I really hate the term “someothercountry/race/creed/religion-American” as in African-American. Now before I start getting hate comments, I didn’t say I hate African-Americans, I hate the term. To me it says that a person is African first then American which is just a politically correct way to be racial, to segregate our community. If you salute the flag and call yourself a citizen (notice I didn’t say you had to agree with the government or be a political stooge,) then you are an American; no matter what color, creed, religion. If it is important to a person to also signify where there ancestry or they personally came from before they became a citizen, then it should be after the American part. Let’s face it we should all think of ourselves as Americans first and foremost rather than seperate ourselves into little racial groups.

Don’t believe it’s racial? Then watch the news shows, they always make a point of mentioning the term Asian-American, African-American, Muslim-American, or Whatever-American or when it involves someone who may have an ancestry from somewhere other than here. (Reality check: we ALL have an ancestry from somehwere other than here.) Second, have you ever heard them talk about an English American? I think once I heard them talk about a German-American, but rarely if the person is of light skin do they comment on the difference. It is basically marking someone as different based on their race and setting aside a special category for them. Hence me saying its racial. (One of my friends in the Navy was of darker skin and he too hated the phrase. At one point he stood up and said he wasn’t African American because his parents were actually from Jamaca not Africa. I had to laugh at that.)

Granted, much easier to say than do, but aren’t a lot of things worth doing hard?

Recently, I have been noticing another trend. It’s probably been there for years however I only started noticing it in the last few years but I call it birthism. (I’m sure there is an actual, Webster accepted, name out there so if you know, feel free to let me know in the comments.) It’s a prejudice or discrimination based on your birth. For example, as you watch the news, keep an ear out for adoptees. When a person gets in an accident, it’s just a person getting in an accident, but when it’s an adoptee, they act like they are getting paid for each time they use the word. Case in point: there was an accident involving a couple of kids who were driving a car and crashed into a bus back in January. The article made a point of saying the kids were adopted and how the parents biological kids weren’t in the car and on and on and on. They never did explain what adoption had to do with it, other than a neat twist to throw in. Why the special seperation? Case 2: Former President Reagan’s funeral. Attended by his wife, their children and his adopted son. He was attending his freakin Dad’s funeral and yes I know they had their differences, but it was still his Dad. Why the declaration of difference? Case 3: TV shows, it’s either how wonderful that you are giving up your child OR it’s about the crazy adoptee who went on a killing spree.

Our first story tonight is about those crazy and angry adoptees. Then at 11, we will tell you where you can deposit your newborns so we have future material to write about.

Now guess what I’m wishing.

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