BY JOHN J. THATAMANIL • NOVEMBER 12, 2008
When I came to this country at age 8, my parents had been here for two years. They left me with family in India to make their way so that my toddler sister and I might join them. Through sacrifice and separation, they succeeded, became citizens, and brought us to America.
This year, we all voted with pride for Barack Obama.Much has been said about Obama as a child of a black father and a white mother. What has not been appreciated is his appeal to those of us who are immigrants because of his early years in Indonesia.
Obama speaks to those of us who love this country and have made it our adopted home. Even though Obama is a child of a U.S. citizen and was born in Hawaii, he also feels like one of us because he bears in his memory the sights, sounds and smells of other lands. He has family in every corner of the planet. So do we. We love our new home fiercely, but we cannot imagine how a prosperous and secure American future can be won at the expense of other peoples.
Love for our mother countries is deep, but we do not long to return. When I visit India, I am somehow outed within seconds as an American even before I open my mouth. Is it the directness of my gaze? Is there a confidence or even cockiness in my stride that comes from being raised in the home of the brave?
Sadly, questions about whether I am genuinely American are more often raised in America than in India. The loud visibility of my brownness seems to drown out that indefinable, fleshly Americanness that unmasks me when I am abroad.
Perhaps Americans mean it when we say that we are a "nation of immigrants." Perhaps we who are dark will not be held suspect because we also speak other tongues and cherish our countries of origin.
Of course, it will not do to be naive. America's long and tragic history of racism will not be overcome in a night, even if that is precisely what many wish to argue. Sadly, the forces of division unleashed by this prolonged election cannot be so quickly quelled.
Nonetheless, for millions who have elected to make this country our own, the American embrace of Obama is a dream come true. His success is a vindication of all that led my family, and countless other immigrants, to bet our futures on starting over in this hopeful country of new beginnings.
John J. Thatamanil is assistant professor of theology at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. He is the author of The Immanent Divine: God, Creation and the Human Predicament — An East-West Conversation.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment