Unbearable Whiteness

I recently read an article in the Atlantic Monthly, titled "The End of White America" It can be found here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200901/end-of-whiteness

Some white people seem to have taken the end of white America as meaning the end of white people or the end of America. That is not what the author means at all though.

When we think of an American--a typical American--we don't have a picture in mind. Some people in the world do still think the stereotypical American is blond and blue-eyed but really, there is no typical American face anymore. We have become enormously diverse. We are a multiethnic, multicultural country wherein the 'other' is also 'self'.' The self in the other and the other in self gives us a tremendous opportunity to finally be the country we spent the twentieth century claiming to be--the microcosm of world peace. The old ethnic, race, and religious hatred can be set aside here because the other is also self.

That's a really, really great thing that I am convinced will keep this country great if only we can embrace our own diversity as Americans. There is, of course, a segment of white American society, that is just terrified by this change and I feel sorry for them. They think this great diversity means the end of America instead of the end of white monopoly on what it means to be an American. They cannot embrace the other in the self, hence, they've created their own identity crisis.

American tolerance of diversity has meant that we can attract the best and the brightest from around the world and I think if we embrace diversity we will continue to be a success.