Who Are We? ― I Would Expect We Are Americans
April 3, 2008
Not incredibly, in its recent article, Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race, the New York Times is now pandering to tribalism.
Talk about reaping what you sow....
It’s little wonder why the stock price of the NYT has collapsed by 50% over the last 5 years while the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average has increased by 50% in the same period.
The NYT can’t even understand what being an American really means.
When the Times ponders something as idiotic as, “Being accepted. Proving loyalty. (and) Navigating the tight space between racial divides.” for “Americans of mixed race” it starts to sound like a 1970’s colloquium on South Africa and the Coloureds.
Unlike the kaleidoscope of 150 tribes also known as Iraq, I always thought that America was “one Nation under God... indivisible”.
Silly me...I forgot that the NYT “wish(ed) the words (under God) had not been added” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
OK, now that we have removed God from the field as per the wishes of “Pinch” Sulzberger et al, let’s get down to business.
The Times kicked off their story on “mixed race” with the heart-wrenching story of Jenifer Bratter who, “once wore a T-shirt in college that read ‘100 percent black woman’.”
According to Ms. Bratter, “whose mother is black and whose father is white”, “Her African-American friends would not have it...I remember getting a lot of flak because of the fact I wasn’t 100 percent black.”
Although Ms. Bratter did not indicate whether she was sort of a beige or a raw umber, she did remember that she “was very hurt” by not being accepted as 100 percent black because, “Isn’t this what everybody expects me to think?”
As a third generation American, I don’t remember any distress in elementary school, high school, college or graduate school when I discovered that I had no Irish, Italian or Polish ancestry in common with most of my peers. Although, to this day, I revel in green beer, cannolis and kielbasa.
In fact, as the descendent of Assyrian immigrants to the United States, I had no ancestry in common with any of my peers...except where it really mattered...I am an American.
And that was, and still is, the crux of the matter to me.
To address a concern of the NYT’s, if somebody “innocently” asked me, “What are you?”,,,I would either tell them that I was an American or a Conservative or both.
Unlike Ms. Bratter who believes that, “There’s this notion that there’s an authentic race and you must fit it,” and she’s “confronted with the lack of fit,” I always had certainty that I am a member of the most authentic race in the history of humanity...I am an American.
I have the unparalleled honor of being a citizen of “that shining city on a hill”.
When the Times delves into the case of Ms. Van Kerckhove “who is white and Asian” I really have to start laughing. This entire nonsense of describing yourself in Census terms is some kind of a “to do” list for the liberal agenda.
What is the significance of “white and Asian” in American culture?
Look at how ridiculous the Census is. In a nation where all people are born equal, the official policy of the U.S. is to track race. Your own government looks at you and asks, “ Are you: White alone; Black or African American alone; American Indian and Alaska Native alone; Asian alone; Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone; Some other race alone; Two or more races; Two races including Some other race; Two races excluding Some other race or three or more races.
It’s as silly as tracking foot sizes and bust measurements...unless your name is Mengele.
If you wonder why the Times and some “mixed race” people are confused, it might be because there are a bunch of confused bureaucrats and social re-engineers confusing them with your tax dollars.
It is really bothersome to be a citizen of the “melting pot” nation and continually have that “melting pot” segmented into a “diverse” hodgepodge of disparate racial and ethnic city-states.
It’s really not that hard to understand who we are.
First you start with the Declaration of Independence and then proceed to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Next, you might appreciate the sacrifice of all who believed in the greatness of this “last best hope of man on earth”.
Stop celebrating diversity and celebrate your common ground as an American. Consider those freezing souls at Valley Forge or the horrible suffering at Shiloh and Antietam or the carnage of Guadalcanal and Normandy or your fellow citizens who obey the law, provide for their families, pay their taxes and rejoice in the exercise of their Right to vote.
At this stage, if you are still confused because the NYT’s interviews with “people of mixed race” indicated that “their decision about how to identify themselves was deeply personal, not political...influenced by how and where they were reared, how others perceive them, what they look like and how they themselves come to embrace their identity” please try to remember that...it is all of the above...including political.
And the answer to all of the above is...I identify myself as an American.
And being an American has nothing to do with: where you came from; the color of your skin; the food you eat or the boxes you check on a Census form.
Being an American has everything to do with self-determination, individual liberty and inherent fundamental individual rights that protect you from the tyranny of the majority.
There are no competing ideologies or cultures. There is only the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. And this commonality, not disparate diversity, is what truly makes you an American.
The only colors that matter in America are red, white and blue because those colors symbolize who we are.
Perhaps this is the point that the New York Times can’t seem to grasp.
RightPage