An Essay On What They Call Us Read online

wake of a rare, percipient moment in America, the jingoistic one percent quivered in awe at the potential of the ninety-nine percent and launched an offensive to take their country back.

  They went after the unions, the laborers, the elderly, the students and the educators, but the people held firm. They did away with limits on how much corporations could donate to political campaigns. They stirred their base and the media to acts and positions of outright prejudice, unfairness and injustice, but this time the people refused to yield to the manipulation. They went after the basic right of the people to vote, denied mortgage relief and chose to tax working people while they were willing to bring the country and world to ruin in order to prevent taxing the wealthy.

  But when the banks, whom the people bailed out, who after posting record profits in an economy where most people still suffered, in an economy where the rich were getting richer and everyone else was getting poorer – when these financial institutions of the wealthy sought even greater profits from the flattened pockets of those who could ill afford to lose even more, the people revolted.

  The people realized en masse, in the words of Edmund Burke,

  No man [or woman], who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself [or herself] that his [or her] single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. When bad men [and women] combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

  And so was born a movement, based on the principles of economic fairness, unity and a common national purpose. It was a movement embraced by millions of persons all ancestries and cultures, reaffirming the potential power of a united people, when they choose to associate. As they stood together, selfless protestors, through the brutality, pepper sprays and arrests by police departments, through harsh weather conditions and severe cold, through setbacks, criticism and pressure to bear by those who opposed them, they were a testament that the percipient moment they remembered from 2008 was real, that Americans could resist wedge issues and those who sought to divide, dominate and corrupt, financially and politically.

  The fight has been ongoing, but to the dismay of those who thought to extinguish the enthusiasm or confuse the movement’s message, it will not flame out or go away. The movement has already made a difference and will affect the future as Americans move forward. The people have come to understand that their greatest strength lies in unity, liberty and justice for all.

  Call To Action

  Americans must strive to put an end to the “illusion of race” as we progress toward a “post-racial” society. Americans must refuse the government imposed implications of racial differences, abilities and inclinations. Yet at the same time, Americans must celebrate, treasure and preserve our individual cultural differences, our diversity and our unique traditions of language, food, music, dance, values, lifestyle and religion.

  From this moment on, the people of America must strive to wrest control of the narrative from those who would define us, stigmatize us, divide us, and in doing so, dominate us. The people of America must determine what they call us, what we call ourselves and who and what we are. Form this moment on, we must be vigilant when filling out government sections on forms that perpetuate “racism” and divisiveness.

  And as we look to the 2020 U.S. Census, we must reflect on a redefining moment in 2008 when our country and the world realized that the beginning of something significant had happened in America. In the 2020 U.S. Census, Americans must ignore requests by the government and its enumerators to identify in one of fifteen - fifteen different racial categories, as determined by the government. Because we are all of one race, the human race, we must instead go to the option on the form that indicates, “Some other race,” and we must write-in “HUMAN.” If we do this, then for the first time in America the people will control the racial narrative.

  The Counter Arguments

  Of course, there will be many who will say that such an insistence on racial reality would be short-sighted and would only serve to harm “racial” minorities in America. Naturally, these would be the same who repeat or rely on U.S. Census based racial profiles, issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, such as

  African American adults are twice as likely than non-Hispanic white adults to have been diagnosed with diabetes by a physician; and

  Although Hispanic children aged 19 to 35 months had comparable rates of immunization for hepatitis, influenza, MMR, and polio, they were slightly less likely to be fully immunized, when compared to non-Hispanic white children; and

  Fifty percent of Asian Americans in comparison to 28 percent of the total U.S. population had earned at least a bachelor’s degree. Among Asian subgroups, Asian Indians had the highest percentage of bachelor’s degree attainment at 64 percent.

  But these profiles have little if anything to do with “race” and more to do with culture, economic conditions and access to health care. The fact that “African American adults” are twice as likely to have been diagnosed with diabetes has nothing to do with the color of their skin and more to do with diet, which is part of a culture, with economic conditions, which have been affected by a documented history of segregation and discrimination, and with access to health care and check-ups, which is lacking for millions of poor Americans.

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides much needed assistance and insight into populations and communities. But even more accurate profiles, suggested results, and solutions could be achieved if the profiles were based on cultures rather than “race.” For example, the rate for immunizations for impoverished Mexican children in “welcoming” Arizona compared to those of Cuban children living in the South Beach area of Miami would be vastly different, just as they would be compared to those in Lincoln Park, a Puerto Rican working class area of Chicago.

  By combining many cultures and communities together on the basis of a shared language to form a super minority that they have called “Hispanic” for political purposes, the government has done these many cultures and people a huge disservice. It is government-sanctioned stereotyping and prejudice on the national level. Clearly, the government does not lump all “Asians” together. All cultures should be entitled to their individuality, as part of a greater culture that is America. And so the Department of Health and Human Services needs to re-fit its focus, to narrow its analysis to cultures and communities rather than skin color, hair texture and physical characteristics.

  A second argument for including “race-based” questions in the U.S. Census involves the enforcement of voting rights and civil rights. According to the Census,

  Race is key to implementing many federal laws and is needed to monitor compliance with the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. State governments use the data to determine congressional, state and local voting districts. Race data are also used to assess fairness of employment practices, to monitor racial disparities in characteristics such as health and education and to plan and obtain funds for public services

  .

  And what good did the government’s racial profiling do in 2011, when Republican led state legislatures enacted laws meant to force five million voters to sit out the general election of 2012? None at all, as the new laws did not target “race.” Rather, they targeted cultures – the cultures of communities where many people do not have state issued identification cards and transportation, communities where some have never owned cars, sought drivers’ licenses or traveled abroad, communities that might find it difficult if not impossible to vote within a narrower window of opportunity. Self-identifying on the “race” question line for the Census does not grant voting rights compliance to these communities, who are largely Black, Hispanic, elderly and students.

  These laws were enacted ostensibly to reduce voter fraud, and yet the most egregious incidents of voter fraud occurring involved those who created and distribute
d false and deceptive voting information and campaign literature, literature listing the wrong date or time for the election, giving inaccurate information about voter eligibility, or promoting false endorsements of candidates. Within this context, there is a certain irony to the words of former presidential contender Mike Huckabee, when he joked in Virginia during 2011,

  “One, get all those people who are going to vote for Bob out to the polls and vote. If they’re not going to vote for Bob, you have another job. Let the air out of their tires and do not let them out of their driveway on Election Day,” Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, said with a wide grin as rising laughter is heard on the video. “Keep ‘em home. Do the Lord’s work, my friend.”

  In employment practices and for educational institutions receiving federal funding, it should be incumbent on the businesses and institutions themselves to compile and submit data involving the inclusion of all ancestries and cultures and to comply with federal requirements before receiving a single dollar from taxpayers. For programs where taxpayers and others are seeking government assistance, recipients should be