Race? You Mean Like the Preakness?
We were informed today of
something that I have had a hard time getting my head around for, well, since
someone at the Census Bureau first announced this would happen, maybe 40 years
ago; namely the current birth rate for minorities now constitutes more than 50%
of births. So, the minority is the
majority? I don’t really know how
that works. So, I read on.
Just a little further in the
article I read that ‘non-Hispanic whites’ will be outnumbered in the US by the
year 2042. That makes me ask the
question: what is an ‘Hispanic white?’
That would seem to be obvious, but it isn’t to me, and here’s why: just
a month or so ago we were all introduced to a Mr. Zimmerman down in Florida,
who is, we were told, a ‘white-Hispanic.’
In as much as there needs to be a distinction ‘white Hispanic,’ there
must also be a distinction ‘non-white Hispanic,’ (not to be confused with a
‘non-Hispanic white’).
Well, if you ask me, someone with
the name ‘Zimmerman’ (good, solid ‘Hispanic’ name there… Huh?) who must then be further
described as ‘white Hispanic’ so that we ‘know’ what he is (and what exactly is
he?) has pretty much reached my definition of a product of the ‘melting pot.’
But that hardly fits the story
line someone is trying to sell.
Someone wants to stir up the pot.
What is the point of putting a headline “RACIAL TIPPING POINT” on the
front page? Is this a plea for
some group in society to start procreating at a higher rate? Is it a call for forced sterilization
of another group? What possible
sane reason exists to even track this weird information? Particularly given the inane reality
that they force themselves to identify a man named Zimmerman as a ‘white
Hispanic.’ Why not call him a
‘tanned German?’
Is this of any value
whatsoever? Well, sure. It stirs up people to perhaps buy more
newspapers and news magazines, listen to another insipid news talk show
populated by folks who have nothing better to do then reproach the average
taxpayer, and it creates more room for discussion and regulatory action by
bureaucrats and policy wonks.
See, there is the problem. You want to know who is keeping racism
alive in the US, who really works at it on a daily basis? Two key groups: the Federal Bureaucracy
(start with the Census Bureau, and then make your way to Health and Human Services
(HHS) and the Department of Education – they are all awash with figures on
every possible weird brake-down of society by races and castes and shoe size
and bowling scores, and when you are done with them, take a hard look at the
mainstream media.
Meanwhile, I sat and asked myself
this morning if I knew anyone of one race. I also asked my self if I can define anyone as a pure
color. I did have a good friend in
college who was black, his name was Azubekay and he was from Nigeria – med
student, great guy, skin the color Indian ink. Everyone else I know I would say is some tone of khaki –
some are dark khaki, some are light, some very light. So what? What
does that prove? Everyone has some
goofy mix of ancestors; me, I’m descended from Irish, Portuguese, some French
and Canadian (or so I was told as a kid – never really researched it). So what am I? Well, I’ll tell you, I’m an American. I’m not Irish-American, I’m not
Portuguese-American, I’m not anything else, just an American. You want to know what race I am? I’ll stick with human.
Think about this: if the press
had reported only that ‘Treyvon Martin was shot by Mr. Zimmerman,’ would we
perhaps view that incident with a slightly different perspective? Who benefited from reporting the
tragedy in this manner? (What is
certain is that the nation as a whole did not.)
As for the Census Bureau, maybe
they should focus on something else.
Maybe just focus on getting the basic count right.
As for me, I really don’t care
where you came from, who your great grandparents were, or how much melanin is
in your skin. (We all have
melanin; in fact, with very few exceptions (spiders), all creatures have some
melanin in them.) Ancestry,
besides being a fun topic of conversation at a cocktail party (“I’m the 9th
cousin of Jesse James” (I’m not, but it would make for a few minutes of
interesting conversation)) and for the sake of certain specific medical
conditions, tells me nothing about you.
You are who you are, irrespective of who they were. You parents might be criminals, and you
might be a great doctor or jurist or inventor. Alternatively, your grandparents might have been geniuses
and philanthropists and you are a slothful delinquent. Does it matter if they were born in
Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau
or Guyana? How? How does it matter? And your skin color? Maybe we should test for it so we can
determine if someone is a ‘white Hispanic’ or a ‘non-white Hispanic,’ or a test
to measure melanin content. What
could that possibly prove? What
benefit to society would that provide?
I hope that sounds as insane to you as it does to me.
More than 100 years ago President
Roosevelt (T.R.) called for an end to ‘hyphenated Americans.’ He called for people to stop viewing
themselves as ‘Irish-American, Dutch- American, German-American and simply view
themselves as ‘Americans.’’ His
call is more important today then it ever was. The wonks and clowns in Washington, and in the media, may
not understand that, but it is up to us to stress it. The next time someone asks you your race, choose ‘other’ and
write in ‘American.’ If you have a
chance to talk to someone, do your best to make them very uncomfortable for
asking what is truly a racist question – let’s stop this foolishness right
now. It is certain that neither
the government nor the media want to stop it; so it’s time we just took care of it ourselves.
(It is perhaps worth noting that
if you reach back 40 generations you have more than 1 billion ancestors – more
than the total population of the world 8 centuries ago – which means that,
mathematically speaking, we are all 40th cousins or less.)
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