RICHARD WARREN FIELD'S INTERNET COLUMN

People who like these sorts of labels will probably call me a “WASP.” My direct descendant Richard Warren (along with two other relatives) came over on the Mayflower in 1620. My direct descendants, the Fosters, were brothers together in the United States Congress (over 150 years before the Kennedys).

But I am African-American/black/Negro. I am Hispanic/Chicano/Mexican. I am “Indian/native-American.” I am Irish Catholic, Southern Baptist, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu. How can I claim all of these proud heritages? Because I am an American, and everyone of these heritages goes into my cultural, spiritual and political make-up.

The goal of a “color-blind society” is exactly the wrong goal. We need to see all colors and be all colors! Every one of us should stand up and claim all of these heritages! And then honestly see all of them, and be all of them. This will bring us closer to the society Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of, the one where we are judged by the content of our characters, not the colors of our skins. If we are all colors, we will not judge others by those colors.

How can I claim all these heritages? I love jazz. Do I care whether it is played by Miles Davis, Arturo Sandoval or John McLaughlin? I love rock and roll. Do I care whether it is played by Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, or Jimi Hendrix playing Bob Dylan? I love the blues. Do I care if they are played by Muddy Waters or Stevie Ray Vaughn? Didn’t I root for Willie Mays, Gaylord Perry and Juan Marichal as a San Francisco Giants fan in the 1960's? Jerry Rice, Joe Montana and Ray Wersching with the 1980's 49ers? I love fajitas, falafels, pizza, stuffed cabbage and polish sausages.

Am I trivializing this profound issue by citing such mundane commonalities as food, music and sports? I don’t think so. These are the things we live with day-in and day-out. They define us as much if not more than some of the more esoteric, intellectual considerations. Does it make sense to insist on following our time-lines back and identifying ourselves solely with our ancestors? We are not chained by the events and prejudices of the past. We are as many colors as we want to be!

This idea occurred to me while I was watching an episode of “The Real West” on the History Channel. The episode featured the story of the Nez Perce tribe and their struggle against the United States government. The Nez Perce handled themselves with honor and dignity, retaining their ethics and morality even when faced with horrendous injustice. The commentator made the point that now the heroic Nez Perce tradition was something all Americans could celebrate as part of their heritage. And as I learned this story, I realized my sympathies were with the “native Americans” and against the “whites.” I extrapolated that to slavery, and realized again that I sympathized with the kidnaped Africans and their descendants. Just because my skin was the same color as their oppressors does not mean I cannot share the Africans’ sense of injustice. When I embrace the heroic traditions of past Americans and tell their stories with pride, I am allcolors!

If I could identify with the Nez Perce, and feel their sense of outrage, then I was, at that moment, one of them—in spirit—in sympathy. If I can embrace the most positive qualities of the American spirit and tradition, then I can reach across any ethnic barrier to adopt these qualities. I can be proud of all my ancestors, because all of them contributed to what the United States is today, and therefore contributed to what I am today.

Does this idea diminish my own blood heritage? No. I can be proud of my blood-ancestors’ achievements while acknowledging whatever their short-comings were. And I am not imprisoned by their faults, nor guilty of their transgressions, as my other fellow Americans should never be held accountable for the acts of their ancestors.

I sense some hostility for this idea. Proud people of different ancestries will suspect me of trying to hijack the heritage of their bloodlines. Bigots will insist they must remain “pure” to their bloodlines to survive. On the heritage hijacking issue, I have two questions. First, is ancestry limited to bloodlines only? Cultural anthropologists and historians have spent years determining that a shared culture is a great deal more than shared genetic information. Members of the same culture share the common ideas and attitudes of their society. If it’s only genetics, then we’re all just pea-pods in a Gregor Mendel experiment. As soon as we agree that genetic qualities alone do not define us, and the groups we belong to, then how can we deny that we all have a claim to every element of our cultural heritage? So, I invite all other colors to make your claim to my color! Because you are my color. I invite everyone to see my color, and be my color!

On the “purity” issue, I have some bad news for bigots. There is no purity! Cultures, races, religions—they have been mixing and evolving for thousands of years. Believe it or not, my own blood heritage is a mess! Angles and Saxons combining with Normans who were Scandinavians who became French when they combined with “Franks,” who were “barbarians” attacking and blending with Gauls and Romans who blended with Etruscans and other Italians who blended with Greeks who certainly blended with ethnic groups all around the Mediterranean including dark-skinned Caucasian-types in North Africa who certainly shared bloodlines with black Africans south of the Sahara desert... well, it goes on and on. So I am English, French, Scandinavian, Italian, Arab and African. I see all colors—I am all colors!

