Mixing Up the Melting Pot

I’m still stuck on the call from Jade on “The Dr. Laura Show” in August. When the call began, Jade had a real problem with her (white) husband’s friends and family asking questions about the African-American culture. She considered it “racist” for them to ask, for example, “Why do black people do ...?” or “Do black families …?”

It seems to me that Jade is oversensitive about racism and looking for it all around her. I’m not sure why a woman so sensitive to something that might be perceived as racism would even marry a white man.

As humans, we have a natural curiosity about other people and other cultures. Is it racist to ask a Jew about Hanukkah traditions? Is it xenophobic to ask immigrants about the cultures and celebrations in their native countries? Is it bigoted to ask someone of a different religion about their religion, beliefs, celebrations and traditions? Are we all just supposed to remain in the dark about the world around us and never learn about other people?

My experience with people from overseas and of different cultures and religions is that they like to talk about how they do things, and they enjoy discussing the differences between the ways they know and the ways others do things.

Why, then, are some black people so hypersensitive to these questions?

I say “some” because by no means are all black people hypersensitive. My brother-in-law is black, and I have a few black friends, and they’ve always been wonderful at helping me to understand idiosyncrasies of their culture and give me the inside scoop about it. They’ve never called me a racist. Now, I’ve never ridiculed their ways or beliefs, either. I can completely understand someone becoming offended if a white person asks a question just to scorn or jeer the answer. That certainly is racist behavior.

I’m a true believer in “people fear the unknown,” and I think that if more people would ask intelligent questions about other people, their cultures and their values, then we would be a more harmonious society. It’s really the first step to reducing and eventually eliminating racism.

The United States doesn’t have a single culture; rather, we have hundreds of cultures that meld together to form the “American culture.” That was the founding idea behind our country, after all. We are a melting pot, and immigrants from around the world have come together to make the United States what it is. Our country wouldn’t be as great as it is if you eliminated even one of the hundreds of cultures that compose it.

Rather than searching for the divisions between these cultures, we ought to be seeking to learn about them, removing the fear and easing relations between all people. Likewise, we must be willing to share with others the different values and traditions in our own cultures so that they won’t fear the unknown. Until we achieve this, we’re not being very good Americans.