From our overstocked archives
Sam Smith
Recognize that "race" is a myth. As Newsweek reported a few years ago, "In 1950, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization issued a statement asserting that all humans belong to the same species and that "race" is not a biological reality but a myth. This was a summary of the findings of an international panel of anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists.
Use "ethnic" in its place. Ethnicity is a description of a culture rather than its biology. It respects the fact that within what we call one "race" there are a large number of cultural differences based on locale, history, education, income and so forth.
Oversimplifying ethnicity encourages racism. It is seldom noted, even by those working to end racism, that we blithely use terms such as "black" and "white" to describe groups that include vast differences. For example, as part of the white minority in Washington for about six decades, I learned that in some neighborhoods different ethnic groups blended well and elsewhere not so well. Some Washington blacks were descendants of slaves and others came from families that had been free since the early 19th century. One of the reasons blacks and whites got along better than in many other parts of the country was because you couldn't avoid the true complexity of their ethnicities.
Treating ethnic relations as just a problem doesn't help. Yes, there are terrible problems due to poor ethnic relations, but part of the answer is not to treat them just as a problem. We need as an American culture to learn to view our diversity as an asset. For example, my introduction to black culture occurred in high school before I had any black friends, but I had discovered the music of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Ella Fitzgerald. I took drum lessons from a black musician. This was all about music, but my admiration of black musicians made it easy for me to get involved in the civil rights movement later on. I had already learned that diversity was an asset.
We overwhelmingly treat ethnic issues as a problem to be resolved. But if we taught our children, for example, things about other ethnicities they might enjoy or admire it would be easier for them to understand and appreciate diversity, including the differences within the various cultures identified as one race.
Think of how diversity has helped you. Two decades ago, in my 2001 book, The Great American Political Repair Manual, I wrote about how living in bi-ethnic Washington had been a good experience. An excerpt:
From grade school to college to the media we need to stop oversimplifying the issue of ethnicity, and treating it as nothing but a problem to be resolved but rather show it's true complexity, interest and benefits.
Recognize that "race" is a myth. As Newsweek reported a few years ago, "In 1950, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization issued a statement asserting that all humans belong to the same species and that "race" is not a biological reality but a myth. This was a summary of the findings of an international panel of anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists.
Use "ethnic" in its place. Ethnicity is a description of a culture rather than its biology. It respects the fact that within what we call one "race" there are a large number of cultural differences based on locale, history, education, income and so forth.
Oversimplifying ethnicity encourages racism. It is seldom noted, even by those working to end racism, that we blithely use terms such as "black" and "white" to describe groups that include vast differences. For example, as part of the white minority in Washington for about six decades, I learned that in some neighborhoods different ethnic groups blended well and elsewhere not so well. Some Washington blacks were descendants of slaves and others came from families that had been free since the early 19th century. One of the reasons blacks and whites got along better than in many other parts of the country was because you couldn't avoid the true complexity of their ethnicities.
Treating ethnic relations as just a problem doesn't help. Yes, there are terrible problems due to poor ethnic relations, but part of the answer is not to treat them just as a problem. We need as an American culture to learn to view our diversity as an asset. For example, my introduction to black culture occurred in high school before I had any black friends, but I had discovered the music of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Ella Fitzgerald. I took drum lessons from a black musician. This was all about music, but my admiration of black musicians made it easy for me to get involved in the civil rights movement later on. I had already learned that diversity was an asset.
We overwhelmingly treat ethnic issues as a problem to be resolved. But if we taught our children, for example, things about other ethnicities they might enjoy or admire it would be easier for them to understand and appreciate diversity, including the differences within the various cultures identified as one race.
Think of how diversity has helped you. Two decades ago, in my 2001 book, The Great American Political Repair Manual, I wrote about how living in bi-ethnic Washington had been a good experience. An excerpt:
I'm a native Washingtonian and have lived in DC most of my life. DC is two-thirds black. When someone asks me where I live and I tell them, they sometimes look at my white face and say, "You mean in the city?" What they mean is: with all those blacks? I don't live in DC out of any moral imperative. I'm not doing anybody except myself a favor. I live here because I enjoy it. Beside, I'd rather be in the minority in DC than in the majority in a lot of places. Here are a few reasons why:
I've found black Washingtonians exceptionally friendly, decent, hospitable, and morally rooted. They're nice folks to be around.
Black Washingtonians will talk to strangers without knowing "who are you with?" White Washingtonians, especially in the political city, are often far more formal and distant. -- and more likely to treat you based on your utility to themselves. Not knowing anyone at an all-white event in DC can be pretty lonely; not knowing anyone at an all-black event in DC means you soon will.
Black Washingtonians understand loss, pain, suffering and disappointment. They have helped me become better at handling these things.
Black Washingtonians value humor; I like to laugh.
Black Washingtonians value achievement as well as power. Teachers, artists, writers and poets are respected in the black community. As a writer, I like that.
Living in close proximity with another culture provides a useful gauge by which to judge one's own.
Many black Washingtonians are actively concerned about social and political change; much of white Washington is seeking to maintain the status quo.
White Washington always seems to want me to conform to it; black Washington has always accepted me for who I am.
As a journalist, author and free thinker, I gain another benefit from diversity, namely that my own ethnic group of one doesn't seemed so strange to others. I have a vested interest in everyone not being the same.The race myth is being married away. Although the media seldom mentions it, 17% of new marriages are now cross-ethnic. That's five times greater than in 1967. 27% of Asians, 28% of latinos, and 24% of black men have a spouse of a different ethnicity.
From grade school to college to the media we need to stop oversimplifying the issue of ethnicity, and treating it as nothing but a problem to be resolved but rather show it's true complexity, interest and benefits.
