by A. South

Created on: December 02, 2008

Racism and environmentalism the two advances that separate the past generation from the next. College graduates for the past decade were born after the Civil Rights movement. They don't remember days when a whole race of people were considered second-class citizens. A day is coming in the new generation when people won't even see race as a classification.

When I go home and visit my family, it's evident how vast the change truly is.

I inherited dark hair and golden brown skin from my granny, who inherited it from her mother, who is an American Indian. I'm proud of my heritage and I love my family history. Unfortunately though, I don't know much about it. When my granny was growing up in Virginia, her classmates made fun of her because her skin would get so dark in the summer, so my granny lied about her ethnicity and kept her skin covered so it wouldn't tan.

Her mother, my great-grandmother, died when my granny was very young, and with her died much of the family history about our American Indian roots because the family wanted to hide that part of our past to avoid discrimination.

While most of my friends are interested in my roots, my granny's friends made fun of her. She is even reluctant to talk to me about her mother because the discrimination is still so real to her.

The difference between the way I view my heritage and the way my granny does seems much farther than our fifty-year age difference.

Now, differences are celebrated and embraced. Instead of hiding from ancestry, people honor it.

My granny had children my mother and aunt and uncles during the Civil Rights movement in America. They grew up watching people fight for equality and begin to change the way the world looks at diversity.

It's incredible how much the world has changed since my granny was a little girl. I'm proud to be part of a generation of change, acceptance and tolerance.

Though important, tolerance isn't the only change in the past 50 years. Our generation is moving toward eco-friendly standards of living. We are exploring sustainability and changing our lifestyles while developing new ways to do things that protects the world for generations to come.

There is much work to be done. Global warming is threatening the earth and America's addiction to oil is staggering, but progress is still progress.

I still cover my skin, just like my granny did when she was my age. But when I do it, it's to protect it from the sun, not from racism.

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