Ethnic

The question sais, "What qualities, strengths, and experiences do you have in working in culturally/ethnically diverse learning environments?"

Ummm, none, none, and none. Well, that ought to do it, right? I think that will be my submission for this scholarship application. At least it will be honest, right? I'm having a big problem with this. It has something or other to do with a fading part of my identity. I am nothing more or less than what I am, but this question makes me think that I am very much limited to what I understand. Therefore, does that make me un-ethnic? Un-culturally diverse? And if I am un-these things, what does that mean in terms of what is expected of me reagarding the color of my skin? The place that my parents called home? In terms of what I can offer a culturally/ethnically diverse learning environment.

I just had this thought: I don't want to be so goddam ethereal in the conventional American way. I think about American boredom and the American search for meaning and truth and beauty and I can't help but think that as Americans, we are terribly disadvantaged at actually being able to connect with these things. There just seems to be too much noise, too much knowledge of the most trivial things, and not nearly enough wisdom to be drawn from quiet landscapes and ancestry. We as Americans quickly dispose of our tried and weathered ancestry to make room for the next youthful arrogance. I'm tired of this arrogance. My own, and that which I witness. I'm tired of it, of how solid and empty if makes me feel, makes me see the world. I long for something sincere and old and wise. Something un-American, something perhaps a little more...ethnic.