Multicultural America

The ship on a multicultural country has sailed. But there are still people on the docks holding ropes, trying desperately to pull it back. These are the short-sighted individuals who want to “make America great again”. They are afraid of what a future America might look like without white people in the majority exercising their visible and invisible privilege to the ignorable detriment of the rest of us. As a compassionate person, my task is to invite those on the dock to climb on board and to puck others from the water before they drown if they are willing to climb into the ship.
What will America look like and be like when we are a majority minority nation? I don’t actually know. I do know that it is our current responsibility to begin to build the mental, emotional, political, and financial infrastructure to support such a nation. This means that we have to educate our youth in more intentional ways how to appreciate, understand, live, and work with people who look, worship, and love differently from themselves. We have to enable and empower our youth to take on leadership roles that promote inclusion and equity. We have to be compassionate and intentional in the way we mitigate the fears of people who are somewhat comfortable, if not entirely satisfied with the status quo.

It is time to come to terms with our history and to see it for what its impact has been on communities of color, women, religious minorities, and LGBTQ individuals. Our diversity can be our strength. Our inclusion can foster greater innovation, and our equity can be our sustenance.

Convincing those still on the docks and those who have thrown themselves into the water to climb in the ship will not be easy. It will require that we ask them to take a leap of faith. We will ask them to trust the idea of America, that all men are created equal and endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But even more important, we have to begin to prepare today.  We will have to lay the foundation by improving our educational system to the point that a person’s zip code no longer determines the quality of the education available.  We have to provide health care for all so that the size of a person’s pocketbook no longer determines who will live or die.  And we have to hold bankers accountable so that they can no longer profile and target people of color to determine access to capital.  Our minority status has to cease being a limitation on our prospects.  The way forward is to vote for lawmakers who see America for what it can be as the ship sails.  Let’s face it, the new America will require all hands on deck.