Yellow Bird: Leaps in America's multiracial society
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Filed Under:
Opinion
"When I read about the death on Friday of Mildred Jeter Loving, who is known for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down laws against interracial marriage, it was as if this story was from some foreign country — bizarre and archaic. Yet the case was ruled on by the court only about 40 years ago — June 12, 1967, to be exact.
That’s a relatively short time in our history and an indication that we are moving in the right direction.
But as I started writing this column, I remembered the Wacipi held in April. On Saturday of the powwow, the medical school honored its American Indian graduates. As I walked along the lines shaking hands with the new doctors and nurses who would go into our communities, I saw that one of the female graduates was wearing a veil. I wondered if the Indians into Medicine or INMED program now was accepting non-Indians.
Later, I learned that she is a White Mountain Apache woman, married to an Egyptian. She converted to Islam.
There’s no stopping this period of change.
When I lived with my parents and grandparents just north of the Missouri River, my world was rural, somewhat closed and consisted mostly of Indian people. In the headlines today, I can see the leap we’ve made. We have a black candidate, Barack Obama, who is a top contender for president of the U.S. and one of the leaders in the world. Remember, his parents were a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya."
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Multiracial nation keeps evolving
(The Grand Forks Herald 5/7)
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