Here we are again, with more and more mass
shootings happening almost daily. This past weekend there were another 22 or
more killed in El Paso, and 9 dead in Dayton, with apparently no motive but
domestic terror sparked by white racism. The majority of Americans believe this
is the result of President Trump’s fanning the flames of bigotry by using such negative
labels for non-white citizens and those from our south who want to become
citizens.
We now have more divisiveness over skin color
and racial and ethnic identity than ever before. Under the Trump administration
we are seeing more and more groups actively promoting racial separation, whites
separate from blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, or any combination
thereof. If we’re lucky we can still become that melting pot envisioned so many
years ago, the national race which is a combination of all those races who have
immigrated to this country, all of us some shade of brown, all of us Americans.
As of May 19, 2012, in this
country there were more babies (under 1 year) of color than white. The media
called it “The Browning of America,” a label that says a lot about the future
of our country. Demographers also predict that by 2042 we will have no ethnic
majority, just a majority of brown-skinned folks of mixed ethnic backgrounds. I
remember reading something by Phillip Wylie half a century ago in which he said
he looked forward to the day when we’re all a little tan. Well, fifty years
later he’d be happy to see his wish coming true. Since our very beginning, the
U. S. has been known as the melting pot, meaning we were a nation of immigrants
amalgamated into one new nationality. Well, now we’re seeing us as a melting
pot of ethnic diversity, a mixture of races too diverse to be labeled. Amazing
that as recently as 1967 there were still anti-miscegenation laws in most of
our Southern states. What idiocy. One of my nieces, as pale as virgin snow,
married a man as black as Columbian coffee. And they have a lovely daughter who
is latte tan. She will grow up in a society that no longer looks askance at
children of mixed ethnicity, may even marry someone also mixed and have
children even more mixed. And who will care? I hope no one. Tiger Woods has
described himself as Cablinasian, a mixture of Caucasian, Black, Indian, and
Asian. But we don’t need to invent new labels to describe ourselves. I look forward
to the time when we no longer need labels for anything—not our religious
preference, not our political persuasion, not our ethnic makeup. Especially not
our ethnic makeup.
I’m confused by all the genetic labels
currently being used in this country and why we still use them. Is anyone with
even a trace of Negroid blood considered to be black? I know it once was so,
but is it still? Is Meghan Markle black? Does Prince Harry care if she is or
isn't? I don’t think so. Is NBC newscaster Lester Holt black? More like a
nicely tanned fellow with a very receding hairline. Black is a color and is
often used as a synonym for Negroid, but not all blacks are black. Most are
those with varying degrees of skin pigmentation, all the way from obsidian
black to opal pale. Skin color shouldn’t be what we use as labels for the
world’s ethnic groups. Why even have such labels? And if we really do need a
label for Blacks, then “coloreds” is much more accurate. But we also try to
distinguish other races by skin colors, like red, yellow, and brown. Native
Americans are redskins, Asians are yellow skins, and Hispanics, Indians, and a
host of others are brown skins. What nonsense. America in the early 20th
century was thought of as a melting pot or salad bowl because we were made up
of so many different “colors” or ingredients. The melting pot metaphor suggests
that we think of all these people who either emigrated here or were already
here as different colored metals that are put in a pot, melted down, and
stirred together, resulting in a new metal, stronger and more cohesive, a new
breed of mankind that exemplifies freedom and unity, an American. Why do we
insist on all these labels, especially the ones based on country of origin, as
in German American, Irish American, Italian American, Mexican American, or
Korean American? What nonsense. We’re all American Americans. And if we stick
with nations of origin, would we have to label those from Panama Panamanian
Americans, or from Argentina Argentinian Americans. Or should we just call
everyone from south of our border South American Americans. What nonsense.
“African American” as a label for blacks doesn’t make much sense since there
are all kinds of different colors in Africa. Are Egyptian Arabs black or are
they a hue of a different color? Or maybe we should use various religions for
our labels, like Catholic Americans, Jewish Americans, and Muslim Americans.
Or, best of all, entirely do away with labels.
