Good afternoon. As a sociologist, I'm always looking at things from
different perspectives, because perspective shapes how we view the world.
I'm no different and I believe that it's important that you have an idea of
my view of the world from my perspective. Besides teaching at a small
college in North Carolina I'm a veteran of over 23-years in the United
States Army, have served from the BAMBOO CURTAIN to the IRON CURTAIN
including a tour in the COMBAT ZONE along the Korean DMZ. I was a candidate
for the South Carolina House of Representatives, and served on the staff of
US Congressman Arthur Ravenel from South Carolina.
But my perspective on what we are here for today is shaped mostly by my
perspective as a father....my first wife, of nearly 24-years was from Korea
and we had two children...a son and a daughter....both of whom attended the
United States Air Force Academy, and my son graduated and is now a
Lieutenant, stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina. This march is very near
and dear to me.
The theme that I'd like to talk about is called... The New Face of America
-Moving Beyond Race. My mother's over 75-years old, English - German
ancestry, I used to think that she was getting senile and I called her up
in Philadelphia a couple of days ago I said: "Mom, I'm driving to
Washington DC to speak at a demonstration of people who are of mixed race
ancestry... My mother replied to me: But son, Isn't that all of America?
As it turn's out - My mother was right - and she wasn't very senile because
you are the new face of America.
This march is not about politics - this march is not about numbers - this
march is not about power - this march is about families - this march is about
our sons and it is about our daughters - it is about our grandchildren..and
this is about their children...and THE OVERRIDING QUESTION is - Do we need
the government's permission to tell the truth about who we are..do our
children need the government's permission to be who they really are?
Our Society is suffering from race exhaustion...tired and worn out with the
definitions...tired and worn out with the system...Most people of all colors
wish this race thing would just go away. It's as if the essence of us humans
is our skin color, our 'blackness' or our 'whiteness' or
'something-having-to-do-with 'colorness.' How limited - and how sad if we buy
into it and believe it.
In many simple ways most of us are pretty much the same; living from
paycheck to paycheck - about 2-3 paychecks from financial disaster, worried
about paying the rent or mortgage, making a car payment - don't forget
insurance, buying this months groceries, and trying to pay off the Master
Cards or Visas...
But is there a NEW FACE TO AMERICA TODAY?...the numbers all say yes...but
society tries to say no. They are wrong. There is a new face to America...
While I count numbers and add columns of figures about this race and that
race as a teacher and a sociologist - I am also father..and in these numbers
are my children. My second wife is of German ancestry, and we have a son,
three and a daughter who was born last week...I have four children, two who
can call me 'Father' in Korean and two who will be able to call me 'Father'
in German and English. They are all my children. There is a new face to
America and you can see it across the country...in our schools in our stores
and now in our homes around the dinner table....There is no escaping this
reality.
I wrote a short article about an American family of the 1990's gathering
together for Thanksgiving...and I called it....Thanksgiving: Southern White
Thanksgiving. The traditional time of each year that American families
gather together with relatives that may never see each other except for this
once-a-year holiday. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and other distant relations
unheard of, unspoken of and often not mentioned; but nevertheless, all
related.
This was Thanksgiving.
This was Thanksgiving.
Still another son had a wife from Korea. Their children spoke
American-English as well as Korean. "Please pass the cranberry sauce" became
quite multi-something-or-other. The same son later married a girl of German
ancestry and had two more children. Korean brothers and German sisters
calling the same southern-northern white man "Daddy."
One daughter married a standard white-Mac-Scottish American. They had one
child and later divorced. Her ex-husband married again. The second wife was
Philadelphia Black. Add African-American into the mix. One grandson of the
southern style white man now had a half-brother who was half white and half
black. The dinner table was getting very diverse. Multi-something-or-other:
plus more than minus.
One of the father's first cousins was a United States congressman from the
state of South Carolina and another cousin's grandson married a girl from the
Philippines. They have one child so far. Add another
language-culture-race-ethnic group along with another dinner plate to the
table.
