Thoughts on how we move to a Post-Racial America

So my head has been spinning on the topics of social constructivism, gender, race, and the importance of discourse the last few days.

On the issue of Rachel Dolezal, I am still unconvinced that transgender rhetoric works well when discussing this case. I am still curious about the complex role whiteness plays in creating gaps and erasing ethnic identities. Tonight, I am still teasing with the social construction of race and the permeable (or not) boundaries of racial performances. Indulge my thoughts for a few:

Some are saying that 'race does not exist, so why do we hold on to it so dearly?' I think those folks miss the point that race in this society was used to categorize people (who come/came from very different backgrounds) into groups that could be easily manipulated as a social hierarchy. The ideas of eugenics still run deep in our society. These groupings, especially for the one (Negroid, Black, African American, Colored, etc.) cast to the bottom, created shared identities. Shared, or cultural identities who have been dependent on one another for survival. These do exist and talk about doing away with 'race' gives people hesitation because none of us want to be erased.

So, taking Rachel out of the conversation for a moment... how do we get to a post-racial society? One that doesn't erase the cultural connections and shared histories that people have, that are very real. I know that many have been working on the advancement of "mixed-race" as a possible way to disrupt white privilege. Last night, while researching for an upcoming trip to South America, I noticed that 'mestizo' is the largest group of people in some of the countries. I also noticed that their demographic numbers don't total 100%...and really why do they need to? In looking at our own censuses, from 2000 and 2010 - both years that mixed-race was offered as an option, I am seeing the emergence of a strong mixed-race-identifying group. In fact, the number of people who marked it in 2010 (compared to 2000) was up 32%.

I wonder though, if keeping in the category of race still legitimizes something that is only relevant to those wishing to preserve the awful status quo. Perhaps, what we want to look at are cultural groups and ethnicities, not race? I know that my Assyrian heritage has informed much of my worldview but doesn't exist in the eyes of this State. It has effectively erased that part of my identity and made it difficult for Assyrians to know the size of our communities. Certainly demographics and representational politics are important. So, should it be tethered to one of five or six races? Rather, I'd like to see a census form that gives me the option of identifying culture and ethnicity in pluralistic ways. It would help answer 'where are our people from and what cultures might have influenced them?" more than check-the-race-box ever did. It would also show the actual diversity of this nation. A nation that truly embraces its immigrant, enslaved, refugee, native, and trafficked heritage...both the positive and the horrific.

People worry that when we all say we are mixed, that we erase the true diversity that exists. I'm like, let us document the diversity in real ways, cultural ways, linguistic ways, etc. Perhaps this is where we actually can move into a post-racial society? When we stop looking at race, and start looking at culture, something that actually informs worldview, language, values, beliefs, traditions, etc. Blackness isn't erased in this model. It should be respected as cultural heritage. Whiteness is complicated, perhaps problematized in this model, though. Some may still claim 'white' identity, even though they are really mixed: German, Swedish, French, etc. But with the emergence of a more clear and pluralist community, perhaps even they will be more accepting of our diversity and give in to the reality that there really aren't 'pure bloods' out here.

What I'm advocating for, is for the US to stop using the term 'race' completely in its 2020 census. Instead, I'd like a form that lists as many cultural/ethnic groups that fit and a space for entering your own. I'd like people to check as many as they wish, to reflect the real experience they live. Maybe then, we can step away from the erasure that race has done to groups of people, in a formal, national way.

Until 2020, I think all of us should begin to see ourselves as a nation of mixed folks. Mudbloods. Accept that most, if not all, of us have mixed ethnicities and cultures. And we should check racism every chance we have...especially in our own minds. Check yourself. Be honest about yourself and your conditioning in a severely racialized society. And work that shit out. Don't expect anyone to take care of you. Take care of yourself. Then look for ways you can work with others. (Don't assume you know how to fix them...be ready to listen.) Call out policies that hurt one group in our society at the benefit of others. Some think that a colorblind perspective is what will move us forward, but that only works if you live in a society where policies and laws are enforced and applied equally. Instead, see color in the form of cultural histories and experiences. Then, defend others, like you, who come from diverse backgrounds, who all deserve equal protection under the law. We may not look the same, but our families still fought for us to have the right to breathe today. Fight for others to have the same rights. Stand for people who are terrorized at our borders and in our communities. A little bit of empathy is all that is required to begin to make change.

Then, we could actually deal with issues of Economics and Poverty, so we can address the very real inequities (created and maintained by racial hierarchy over centuries) and violence that different groups of people deal with on the daily...and not be hijacked into a discourse that is so damaging to our communities (I know you've been reading comments and threads this week that have you losing your faith in our community's ability to have any real conversations about this). Maybe we'd be able to instead focus on the problems of redlining, gentrification, gerrymandering, xenophobia, corporate control over media and government, food deserts, poor education, police terror, etc. without having some poor white lady all upset that she's feeling targeted with all this 'race talk.' Maybe we could instead focus on the issue. Focus on solutions. Focus on equity.

Perhaps I'm being a bit idealistic here. I'm just tired of the discourses of hate...and I really don't know how to move beyond the rhetoric...besides taking away race's power as a key demographic category and destabilizing the perceived purity of whiteness.

In this framework, returning (briefly) to Rachel Dolezal. If her cultural heritage was directly informed by Black culture (as a wife, sister, and mother), then it would be less problematic for her to express her cultural hybrid self - it would be more authentic and less-blackface. I know my grandmother was an 'honorary Assyrian,' who received mad love from full-blooded Assyrian women, for her rice, dolmah, and faith. She may have been born in Denmark...but she was accepted into the cultural community when she married an Assyrian man, and raised mixed kids. She didn't have the same background and didn't speak the language, but there was more space for her to engage in cultural mixing.

Could we be open to accepting people who are different in our cultures, in ways that race could/can never allow? I'd love your thoughts and responses. I'm still teasing through these ideas and feel like there needs to be more spaces for productive processing on all this.