In the last few weeks we have probably all noticed an emulsifying of Black History Month.  During television commercial breaks, in the neighborhood sections of newspapers, and between the ID tones on the radios, there has been an absence of those small tidbits of history that we have come to expect in recent years.  I have seen few special reports, features or even advertising targeting African Americans in the frequency and intensity as was done just a year ago.

 It was the first February after the events of Sept. 11 and it was the first ethnically driven celebration since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  These events created a new fervor for the flag, for democracy and for nationalism. We have seen commercials in which the actors hired say, “I am an American” regardless of what their religion, skin color, clothes or last name portray. 

In cabs, in restaurants, on coat lapels, and in windows all throughout the City and nation, we see American flags, draped, pinned, taped and waving. Those flags are shouting to all those who see them that the bearer is proud of the country he or she lives in.

Even last week at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, we witnessed a woman who is the first African American to win a Gold medal in the winter games downplay the significance of the breaking of such a barrier by saying, “I am just an American who won this medal.” 

Her name, for your own historical knowledge or dinner trivia questions, is Vonetta Flowers.  She is a 29-year-old track coach from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  For those of you who don’t know what bobsledding is, it is the same sport that earned fame for Jamaican track stars a few years ago who wanted another shot at Olympic glory.  Flowers was the “brakeman” — or what will now be known as the “brake person” — even though braking is the last thing Ms. Flowers does.  She was the second of two women to push a 500-plus pound ice sled to the start, but the last person to get in so it was her job to supply the last explosion of power and speed before the duo reached the starting line.  No small feat since Ms. Flowers’ team wasn’t even expected to place high in the standings.

There are a few schools of thought on this. 

The now more popular take is that she should not have to stand out because of her race or skin color in a free and democratic society to be given recognition for her accomplishments. 

The other extreme is that she sold out and maybe was never really “black” in the first place. 

As it usually is, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Ms. Flowers may not have wanted to play to a notion that she is somehow less of an athlete because she is Black and therefore her accomplishment is greater because of her race.  But for me there is a flaw in that reasoning if that is her intent.

I believe it is a mistake to water down our differences because of an outside threat.  In a way, I believe it proves the point the terrorists expound.  They say we cannot coexist and the “American Demon” tries to suppress these differences by violating civil and religious rights.  So in an effort to thwart that notion, we have toned-down cultural education in lieu of a unified front as Americans.

But what we lose is so much more than what we gain. 

We lose the opportunity for some little girl somewhere in America to draw encouragement from the Vonetta Flowers’ story and strive to be a gold medal winner like her.  In the emulsifying of African American and other cultures into a “one nation, under God, indivisible” fantasy, it will partially or maybe even fully undue the inspirational progress made in this country by people of color.  

Young people, who can clearly see the differences in race, religion and economic standing, will find less of a reason to hope when those who look like them and achieve are smeared from an American mosaic into part of an American monochrome.

African Americans do not disown the USA by saying they are African before they are Americans.  They only affirm to themselves and to the world that there are Africans who are Americans and who can reach goals and fulfill dreams like everyone else.

— Gary Anthony Ramsay is a weekend anchor
and journalist on the all-news
cable station NY1 and along-time resident of Queens.