Racial, ethnic and religious purity are dangerous and destructive myths. Jesus’s religious philosophy may well have been a combination of Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, formed from ideas carried by merchant-traders through Parthia on the Silk Route. (Elaboration of this theory will have to wait for another essay.) Even those of Jewish heritage who argue purity of religion and bloodline cannot make their claim stick. Because the minute their ancestors interacted with the political and social structures of their worlds, they gave to those cultures, and took from them. I am Jewish! They are WASP! I implore them to join me and see all colors—be all colors!

I am not only Jewish and Christian. I am Moslem, Hindu and Buddhist. I share the ten commandments with all Christians, Jews and Moslems. I use “Arabic” numbers and enjoy theheritage of science and learning preserved by Moslems during the Christian “Dark Ages.” I believe in the philosophy of brotherhood and love, espoused by Jesus, a Jew, and hailed as prophetic by Moslems. I believe that “what goes around comes around,” a crude expression of the Hindu concept of Karma. I do question the merits of materialism, and believe that slavish want of material opulence causes great suffering—a fundamental tenet of Buddhism. I see all religions—I am all religions. I see all colors. I am all colors. You are all colors too—you are my color.

There will still be resistance to this idea. Members of oppressed minorities will argue that I, as a WASP, have not suffered the oppression and injustice they have. In 1620, my ancestors came here to escape religious persecution. They felt so oppressed that they fled their homes, knowing they would never return. Were they brought here as slaves, or herded onto reservations, or subjected to bigotry on their arrival? No. But deeper into the past, there is no doubt that some portion of my bloodline has been enslaved or oppressed. I live here, now, and it is my desire to contribute to the end of any cycle of oppression. Closer to the present, we can imagine that white job candidates excluded by the quota systems of the 1970's and 1980's felt the sharp stabs of discrimination, and share this, in some small way, with our African-American ancestors. We need to end the cycle by seeing all colors, and being all colors!

There are stereotypes for certain ethnic groups. But they show what we share more than is evident from a cursory glance. The dumb Mexican. The shiftless, lazy Negro. And stereotypes usually evolve from some kernel of truth. But whose truth is it? The people in power affix those labels. Those ethnic groups, and their brethren from the past, were neither dumb, lazy nor shiftless. They assumed a role exploited people have adopted ever since society stratified as a result of the agricultural revolution. Exploited, powerless people, including peasants, serfs and slaves, with no hope of bettering their condition, with no incentive to work harder (in fact, with incentives not to work hard, or more would be expected) have led their exploiters to believe they are too stupid and lazy—too lowly born—“I’m just not as smart or as strong as you, master, I can’t do as much as you can.” The exploiters then write the histories, taking everything at face value, and lamenting the inferior characteristics of the people they control. But these “lazy, weak, stupid” people are playing their exploiters for suckers, executing a successful approach to assure themselves the best life possible under their uncontrollable circumstances. So any of us who have felt exploited by an oppressive authority, and though powerless to confront it directly, have skirted it more subtly, share this trait with all the lazy, shiftless, dumb ethnic groups. We can see all colors—we can be all colors.

We are free. We are liberated by the fact that we are all colors. We are all races, religions and creeds. When we can embrace all shades of the rainbow of humanity, we will be liberated from the hate and intolerance that has led us to such miseries. The United States has an incredible opportunity at this time in history. Our unique cultural and political love of the concept of liberty, and of justice for all people can guarantee that our best days are ahead of us. Can humans with all these diverse backgrounds really live together in harmony? Many humans still do not believe this is possible. Hitler massacred Jews because he felt the Germans could not live with them. Serbs are massacring Kosovo Albanians because they don’t feel they can live with them. Klu Klux Klan members have murdered African-Americans because they don’t believe free, equal African-Americans can live with whites. But we Americans have the potential to show the world that this can be done. The world watches. The world is still not sure. But we can show them the way, not by being “color-blind,” but by seeing all colors, and being all colors. Because ultimately, I am not just all the colors of the United States. These ideas really mean that I am all the colors of humanity. So I implore every human being on the planet: See all colors—Be all colors!

Copyright © 1999 by Richard Warren Field

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