This was Thanksgiving. The traditional time of each year that American
families gather together. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and other distant relations
unheard of, unspoken of, and often not mentioned; but nevertheless all
related somehow.
This was Thanksgiving. This is my family. This is the American family.....
But, cousins, this FACE of AMERICA is not politically correct...This
movement is NOT politically correct!! You are rocking the boat...you are
going against the status quo....you are going against the 'nature of
things' ... it is not Politically Correct to be a mix of races ....it's
not Politically Correct to be a mix of culture and according to government
directives it's not Politically Correct to be who you are... to go against
separate multiculturalism base on skin color...to go against 'pure' race
definitions...its not Politically Correct because...Today, The good old'
boys come in all colors..they come in White, Black, Red and Yellow and
.they don't want to see you...they don't want to speak about you and they
don't want to hear from you.... But it's too late...It's already
happened....Betty Crocker has already changed - Aunt Jemimah/Uncle Ben/Mr.
Quacker Oats/Mrs. Butterworth - what ever race she is - are going to
change...and even in the Disney movies a white John Smith got together with
a red Pocohantas....
A reporter from a Philadelphia paper asked me last week: What do you think
it will look like at the march? I told him, If you turn the camera around the
capital mall this afternoon...and then take that same camera to almost any
shopping mall in the United States - the faces would probably look pretty
much the same....because there is a new face to America and society just
hasn't caught on...
But then... society and the Government is a lot like us...get over 30
looking in the mirror ...we don't see the gray hairs...we don't see the
wrinkles...we don't see the weight....until finally it slaps us in the face
and we yell ..."where did that all come from?" Society and the Government,
sooner or later we have to confront the truth and they'll be yelling ...where
did all of you come from?
So what is the real PROBLEM?
WHAT IS THE IMPACT FOR PERSONS IDENTIFYING AS MULTIRACIAL?!!! How about
being able to tell the TRUTH and being able to be who we really are! Is there
anything wrong with that impact? There is more dignity afforded on a
multiple choice test...at least we can choose all of the above...some of
the above...or even none of the above... THE GOVERNMENT IS USING
Definitions of the past.... long dead.... to define the future of our
children... that is the problem...
But How are we counted? Terms like 'data collection' and 'data sets'... and
historical continuity..is used in the government papers....why not call us
British colonies if historical continuity is a factor... But then the term
data comparability is used in defense of the current system, IF YOU ARE
COUNTING WRONG - COMPARABILITY IS GOING TO COME OUT WRONG...why bother?!!!
Northern or southern...eastern or westerner...city or country...rich or
poor...lowland or highland...riverpeople or mountain people...Catholics or
Protestants or Muslims or Jews...or teens or seniors..or tall and short fat
or skinny...blondes or brunets...redbones or high yellows and zebras...us
and them...theirs and ours...we will find ways to separate to segregate to
discriminate to identify and classify...
But we must understand, it's not just here...not just in America...ask the
Koreans who live in Japan...the Basque who live in Spain...the Ukrainians who
live in Russia...the Hutu who lives in Rwanda...the Turks who lives in
Germany...the Jew who lives in Iraq...the Palestinian who lives in
Gaza....it's not just here....BUT here we can do something about it all...we
will do...we must do...for our children and for our grand children...
H2O is not Oxygen...and no one calls it hydrogen...it is new...a Ford is
not a Chevy...and an apple is not an orange...if the government went to
school and tried to count in that setting in the way that they count us
humans, the government would get an 'F' in physics and chemistry...or
logic...
The directives now say that race is 'a social rather than a scientific
construct'..of course because biologically race is almost impossible to
define. But, what is race? ...obvious physical characteristics?...these are
old definitions...and unless you were to marry cousins...change is going
come...Most scientists today don't even try to approach the broad picture
of physical descriptions as the litmus test of authentic racial
membership....
