I was always taught in school that because I was pale-skinned, I had to list my ethnicity as white. I have dutch, german, irish, middle-eastern, native american, scottish, and spanish ancestry (listed in alphabetical order not percentage). Because I was pale, I wasn't OTHER, I was to put down caucasian/white. My background is as much otoe as it is anything else; however, my ancestors on those lines didn't sign "the rolls". One side didn't because it was shamefull to have to sign a paper to prove you were native. The other side didn't because at the time native americans weren't considered fully human so murdering or raping native people wasn't really a crime in their area.
My wife is lenape with english lineage. The native side of her family was forced to Oklahoma as well as many other tribes. However, the Lenape were deemed not to be a tribe given its own area so they had to pay to be adopted by the cherokee tribe. When the original rolls went out they had to pay the tribe again to be allowed to sign. Her family and many others moved to Arkansas several years later. While they were away the final official rolls were signed without telling those who had moved off that they had to come back and sign again. Thus they were kicked out of the tribe. When the Lenape gaine official recognition, her family was unable to rejoin because of government policy.
Two things that stand out in my mind about racial relations/racism from a personal side:
1) My parents taught me respect for all people without heed to ethnicity. When I was about 6, I remember watching an elderly black man walk up to the door of the shopping center my dad and I were visiting. A line of people pushed past him as he hobbled along. Dad held the door and waited for the man to walk in first. The man bent down to me and said, "Boy, you learn from your daddy because he is a true gentleman."
2) I took the psat for the first time during the last year I was allowed to take it. I had no clue that it had anything to do with scholarship, but just thought I'd take it for practice. Thus I didn't try very hard but took it just to see what kind of questions future exams would ask. I later found out that had I been anything other than a white or asian male I would have been a national merit scholar. I was 1 point short of the cutoff. For any other status of ethnicity/gender, I would have been granted it.
Racism and discrimination are still around. I personally wish that both would go away. I would prefer a world that allows people to be proud of their heritage yet gives everyone an equal opportunity to prosper. Sadly it will be a long time before that happens. The thing I have to remember is that I live in a nation that grants as much legal protection to those who promote hate as those who promote understanding and peace.
