Janice Cooper,
MN.
My newly married parents immigrated to the U.S. from Germany via Ellis Island during the mid 50’s to follow the American Dream. Growing up in small town Michigan and attending Catholic school, my younger brother and I were constantly accused of being Nazis during our grade school years. Even though my parents spoke English well, their German accents were enough ammunition for our classmates to think that my parents, and their unborn children were responsible for WWII. I will always remember seeing a drawing, along with that sinking feeling in my stomache, when I saw the confiscated piece of notebook paper on my 4th grade teacher’s desk with drawings of American bombers striking our clearly-labled German house).
Many years later, I can laugh at it now, since the race card stopped following me once I hit high school…But I also I think about how the race card does affect those young and eager families who still come to Ameria to chase their own American Dreams.