So.... how did we get Here?
1st great shame of America - When the status of slavery was passed down
from one generation to the next based on color.
2d Great shame of America - Passing the blame for the 1st great shame from
one generation to the next based on color....
In all this time of national construction we have never quite been able to
move beyond passing one thing from parents to children...whether it has been
slavery, blame, and now misguided definitions of race... we must change this
now! But that ever present Directive 15 will continue to haunt us by saying
- "The category which most closely reflects the individual's recognition in
his community should be used for purposes of reporting on persons who are
of mixed racial and/or ethnic origins." So, move and your race can
change...your community can determine who you are.... Is every individual
of color born in this country now required to become subordinate to an
'authentic' definition of race and to live by some modern day Jim Crow
rules....
So how do you fit with to the rest of the World?
But why count race at all if it's not going to do it accurately ... why
even bother to count race...if the figures you get are some kind of social
inspired lie...don't waste the paper...
BUT IT'S NOT A WASTE - RACE is POWER..RACE is MONEY
Things work like this: FIRST - An individual has a 'race' label applied to
them at birth. SECOND - Society at large begins to ascribe behavior patterns
which are attached to the designated racial label. THIRD - An individual is
made to feel obligated to 'honor' their ancestors' race or culture and at
least keep their customs and heritage alive. FINALLY - we as individual are
expected to give support to one of the many self designated modern
representatives of a particular racial or ethnic groups that have social,
political or governmental recognition. All of this without even a hint of
personal choice entering the picture.
But, today there are many people with political or social power who would
not have any power if it were not for the misuse of race, ethnicity and/or
culture. While racial or ethnic pride sounds very trendy and politically
appealing, this culture-heritage thing is a sham. Most of the current (while
not all) racial and heritage dialog being spread around today is pure
political, power-group, vested interest mythology.
The bottom line is we Belong to a government going 15 MPH in a society with
a 55 MPH zone...
This is really a Numbers Game.
But real numbers about race and ethnic groups are almost impossible to
gather...grab a piece of scrap paper and try this math: calculate the number
of people it took to make just the one of you - parent to child construction.
You have two parents, they each had two parents which give you four
grandparents. In turn they had two parents which give you eight
great-grandparents. You had 16 great-great grandparents and 32
great-great-great grandparents. For most of us, the time period is back to
the early to mid-eighteen hundreds. The number of direct ancestors that it
took to make you is at this point is 62.
These are not aunts and uncles - these are parents. If you go back to about
1700, and only six more generations (not exactly ancient history- the
pilgrims were all old or dead by this time), you have 2048
great-great-great-and so on grandparents. At this point it took 4094 people
to make you the individual person. Remember, remove anyone of these direct
line parents and you disappear - you would have never been born.
Just which one of these 4094 parents' and grandparents' culture and
ethnicity is an individual supposed to identify with and preserve? Which
language, clothing, music, food, religion, values, sports, marriage rites,
customs, folkways, laws, norms, etc. etc. is a person supposed to follow?
Line up these ancestors in a row and most couldn't even talk to each other
let alone identify with us and our 1990's way of living.
We ARE a melting pot...you are the proof...Not a tossed salad as some would
say...the numbers certainly suggest that there's been a lot more melting than
there has been tossing...Where are the Visigoths...the Ostrogoths...the
Alans...the Alemanni...the Burgundians...the Celts...the Picts...the
Lombards...the Franks...the Huns...the Iberians...the Mongols...the
KikuYu...the Gambians the Nubians...the Iroquoise...the Cherokee... the
Aztecs...the Ojibway...the Catawba...Tuscarora...where are they???......
They are here...you are here...perhaps in one and perhaps in many...but
they are all here...you are all here....
YOU ARE EITHER THE WALL BETWEEN THE GREATEST FEARS OF NARROW MEN OR YOU ARE
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE GREATEST HOPE OF ALL MANKIND...
