Citizenship in the human race

My fourteen-year-old broached me on whether I am proud to be an Asian; his father—my spouse—had told him that I was not proud to be an Asian and would prefer to "act like a white person."  [Aside from not understanding what "acting like a white person" means, it makes me wonder what kind of "man" this creature that duped me into marrying him is that mouths such fouled and misleading statements about someone he supposedly loves or did love ... Perhaps, he is the male incarnation of a street-corner prostitute who keeps insisting she is still a virgin ... ].

My instinctive response was that firstly, I see myself as a member of the human race who happens to be female; secondly, I don't categorized myself [and others] as categories are dangerous in that they oversimplify and mask complex human differences; thirdly, my sense of self and social identity comes from the psychological inside [and not on interdependence and group memberships], and as such, I don't easily conform to social and group conventions that violate my value system; and fourthly, I hold myself responsible for reflecting critically on and removing from—or moving myself away from—what I see as negative elements of the societies in which I live [which happen to be an ethnicity that is a composite of Asian—Vietnamese in specificity, French and American cultures]. 

Among the elements that I fight vigorously against include shame and loss of face, which are frequently used to reinforce familial and cultural obligations, societal expectations, and proper behavior in Asian cultures.  Another is pride, which is an asset when it motivates creative action; and not to bolster an insecure image.  Unfortunately, these two elements are excessively abundant in the Asian communities that I have encountered [this does not mean that these elements do not exist in other cultural communities; they do, but not to the extent that they become predictably predominant].  Couple my tendency toward scathing remarks when I have to be around and interact with show-offs, bullies, or preening peacocks in an environment inhabited by people whose minds are held in a universe of assumptions that are almost never questioned and are contentedly accustomed to pass superficial judgments on others, is it any wonder that I get plastered with such labels as "anti-Asian" and "act like a white person?"     

Saying that someone is Asian tells us virtually nothing concrete, but it brings with it a host of stereotypes, such as "model minority," "quiet," "good at math," "inscrutable" and so on.  Yet the Asian label includes a wide range of groups, such as Koreans, Filipinos, and Vietnameses, with distinct histories and languages.  The same is true for "white," a term that homogenizes the multiple nationalities, languages, and cultures that constitute Europe.   The label "African American" ignores the enormous linguistic, physical, and cultural diversity of the peoples of Africa.  The term "black" conflates people of African descent who were brought to the U.S. as slaves with recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean.  These labels oversimplify and reduce human diversity to four or five giant groups.  Apart from being bad science, these categories don't predict anything helpful—yet they have acquired a life of their own. 


Race, racial classifications and other forms of social stratification are part of our culture; and like other cultural forms, the concept of stratification is part of a system we have created.  This means that we have the ability to change the system, to transform it, and even to totally eradicate it.  Categories and classifications are not intrinsically good or bad.  People have always grouped others in ways that were important within a given society.  However, the myth of race as biology is dangerous because it conflates physical attributes, such as skin color, with unrelated qualities, such as intelligence.  Labels delude people into thinking that race predicts such other outcomes and behaviors as achievement in sports, music, or school; rates of employment; pregnancies outside marriage; or drug use.  Race was historically equated with intelligence and, on that basis, was used to justify slavery and educational discrimination; it later provided the rationale that supported the genocide of Jews, blacks, Gypsies, and other "inferior" races under Hitler.  So using racial categories brings along this history, like unwanted baggage.  Furthermore, the use of racial and ethnic categories and other forms of social stratification to decide against the lives of persons violates conscientiously held values around which my life has been built:  The moral equality of all human beings, respect for human diversity and dignity, justice, and social responsibility. 

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a Russian poet with whom I was very fortunate to study under, wrote a poem titled "People" that echoes my life-long belief. 

People

No people are uninteresting.
Their destinies are like histories of planets.
Nothing in them is not particular,
and no planet is like another.

And if someone lives in obscurity,
befriending that obscurity,
he is interesting to people
by his very obscurity.

Everyone has his own secret, private world.
In that world is a finest moment.
In that world is a tragic hour,
but it all is unknown to us.

And if someone dies
there dies with him his first snow,
and first kiss, and first fight.
He takes it all with him.

Yes, books and bridges remain,
and painted canvas and machinery,
yes, much is sentenced to remain,
but something really departs all the same!

Such is the law of the pitiless game.
It's not people who die, but worlds.
We remember people, sinful and earthly.
But what did we know, in essence, about them?

What do we know of brothers, of friends?
What do we know of our one and only?
And about our own mothers,
knowing everything, we know nothing.

They perish. They cannot be brought back.
Their secret worlds are not regenerated.
And every time I want again
to cry out against the unretrievableness. 

My hope is that culture, acting collectively; and humans, acting individually, can make the underlying causes of social inequality in the world disappear.  That is, we can shift our attention to analyzing the social, economic, political, and historical conditions that breed and serve to perpetuate social inequality.