The brown in me is American, but like 13% * of the American population I am foreign born.  My children are like 1 in 4 children under 18 who have one foreign parent.  America has always been a hybrid nation.  The natives in America live in reservations.  However it’s becoming hard to understand why there is this belief America is monolithic.  African Americans are probably the closest next to Natives to be “pure” Americans.

The world is heading towards nationalism, yet globally we are more integrated than ever before.  There was a time, just a generation ago, when a person was born and died in the same place. Most never left beyond their immediate area. Travelling outside your country was a luxury.  Yet within one generation the world has changed and become intertwined.  The brown in me was born in one continent, and now lives on another. Born in one country, educated in another, and living in a third. Does anyone have only one home city anymore? I have lived in 11 which I called home.  Many more I feel at home in and can get around in like a local.  In in this long life, I am still filled with wonder when I meet someone and find out they too have an interesting composition.  More and more we are more diversified and diversity will save the planet. Even the monolith’s travel more now. Americans vacation globally which means in spite of themselves they experience different cultures.  Closing the border is futile since we already have been infiltrated.  Regulating is an acceptable objective, as no country just lets anyone in.  However the biggest beneficiary of integration is America.  China, Russian, Saudi Arabia are closed societies and it may be generations before they reach American standards if ever. What they miss out on is the joy of talking to someone in a bar, who too was born in one continent, but lives in another, speaks many languages, and their cultural identity, like mine doesn’t match the passport. I am always tagged as Indian, but India is as foreign to me as Iceland. When asked ‘ are you Indian?; I like to answer no I am Icelandic. In today’s world this could be true and so it works.  There are many out there who met me in a drunken state and will tell you Icelanders are brown.

Source: ItsTheBrownInMe