Diversity: My Little American

Yesterday there were two lovely diaries that reminded me a lot about a song I'd heard recently for the first time.

Those diaries are For a White Girl by RoCali and Brown Skin:  My Contribution to the Conversation We All Need to Have.

The song will come over the jump.

At the peace march on March 19, I met Carol Williams.  She was handing out cd's of one of her songs, and inviting people at the rally to her next gig.  I took one of the cd's, and the next time she passed by, asked her permission to share the song with DailyKos.  She cheerfully gave that permission.

It took me awhile to put together the video for Empty Boots, but I did get there - and (though this isn't the new video I am here to share) here it is:

I meant to write to Carol and share the video, but I didn't have her email address.  So, I was thrilled a couple of weeks ago when I received a message from her via YouTube telling me that she liked the video (whew) and had been hoping someone would do something like that with her song.  She offered to send some additional cd's, and I gleefully accepted.

They arrived this week.  

She's good.  But, if you listened to Empty Boots, you know that all ready.

There are two songs (besides Boots) on her newest cd that reached out to me.  One, I could see the pictures in my mind, as the words played.  The other I knew would come together easily.  The second is My Little American, and it's the song that I thought of as I read the above diaries.

She has skin that's the color of honey in the sunshine.
She's got a curly cloud of hair all done up in a ponytail.
She's got a face that doesn't look like him, doesn't look like me.
Whe I look into her big brown eyes, I see more than just black and white.

I can see North, and I can see South,
I can see East of the Empire, I can see West to Africa,
I can see people all over the world
When I look at the face of my little American.

She's got cousins in the Carolinas who are Cherokee.
She can claim a little Scotch mixed in with some Scandinavian.
She's got a family in Africa she will never know or see.
She lives in a Spanish neighborhood, up the street from Chinatown.

I can see North, and I can see South,
I can see East of the Empire, I can see West to Africa,
I can see people all over the world
When I look at the face of my little American.

There are places you can go where everybody looks the same.
There are places you should never go unless you look just like the rest. There are people who will never know how lucky we really are
to have the colors of the world mixed into one very beautiful place.

I can see North, and I can see South,
I can see East of the Empire, I can see West to Africa,
I can see people all over the world
When I look at the face of my little American.

The video follows, and includes photos provided by the diarists (and a couple of one of my nephews.)  If you'd like to have your kids added into My Little American, send me a photo - my email address is in my profile.  I'll do my best to update it in a few days & re-upload to YouTube, if there are any takers.  (No guarantees on how long it will real take, but I'll do my best.)

Updated because I really thought I had a link to Carol's website.  So, now I do.