A Candle in the Darkness

If I were an employer I'd hire this man--not to check off some diversity box, but because I like the way he thinks:

I recently graduated with my bachelor’s degree, and I look forward to all the opportunities that await me in America, the single greatest country on Earth.

I proudly look at myself as an American and nothing more, no hyphen, no preceding identity. However, I was told during college that as a so-called student of color I had to think a certain way, vote a certain way and believe certain things about my country and its duly elected officials.

My professors fervently insisted that the United States of America is an inherently racist country and that I am one of its oppressed victims.

I, wholeheartedly, reject that fallacy.

America is predicated on the notion that all men are equally created and possess the same inalienable rights. Here, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you came from, what you believe in (or don’t believe in), or what you look like—anyone can succeed.

America is a nation in which everyone is afforded both equal opportunity and equal protection under the law.

We're not perfect, but we're getting closer.