’t even be relevant. It’s simply a visual adjective. The important part and the part that tells me her background and her lifestyle is that she is Latina. Who cares about the color of her skin? Why is that even relevant? Why do we get so stuck on the color of people’s skin?
White does not describe culture. Black does not describe culture. Culture is not something that can be determined based on skin color. We use the terms black and white to describe some stereotype or culture that has been media-created. We take such a diverse nation and split it into two categories. How ridiculous is that? Instead of pushing away diversity by creating a divide between black and white, why aren’t we focusing on who people really are? Why don’t we focus more on who they are, instead of what we think they are based on what they look like? Stop making skin color a big deal. Focus on who people are, what made them who they are, what they value, and encourage it. Encourage things that are different. Stop trying to confine people to two groups. America is a melting pot of culture. There is no white. There is no black. There are Americans with different experiences and different backgrounds. So I ask again, what is white?
Credit to Jacob Leopold for prompting this article with his awesome wisdom.
