Colored American Not American Enough

While a student athlete tried to shoot free throws on March 15, 2012, chanted could be heard: Where's your green card. The pep band of the University of Southern Mississippi made the chant at least twice towards Angel Rodrigues, who looked not white nor black. Rodrigues is a US citizen, born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.

The incident echoed what happened a few years back, when Michelle Kwan lost to a white player Sara Hughes in 2002 Olympic, the Seattle Times put out a big headline: "American outshines Kwan". Without any doubt, for mainstream media, white people are in the least more American than colored beings. Born and raised in California as a US citizen and a four-time world champion by the time, Kwan is one of the most popular figure skating athletes in the US. Kwan was featured in the first page of the Seattle Times's pre-Olympics special section as a more decorated player on ice, still she was deemed not white enough to be American after the game. And this was not the first time Kwan was booed when she lost to a white player. In 1998, MSNBC applauded "American Beats Out Kwan". The 'American' is Tara Lipinski, who is white of course.