"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
-The Bible, Leviticus 19:18

"Regard all men as equal, since God's light is contained in the heart of each."
-Sikhism, Arjan

As an Asian-American -- half white (Irish), half yellow (Chinese) -- I am relatively indifferent to the idea of race. I seek shelter in neither of my "races." For I am neither of my races, although I've been influenced by both.

I am, thank you very much, my Self.

As a mixed-race person, I represent the new "globalized" Earthling. There are many of us, and more to come. And while some bemoan this "dilution" of cultures, and others of mixed-race status feel confusion and doubt about where they fit in, I say: Get over it.

Frankly, I am sick of race, a categorization originating from fear and desire for domination, totally unsupported by science. I am also weary of our identifications with race. How can I (or anyone) take credit for, responsibility for, abuse for, or pride in something I had nothing to do with?

I did not choose to be mixed and you, reader, did not choose to be white, black, yellow or red. Your "race" is neither your fault nor your glorification. Your measure and your peace will be in how you live, how you treat others, how much love you reap for yourself. I don't care how far and deep and back into your roots you go. Your roots are not your salvation.

Of course, not everyone feels this way. One reader of my last essay for Interracial Voice wrote, in disagreement, that "to travel through life without strength in oneself, or finding solemnity in one's identity … one would not really have much in the way of self-fulfillment or … self-worth."

I have known many people who have made a great effort to "get in touch" with their "race" or roots, to identify or maintain their cultural heritage, and yet these are not necessarily the most whole and complete people I know. They have not necessarily "found themselves."

I have come to see the Self (or spiritual self) as something deeper than culture and "race." The Self and journey towards one's Self are purely individual, personal in the most profound sense of the word. To me, discovering my Self has not been about connecting to history, so much as it has been about a journey within, past the borders of my culture, my beliefs, even my gender. And this journey, I maintain, is what ultimately makes us whole.

There is a place for the exploration of heritage. And we certainly should not be ashamed of our "races." I have harbored my own judgments about the Chinese (internalized racism), and about whites, and these have not served me well. Now I see culture, or heritage, as ritual, as community, as celebration. Through various traditions, religions and holidays, we celebrate God, this earth, each other. And "race" -- or culture -- should be celebration, not negation. Yet, as a way of dividing ourselves from one another, of assuming superiority or inferiority, the concept of race is reduced to a self-defeating weapon of fear.

As I see it, there are two currently accepted possibilities for how we, Earthlings, have come to be different "races" and cultures. One: We have, all of us, descended from common ancestors, most probably Morotopithecus bishopi, a tree-dwelling human-ape which hung out in modern day Uganda over 20 million years ago. Thus, we are, despite our self-created illusions to the contrary and limited collective memory, still part of one six-billion member family -- though etched and influenced in diverse and lovely ways by our various climates, the landscapes throughout which we scattered to fill out the world. If this is the case, the current globalization of the planet, the cross-fertilization of religion, is our giant (and possibly glorious) reunion.

Or, two: God set forth Adam and Eve to go at it. Still, our common ancestors. Or, insert your own creation story here. In any story of our origins, there was always a beginning, a first family from which we all descended. Did God intend for us to divide ourselves and look upon each other with fear and derision? Did God intend for one group to claim His mantle and wage war upon all others? God has nothing to do with division or schism, neither with "chosen people," nor those who claim Christ as their own and others damned. Humans made these beliefs up -- sometimes interpreting the word of God, sometimes completely on their own, and often fueled by their own fears and un-Godly desires for power, for mammon, for "security," false idols of this world. If God is Love, than any hate you or I harbor for anyone is not of God.

It is blasphemy to pretend otherwise. We are now coming together like never before in Earth's history. Jews and Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. In urban centers on the coasts, in places like Hawaii, San Francisco, and across America, people of different races are falling in love, creating children who are and will be hard pressed to identify with "race."

Thankfully, we don't need to "identify" with race. Race does not exist. I know we have a long way to go in confronting our stereotypes, our mistrust and continuing racism, our bloody civil and religious wars. But further identification with race is not helpful, neither as a weapon of attack, nor of defense.

I, for one, am fatigued by our endless efforts to justify race, to establish racial "purity" (on the part of whites and minorities in this country, alike), to make comparisons against each other or to apologize for race. The rat race of all races is coming to a close. In the year 2050 it is estimated that 20 percent of people in this country will be mixed, like myself. What race shall we call ourselves? Here's an idea: How about human?

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