We are Not a human ZOO with neat labels and species lined up neatly...we
are more complex than some exotic animal family! But stop the lies! To
paraphrase A.D. Powell - Is there anything wrong with being called
BLACK...no, not if you are black...but there is EVERYTHING wrong with being
called black if you ARE NOT BLACK... If you check one block you are accused
of stealing Identity and of PASSING...if you check another box you are
accused of abandoning identity and not being who you are. In today's
AMERICA being true to yourself is committing a crime...being who you
are...is considered a sin
But what are the Consequences of Change?
Who has to lose?
Consequence of not changing?
But what are the pluses and the Benefits of changing the racial
classifications?
We must change!
We are not chattel to be traded from race to race ... we are just human
beings ... just let us be true....the lines are not blurry to us...we know
what we are made of...it is not difficult to fix...if this system of racial
classification is too blurry to the government then perhaps the government
needs a prescription...bifocals, contact lenses binoculars or
telescopes...whatever it takes to see...then get and do it!
Is there a Conclusion? Yes...
This has been the century of invention and reinvention and discovery
....invention of the airplane...invention of atomic power...invention and
discovery of a cure for polio..of penicillin..of the computer...of a man on
the moon...of the vote for women...of civil rights for all of America's
children. Now, there is one more change to make before the century is
out...rejection of the old definition of race...and the invention of a new
one that is true for America. Make this a century for the entire world to
take notice... But if change does not come in the year 2000 then it will
come in the year 2010...it will be changed sooner or later...
Will racial problems go away? Perhaps not....that depends who is in the
front of the classroom; who is standing in the pulpit; who is ruling in the
statehouse...and the capitol....most of what we know...most of what we
perceive to be the 'truth' comes from those who are there...
One of the great strengths of America has been it's ability to look forward
to the way things should be...rather than look backwards to mistakes of the
way things had been... Don't leave it to our grandchildren to do what we
have failed to do...to fix...to mend...to repair this question of self
identity and race. We are not a new minority in America...we are the NEW
America....
Remember, You are either the wall between the greatest fears of narrow men
or you are the bridge between the greatest hope of all mankind... Be that
bridge of HOPE. As Thomas Paine said over two centuries ago and it is as
true today as it will be forever:
THANK-YOU and God bless you all!
The father was typical southern boy; he had
French-English-Scottish-American heritage. Before he went off to fight in
WW II, he married a Yankee girl from Pennsylvania (German-English-Irish
lineage). His family lore included a rumor of some Native American
(Siouan) great grandparent back in the line. It wasn't enough to worry
about but it was enough to be curious about. But still, this family could
only be called a "white" southern family. The father's great uncle died as
a Confederate soldier in the Civil War and his great grandfather served
with an South Carolina artillery unit. Southern-by-God heritage.
Look around the table. His wife's sister married a professor from Columbia,
South America. There are eleven children in that family. Spanish spoken here.
The wife's brother married a 'WASP' from Philadelphia. Philadelphia also
spoken. One of the father's sons has a wife from Guam and they have four
children. One child, a daughter now grown and married, lives with her
Native American husband on an Indian reservation in upstate New York. One
of the father's daughters married an Italian while another married a man
of Jewish ancestry. Kosher spoken here too. Another son married four times,
each time bringing more variety of heritage and regional accents to the
yearly Thanksgiving table.
Does America really pride it self on TRUTH..then why this lie...Does
America believe that we are all entitled to liberty..then why this slavery
of identity...does America believe in equality for all...then why this
unequal separation....the Federal Register of August 28, 1995, Volume 60,
Number 166, says "Current Federal laws are premised on persons identifying
with one racial group. It is not clear what the impact would be for
persons identifying as multiracial."
Historically, there have been many shames in this nation...There have been
at least two-great shames with regards to race...
In the course of civilization, power once gained is power protected...
