Melting Pot or Mosaic

First, everyone go to Marissa’s blog and welcome her into maidenhood. Marissa turned 16 today. My baby… how did that happen? 

Last night Ron and I went to a community meeting to hear the results of a survey done in our community regarding diversity. And, I watched as my husband became “white.” He laughed at the survey results that showed, “Although most respondents felt the area had enough diversity, they are uncomfortable with other ethnicities because they are unfamiliar with them.” He shook his head in disbelief as he read the slide that said something along the lines of, “Many people I know relocated to here from the cities to get away from diversity.” He cheered when an elderly woman in the back stood up and pointed out that we had spent the evening talking about “those people.” When we were in the car he questioned the agenda of a man who demanded to know, “What is the purpose of this survey. I understand we are trying to get more minorities to come to the area so our schools get more funding.” Later, after hearing that our community college’s law enforcement school was actively recruiting minority students, this same man wanted to know if the college planned on drug testing the students. Somehow he has heard that there is not drug testing done on “these people” who are then allowed to carry weapons. While the question may seem benign and completely unrelated to our discussion about diversity, the underlying assumption was obvious. Minority law enforcement students are probably all drug users.

What does it mean to become white?

She considers how we (white people) often don’t know we are white until we “belong” to a Black child, or a Black partner. We discover the shock of being, not the only white person in a room full of Blacks, but an aware white person in a room full of whites who are not thinking about being white. You may look like every other white person, but you don’t feel or think or react like one. There will be the time you are going along at the meeting or conference or whatever and something is said; something racist or not, some assumption of whiteness or privilege and no one reacts. You are alone and baffled. Anti-Racist Parent columnist Cloudscome, Review of Weaving a Family: Untangling Race and Adoption.

I actually was less surprised by the racial and cultural views expressed in the survey results than I was by the willingness of my community to embrace economic diversity. We are a lake community; there is a lot of wealth in the community and that is apparently the way the community wants to keep it. One of the survey questions found that most people who live near me think that “People will always be willing to commute to [our town] to fill low-skilled jobs.” So, we really don’t have to plan things like affordable housing. Really? When gas is over $3/gallon people are going to drive several miles each way to work for minimum wage. I wonder how that’s going to work.

The hospital administrator bragged about the cultural and ethnic diversity among the hospital’s medical staff. Of the 70 physicians who have hospital privileges, 7 are ethnically diverse from the rest of the community. Why one physician even comes from Poland. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t Poland in Central Europe? Aren’t the people of Poland white? America has a long and glorious history of embracing people who are willing to come to her shores and sell their cultural identity for privilege. I just don’t think that having a white person who moves to the area, becomes active in the Catholic church, talks like us and dresses like us as spectacular evidence that we embrace diversity. Socialization is what the ‘Great American Melting Pot’ is all about.

I was not surprised, because I have suspected it all along, by another statement made by the hospital administrator. Apparently professionals are willing to come to this area because of the lakes and amenities, so we don’t have to pay them as much or offer them as good of a contract as they could get if they lived elsewhere. We are riding the waves of our lakes to attract and keep people in the area. Since I have been here I watched as every oncologist has left our town. My dermatologist left. Marissa’s psychiatrist? Yes, she is gone too.

It was actually rather discouraging. Ron’s comment at the end of the night, “Do I need to start looking for a job somewhere else?” Well, either that or be prepared to commute to ethnically diverse communities for church, fellowship and sanity. Don’t get me wrong, there are other non-white children in the area. Almost all of them are being raised by white parents ~