Friday, February 27, 1998
Concept of race creates artificial social divisions
DIFFERENCES: Return to childhood's innocence; re-learn to see people as unique, equal individuals
By Daniel Rego
Race is the most putrid and hate-inspiring word ever spoken. Racism is the belief of one race's superiority over another. Some believe racism involves only one or two races against the others, but this claim ignores the core problem. The core problem is the very concept of race itself. Those who stress race above all are the root causes of racism in America and elsewhere in the world. When people are classified by their racial identity, they are separate, divided and different. Separate is inherently unequal. Some race-conscious individuals say racial classifications are inherent in everyone. They are not inherent, for the concept of race is artificial. Perhaps it can just be forgotten to history, so that we don't look at people in terms of race anymore. This is not a dream, it can happen. I cite my own childhood as an example.
When I was growing up, I had no concept of race as some magical thing which forever divided people up. Some may call this ignorance, but I call it innocence and purity of youth. On my street there lived a particular girl who just happened to be black. Once, we were bickering about something inconsequential as children occasionally do. I noticed that she was wearing a sweatshirt that had a map of Africa, in "African Nationalism" colors. I was a bit of a "geography buff" and the kids on my street knew this. So to be smart, I said, "At least I don't wear stupid maps of random continents on my clothes." She burst into rage and put me in a headlock (I never claimed to be a workout buff). For the life of me I didn't know why she erupted!
When I was in junior high, I realized that one boy whom I had known since age 7 or 8 happened to be Asian. Even then, I thought of the Asian students as friends just like any other students. It was no big deal. I remember that many of my friends were Hispanic. It never crossed my mind to look at them that way. They were diverse individuals, not racial classifications to me. I remember when Proposition 187 passed while I was in high school. There were some Hispanic groundskeepers and teachers, but I never connected these individuals (mostly Americans, as far as I knew) to immigration. There was one teacher, though, that we did lightly joke about. We said the INS was coming and dragging her off - she was from Germany, and was in reality a very nice teacher. I am the type of person who associated the English with foreign while not thinking the same about Hispanics and Asians that I knew! Once, I learned that this one girl I knew was three-fourths Comanche. At the time I found this to be a little interesting, but gave it very little thought for the rest of the years which I knew her.
This way of looking at people of various races was completely alien to me until I came to UCLA! Here I find racial SAGs (Student Advocacy Groups) shouting mantras about racial unity. Here I have found hatred in people's voices (of ALL races). It is not ironic that the place that shouts out equality and justice the most turns out to be the most hate-filled? The more race is stressed, the greater the racism spews forth. The secret to ending racism is so clear! We must abandon this classification of race, and look at ourselves and others as the individuals that we are, as the children unsullied by this world do!