In many ways YOU make the old world order cringe in fear...what is the need
of borders if people can become one as you are...what happens to the nations,
the tribes and the kingdoms if WE offer proof that all peoples can live
together? Much power is based upon keeping us apart.... And this opens up
the can of worms - The Politics of Race Today. Race is truly politics and
power! The Federal again: "The categories do not represent objective
'truth' but rather, are ambiguous social constructs and involve subjective
and attitudinal issues." ARE WE AMBIGUOUS??? Of course not...but since
1989, the National Center for Health Statistics has tabulated birth data
according to the mother's race. This in many cases is really 50% accuracy -
we might as well not even count ---just flip a coin heads or tails...heads
you are white...tails you are black.. or Asian or Hispanic or Indian.)
One of the biggest lies being pushed on the American people today is the
concept of racial, ethnic and cultural identity. Somehow terms like 'my
people', 'my heritage', 'your culture', 'our ancestors', have gained some
sort of political legitimacy over an individuals rights of free choice, logic
and plain common sense.
But the fact is, people have always counted...separated...stacked here and
there...just watch your two-years olds...they separate squares and circles
and triangles and blocks of color the blues go with blue red with
red...yellow with yellow..and try to put purple with blue...and they'll fight
you to keep it in the same stack or they'll start a new one...it's pretty bad
when two-year old babies in this country know how to count better than
government agencies...and they don't have any instructions or government
directives on how to do it...
There is a lot more to us than just skin color, we KNOW that! One of my
students after a class said to me...I was born a Negro...got changed to
Afro-American- then changed to African American...but my grandmother was
white and another one was Indian...they changed me but no one ever asked
me...they twisted me and they tried to turn me on my self..and no one
ever asked me. I'm proud of ALL my ancestors..the Africans for their humor
their art and their spirit to keep on pushing...the Indians for their life
with nature and the respect for this earth...and my Europeans ancestor for
their ability to organize and get things done. They are all part of me and my
children ... but everytime I fill out a form I always have to lie and
deny...and no one ever asked me...no one ever asked me...
After all, there are only three possible options we Americans have - #1)
Kill everyone who is different. #2) Build walls and separate ourselves from
anyone who is different #3) Figure out how to get along and live together.
But we must answer the question who has to gain and who has to lose?
The arrogant.....self appointed authentic race definers...whose only power
stems from the color of their skin. But, they better get what they can while
they can...because we are going to put them out of a job...nobody owns us.
Race is a very useful occupation today. That is why 'mixed-race' individuals
pose such a threat to the current power elite groups that use race as a
primary qualification for membership.
Does this country want ethnic villages...ethnic enclaves where each group
stays with its own...isn't this the equivalent of ethnic/racial cleansing?
Whether we are a Melting Pot/Boiling Pot is now becoming a real question...
If we Lie and deny...we become conspirators and the collaborators in this lie
of race and identity... Do we, with our current definitions have to die out
before change is made?
TRUTH simple TRUTH. IF ETHICS and morals and values are important to our
society and our nation... where is the moral high ground of a COUNTRY THAT
FORCES IT PEOPLE INTO A LIE AND CONTINUOUS FALSEHOODS for THEIR ENTIRE
LIVES?
There is no middle ground...there is no compromise...we will not... should
not...dare not collaborate in this lie of identity any longer...we cannot
mediate or capitulate....there is no turning back...be radical! Do not be
politically correct...rock the boat....and if need be turn the boat
over...and swim like crazy!...rats will drown..and sinners will sink...but
truth will rise to the top every time....
The melting pot has already happened. Interracial marriages have multiplied
in Quantum leaps since 1970... the Government and the power brokers just need
to catch-up to the people. It is the sad truth that in so many revolutions
and periods of social change the leaders have to be persuaded with the point
of a sword; the edge of an ax or the barrel of a gun...because they refuse to
believe what is already the demonstrable truth...WE ARE HERE TO STAY...
"We have it in our power...to begin the world again." Thomas Paine
(1732-1809)
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