I was struck this morning, when reading the news, that a county in Kansas has the distinction of being the latest where the majority (whites) have become the minority. Living in the most diverse of all the cities in the entire country (Sacramento), this is something I don’t even think about. I’m as likely to see a Sikh walking down my street as a Somalian or a Christian Conservative.

But, the town I grew up in, not far from that county in Kansas, was almost exclusively white when I lived there thirty years ago.

This country was conquered by the European. Our indigenous peoples were, as we now know, decimated by our disease and violence. To help us in our efforts to create a land of the free, home of the brave, we kidnapped and kept Africans as property, split up their families and sold their children. And, a lot of these nefarious goings on in our history were done in the name of religion – a pure and strong belief that somehow, this was all done at God’s behest. I daresare, that even religious fundamentalists of today might have a problem with the interpretation their forebearers took then.

In the past two centuries, the immigrants who came over voluntarily were predominantly white. Sure, we had those from China coming over to work as basically low-paid slaves on the railroad and in mining, and some others, but for the most part, the Europeans swarmed across the countryside. In the past forty years, people from Africa and Asia have fled here to escape genocide and the effects of despotism. Central and South Americans have ventured here to seek a better life as well.

With them they bring their religions, their cultures, and their labor. They bring new ideas and a hope that they will lead a better existence or at least be able to exist.

But, what is the definition of “better?” Is it safe food and drink? A higher wage? An opportunity to own a home? Is it being able to get any health care at all, despite the question whether it’s affordable or not? Or is it a state of mind? Is it that we live in a place where all people believe they can be treated equally without experiencing the bite of bigotry, intolerance, and discrimination or death for being different?

It’s been nearly 150 years since the Civil War was ended. Yet, we have had to wait this long to have the first black mayor elected in a town of Philadelphia, Mississippi where only 45 years ago, three civil rights workers were murdered because some white people didn’t like the winds of change and decided to do something about it.

We of European descent haven’t done a very good job as a whole in treating people who don’t share our color or religion or culture with equanimity. We’ve been very effective at quashing their differences and shoving assimilation down their throats in the most audacious ways. At least until the oppressed can no longer take it and rise up to revolt – by violent or non-violent means.

I would remind my fellow white, European-descended citizens that our Constitution is the most amazing document in the world. In it there is no room for intolerance for the “minority.” There is protection. There is no room for religion to rule–this is not a theocracy. There is no room for racial elitism hidden deftly behind a mask of gentility. There is no room for our insistence that because someone is not like YOU that others be denied the Man-given rights you enjoy. There is no room to say, “It’s always been like this, therefore cannot change.” There is no room for discrimination. There is only the absolute that all be treated equally under that law.

This includes the absolute necessity to protect the GLBTQI population. Put aside your religion and memories of what “has always been” – because it clearly hasn’t been all that great for the oppressed and victimized. Start thinking like a citizen who lives under the protection of that great document and stop trying to keep other citizens from enjoying the highest power of being an American.

Lori Hahn
AWOP GLBTQ Contributing Editor
Author of Hahn at Home Blog