a Little Light

I am not Chinese.

Well, I have Chinese blood, but I don’t really consider myself Chinese. My Chinese reading and writing is primitive, and my verbal abilities are far from fluent. And yet, when people ask me for my ethnicity, I answer that I am Chinese. But does it mean anything when I was born and raised in the United States?

So here it is, the thought of the day: it doesn’t matter what your blood or heritage is; you define your cultural and ethnic identity.

Think about it. Who’s more Japanese? The Caucasian born and raised in Japan immersed in the Japanese culture, or the Japanese who grew up in France and doesn’t know a lick of Japanese and Japan’s culture and traditions? I argue that the Caucasian in this situation is more “Japanese” because he understands practices and respects the Japanese customs, culture and norms – regardless of his blood.

The world gets smaller with each passing generation and people are more mobile than ever before. Asking someone what their ethnicity is can no longer clue you in as to where they originated from. The day is quickly coming where your ethnicity by blood is irrelevant, especially as people marry and reproduce – regardless of their partner’s ethnicity – at an exponential rate to produce children of mixed ethnicity.

It’s not fair to judge someone based on their blood – they had no control over it and it shouldn’t be held against them. But we can evaluate a person on their alignment, background and adaptation towards a particular race; these are the people who will carry on the culture to the next generation.

What has been happening in Hawaii will soon occur throughout the world – which is the integration of several traditional cultures into one, new common norm for the people to practice and follow. After all, minorities such as Blacks, Asians and Latinos are judged and evaluated on how well they adapt to traditionally White, but increasingly mixed America. I don’t know if this inevitable shift towards a generic and colorblind society is a positive or a negative. But it’s happening.

It’s difficult to imagine, but we may soon find that the humorous but occasionally offensive stereotypes that we toss around carelessly today will be considered distasteful and outdated.

Race is irrelevant; don’t let it be a factor as you carry out your daily goal in being the best person you can be.