Oprah recently did a show on “What Would You Do?” It was about ABC Primetime's provocative series by that same title and news correspondent John Quiñones was a guest on the Oprah show too. He shared a few of the different scenarios that they set up for people to see how they would react.

The situation that caught my interest the most was the one where a woman, in obvious Muslim attire, tries to buy something at a small bakery in Texas. The racism that this woman encounters from bystanders is astounding. The set up was for the man (actor), who was behind the counter, to tell her (actor) quite blatantly that he didn’t serve her kind. So many people went into that bakery and heard this and said nothing. But shockingly, many agreed with the shop worker.

John Quiñones followed many of the people out to the parking lot to ask them questions and to find out why they reacted the way they did. One man told John Quiñones as he drove away, “John Quiñones, you aren’t even an American.”

On the Oprah show Quiñones discussed this ridiculous comment and how he is a sixth generation American. Yet, he said, when his father was picking cotton in Texas that he would see signs outside of establishments that read, “No dogs or Mexicans allowed.”

My father saw those same signs in Texas when he and his family were picking cotton, and he’s eighty-four years old. It is so sad to say, that that same racism is still alive and well in his lifetime.

My father is a third generation American, making me a fourth generation American. My father’s great grandfather came to Texas from Mexico in the mid 1800s.

My husband’s family has been in Texas since it was Mexico. His ancestor was born in San Antonio, was in the Mexican Army, and then allied himself with the Texas Revolution. He was the only native Texan to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence.

This country is made up people like this from all countries. There are Germans, Czechoslovakians, Italians, and many other ethnic backgrounds, who have been here the same amount of years, and some even less time.

In thinking about that man who said that to John Quiñones, I wonder how many generations had his family, been here? What difference does it make really?  Does the color of our skin play a part in it?  Is this country really no different in eighty years?  Questions worth asking.