I am afraid of snakes, frogs and lizards. That is not a good thing, living in Florida. I was once trapped in a corner of my bedroom for over an hour, because a giant frog was straddled between me and the door. While the phone rang incessantly in the next room and I helplessly frozen in my bedroom. I didn’t want to hurt it, it was just a frog, and it did not do me any harm. Until finally my wife came to the rescue and summarily scooped it up with a planter and tossed him in the garden.

I know it’s an irrational fear, but I can’t help it, I did not grow up on a farm. They are alien to me. I just did not get acquainted with them earlier in life. I feel a sharp degree of separation between myself and these reptiles. I also know that 98% of my fear is all in my head, made bigger by my imagination. We fear the unknown and unfamiliar. Which brings me to the topic of race in America today.

We have crossed a milestone in our history in this country. We have finally elected a man of a color other than white to the highest office in the land. To many people this symbolizes the end of a long struggle for acceptance, for others it symbolizes the end of the United States as they know it. The world is shifting under their feet just a little too fast for them to adjust.

As I look around the internet lately, I see that the discussion of race and the question of whether race discrimination is finally dead, as evidenced by the fact that over 68% of the American people actually voted a black man into office…o.k. a half black man into office. The really cynical concede that they really only considered it because of the fact that he is half white.

I am a Mulatto Hispanic. I like Barack Obama have a white (Hispanic) mother and a Black (Hispanic) father. My maternal grandfather was from Spain, He was Blonde with deep blue eyes and he married my grandmother a black woman. I like Barack Obama according to his book, “The Audacity of Hope”, also have Chinese relatives in my family. Now Hispanic Chinese after having immigrated to the Dominican Republic during World War II. Throughout my family, you will see a sampling of all the races Black, Indian, White, Chinese all brought together by language as ONE people, ONE family.

That pattern has continued into the 2nd and 3rd generations of my family as we all continue to marry outside of our race. My Brothers and Sisters married Irish, Jewish, And Polish. I am the only one that married another Hispanic, However, she is a “white” Hispanic.

I have never really thought about the degree to which skin color has influenced me, but as I look back, I have never been attracted to a woman of color. Of course I can recognize beauty in women of color, but it just did not do it for me. When I was single, I dated Chinese, Latinas and White women and a couple of “black” women, which did not look black at all. It was always just a personal preference, or so I thought. But, now that I see the patterns in my family, I see that race may be a bigger factor than we care to admit. The subliminal rule apparently is if you are Dark, Marry Light. Or it could simply be a case of Opposites attract.

I have been lucky to never have experienced outward racism in my life, not anything that I noticed. But then again, I have never seen myself as “apart” or excluded from any group or place. Growing up my friends were black, Latin and White. Did I ever witness racism or hear racial slurs, of course I did…and they came from all sides of the isle. Hispanics against blacks, Blacks against whites, whites against both.

When you are black and you have white grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts you don’t think color, you just see the person. I think the same is true vice-versa. When you are exposed to a thing and that thing becomes familiar and natural to you, the societal rules don’t apply to that grouping.

So in answer to all the speculation about whether race is still a factor in America, I say “not for much longer”. Racism comes from separateness, from unfamiliarity. We fear the unknown. As the world grows smaller and smaller, as we become more familiar with each other’s cultures and we get a closer look at each other and realize that people are the same…generally. They want the same things, they fear the same things and they suffer the same things. Through experiments such as the Obama appointment, White America will get an even closer look at black leadership, and hopefully realize that an educated professional, black or white can man his post equally well.

And ultimately, I believe that the ultimate way to truly understand another’s culture and race is through inter-marrying. And as more generations of people are born from mixed race couples the day is close at hand where this type of debate and conversation is no longer necessary or even relevant.

Bob Solis is a Marketing Consultant living in Orlando Florida with his wife and two daughters. He is the owner of the Career Marketing Company How2Career.com CONTACT