Winning the race

Talk about "race relations" in America at the moment, and the images that spring to mind are rank populists preaching cheap separatism at the expense of national unity. As a rule, I don't abide demagogues. And so, as "Black History Month" finally draws to a close, I'd like to suggest a return to an older, higher vision of race in America.\nLong gone are the days when Americans aimed to eradicate the sin of racism by arguing against inequitable group entitlement. This healthy response to a grave injustice has given way to an overt defense of entitlement. Conventional wisdom holds that historical measures against blacks were wrong not because they constituted an assault on basic American notions of fairness, but rather because they favored the wrong group. And this, incidentally, is the strongest argument in favor of racism past and present. \nSo we have allowed our most arbitrary characteristics -- race, ethnicity, sex -- to define us as a people. This insular view has led not only to groupthink but to mediocrity. Before you think of me as a "chauvinist," a tag which I have never even remotely understood, know that in search of a broader American identity, I refuse tribal labels that pit group against group and berate blacks as being anything apart from "the whole great family of man," in Lincoln's words. \nYet, if I had to choose one, I would call myself a Native American. Given my respect for the truth, I cannot consider myself a Caucasian. What link do I have to the Caucasus? (Since all of us originated from Africa, could I not also claim to be African-American? So my message is not, "I have friends who are ..." but instead, "Being one myself ...") I have been chided by those who are ignorant of Theodore Roosevelt's revulsion for "hyphenated Americans," and so think of black-skinned fellow countrymen as African Americans. \nAmerica was the first nation ever founded on "self-evident" ideals. Our history has been a struggle to realize those ideals -- through a great Civil War and civil rights movement -- in full. That struggle has unfolded toward a more perfect union without ever quite getting there. This progress must be continued lest we sap our strength as a great country. \nAmerican ideals have always stood for a supreme "melting pot" -- a true multiracial society based on character, not caste. Those who place our differences above our similarities have always sought to build a multicultural society in its place. Wait until you see what happens then. (Take a peek at ethnic conflict from the Balkans to Rwanda and from Sudan to India.)\n"All for each and each for all" is a first-rate motto, but only on the condition that each and all pull their weight in the race. Rallying around the banner of small-"n" native Americans strikes me as a good place to start reclaiming lost ground. If we uphold personal duty, initiative and responsibility, new opportunities can be created to improve the lot of everyone. And this, not inadvertently, was the proper point of America (before even the civil rights movement that it birthed) in the first place.