Childhood’s End

Childhood's End

James Landrith

by James A. Landrith, Jr.
April/May 2001

A lot of talk has been occuring lately at The Multiracial Activist and INTERRACIAL VOICE regarding shedding "racial identity" and championing free will. Make no mistake, there is a real movement in the makings. The fight to free Humanity of "race" will be considered a landmark event in our development as a species. The time has come to fully commit to establishing, as Janet Jackson so eloquently sang on Rhythm Nation 1814, "a world free of colorlines."

Those who came before us blazed a trail that has led us to this point in time. The ending of segregation, the fight for voting rights and the repeal of anti-miscegenation laws were major battles in the war against "race." There is, however, more to do.

This task has taken and will likely take many more decades, but will eventually result in finishing off America's unhealthy obsession with skin color and false notions of "racial" purity. As a people, we have to grow up and out of such childish notions as biologically different "races."

Sadly, many of the organizations that got us to this historic turning point, now wish to turn back the clock. The NAACP, National Urban League and National Council of La Raza are a few of the organizations currently promoting "one-drop" philosophy with regards to "racial" identity. These organizations quite simply fear miscegenation, and well they should. Miscegenation and the abandonment of static "racial" identities by "multiracial" people will bring about the complete destruction of their powerbase and force their racialist designs into the dustbin of history where they belong – right next to Mein Kampf.

A transformation is occuring in the American mindset regarding the concept of blurred "racial" lines. Simply put, many people can't grasp the concept of no "races" and therefore require a middle ground in order to move on to greater truths. The middle ground is/was the "multiracial" movement, which sought to remove the one-drop rule from the Census and all other forms that collect "racial" data for the government. The "check-all-that-apply" method adopted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has mucked up the Census' racial categories in ways many of us did not imagine. The object was to allow people to self-identify in a manner they'd never been able to before. The result, however, was a mish-mash of vague and contradictory regulations and policies from the OMB that only further proves the ridiculousness of classifying people by "race." If the U.S. government, who manufactured America's current "racial" classification mess don't know what they are doing, then how is anyone else supposed to figure it out?

The next logical step, then, consists of abolishing all forms of government mandated "racial" classifications. Whether these perverse classifications come in the form of college applications, grade school admissions forms, birth certificates, or the decennial Census, they exist for only one purpose – keeping people separated.

There can be no compromises or backroom deals with the proponents of these nasty little classifications. Continuing to count "race" under the guise of eliminating "racism" is a specious argument. "Racism" is a natural by-product of "race." Continued allegiance to "race" is not going to yield the much wanted victory that anti-racists are seeking. The only way to cure Humanity of the plague of "racism" is to go after the disease, which is "race." Anything else is an exercise in futility.

The Cult of "Race"

For far too many years, Americans have been programmed en masse to believe that the existence of "racism" justifies continuing our unhealthy obsession with classifying our fellow sapients by "race." The high clerics of this cult would have you believe that continued mandatory classification by "race" will somehow allow us to end "racism." The argument that tracking "race" will allow us to end "racism" is the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. We keep bleeding, but we don't know why.

Opponents to ending government enforced racial classification like to bring up a few pet examples for why classification must continue. First on the list is "racial profiling/Driving While Black or Brown." In order to end racial profiling and Driving While Black or Brown, we first have to get rid of it's creator, which is "The Drug War." Local and federal jurisdictions love The Drug War. Why? It keeps their coffers flush with cash. It allows no-knock raids on anyone at anytime and almost unfettered asset seizure. The 4th and 5th amendments become irrelevant in the name of The Drug War. "Racial" classification, which has existed far longer than "racial" profiling (a descendent of The Drug War), isn't going to magically solve this decades old problem.

Next of course, is the old standby of "checking two boxes won't get you a taxi, all the cab driver is going to see is BLACK." Well, how does checking "black" resolve that issue? It doesn't. That's right, cab drivers don't care which box you checked, so checking "black" doesn't resolve the issue. "Racial" classifications aren't going to get you a taxi no matter what box you check. Proponents of this argument never elaborate as to why they feel it is relevant or how checking "black" will resolve the issue. They are simply employing scare tactics in an effort to enforce their collectivist beliefs. The whole argument is an exercise in stupidity and fear. They should be ashamed.

Those who fight the future will be judged accordingly by history. Kweisi Mfume, Hugh Price, are you paying attention?

Action Follows Belief

You cannot commit racism without first being brainwashed into believing in "race." Belief comes first, then the action. All that classification does is continue to reinforce that hideous belief system. By telling people that there are different "races" and that we must classify ourselves by these "races," and then telling people not to assign behaviours and traits based on these classifications is wishful thinking. You first say "we" are different from "them." Then you say don't treat us differently.

