Abstract
Living in the United States of America has been quite an adventure for me, especially during this past half century of extraordinary social, political, and technological change. While as an African American with a sense of history and a critical consciousness, I have found myself often having to prove that I indeed am a citizen of this country. As many other fellow Americans, I have watched and variously been influenced by a stunning variety of paradigm shifts in age, gender, and race; some of these changes have been inspiring and most uplifting, but others have been and continue to be rather disturbing. New nation states have emerged in the aftermath of World War II. We have so far averted a nuclear holocaust, and the threat of Communism sweeping the globe seems to have been substantially removed. Religion still appears to have the opportunity to call humanity out of despair, discord, greed, and the arrogant desire to oppress. Capitalism seems, at least for the moment, to have won the day, and it has driven a pop culture to almost obscene lengths as the masses have been either bitterly tantalized by gross materialism or have seen their ranks gradually reduced by some who have taken full advantage of the opportunities for social mobility with minimal regard for those left behind in the margins.