Demanding that "racial" differences be acknowledged when the biological evidence says otherwise is cause to question the motives of the individual or organization promoting the myth of "racial" differences. Aside from that, using government to force "racial" classifications on others is a form of fascist collectivism. These "racial" classifications serve one purpose only – to classify (read: forcibly divide) people into groups, by decree of government. Then when these government created groups compete against each other causing "racial" tensions in a battle for taxpayer monies, we sit around naively asking why. Hmmm. Let me reiterate this simple point – "racism" exists as a natural by-product of "race." Continued use of the government to enforce "racial" classification schemes is not going to end "racism." Ending "racial" classification will not end "racism" overnight either, but it is a necessary first step in a process that may well take decades. Do not say you are ready to end "racism" unless you are fully committed to ending "race." There must be a point when we say, this stops NOW. I'm going to say it, are you listening? THIS STOPS NOW.

The Future

We don't have the time to continue fighting each other over nineteenth century falsehoods like the concept of biological "races." We have much more important work to do and we will need our best minds, operating at the top of their potential. Deconstruction of all "racial" classifications must begin in earnest NOW if Humanity is to progress further. We are one Race and must accept that, then we can decide where to go from there.

Technology is evolving faster than we are, which is not necessarily bad. Our power to have a positive impact or negative impact on people's lives lies solely in what we do with it. The old divisions are going to have be erased in order for us to keep up with our expanding possibilities. With so many new possibilities both positive and negative opening up, we have to evolve our thinking or our world WILL get away from us:

    Globalization is blurring national boundaries with the power to erase old hatreds or spark new ones. Genetically altered foods present new possibilities in fighting famine and hunger. Eugenics is enjoying new life due to the mapping of the human genome. On the other hand the ability of fascist regimes to monitor their citizenry by camera, infrared, face-scanning technologies, has also increased. Within the next twenty-five years Humanity will likely set foot on Mars. Lunar colonies are no longer just a figment of our imaginations, they are actually being planned. The Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate and made it possible for people who have never been face to face to work together for a common goal.

We are going to have to be on top of our game and in touch with ourselves if we are going to survive our creations. It's time to get on with the business of Humanity. We have a lot of work to do and fighting the same battles over and over is holding the whole species back.. We are not our ancestors or their sins. We are a whole new "breed" and it's time we came to grips with it and the responsibilities/opportunities that entails. I have a lot of faith in what we can do as a whole, unencumbered by the irrational belief systems some of us hold now, but I know that first things come first and destroying these false boundaries in whatever form they take is an essential first step.

"Multiracial" America, your childhood's over. Put away the toys. We have work to do.

James Landrith is the notorious editor and publisher of The Multiracial Activist and The Abolitionist Examiner, two cyber-rags dedicated to freedom from oppressive racial categorization. Landrith can be reached by email at: editor@multiracial.com or at his personal website/blog.

Copyright © 2001 The Multiracial Activist. All rights reserved.

2 comments

  1. Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 18:30:22 -0700 (PDT)
    From: “George Winkel”
    Subject: “Childhood’s End” by James Landrith

    I would like to remark what a wonderful, well-written piece James Landrith’s April/May editorial commentary is, on his Multiracial Activist/Abolitionist Examiner web page. I think James is a leading contributor to our community, and he is closely allied with Interracial Voice.

    What I especially liked about James’s editorial was his clearly indicating our purpose to debunk “race,” erase its mythical “race lines.” Whatever our new movement’s name was or will be (Multiracial?), James framed its historical significance — finally confronting the centuries-old consequences of society’s noticing (and becoming morbidly obsessed with) the range of innocent natural variation in peoples’ looks.

    James’s title, “Childhood’s End,” reminded me too of an analogy — children imagining that they can see images in the clouds. I recall childhood doing that. And the so-called “man in the moon” is the same imaginative idea — I remember straining to see him. There was a considerable time when everyone older than me could see the “man in the moon” and I couldn’t. Seeing “races” is a learned skill, too. “Race” seeming obvious, self-evident and so on, only underscores the combined forces grinding it into our core beliefs — brainwashing us. The “lessons” may start too early in childhood to be remembered. (That was not the case for me, though. I remember arguing with my older sister, for instance, adamantly denying I was “white.” It seemed ridiculous.) The “race” illusion/delusion has been exposed to me very recently. I accidentally snapped its hypnotic trance only after I discovered Interracial Voice and Multiracial Activist on the Web. Editor Charles Byrd’s remarks about “race” not existing seemed so absurd that I began researching, thinking it over. My “undoing” came from preparing to argue supporting “race,” much as J. Philippe Rushton and Steve Sailer do. (Well, is Steve Sailer coming around? See the nice UPI article he wrote praising Multiracial Tiger Woods, and racially “mixed” people.) When I turned “race” over in my mind and realized it is only a way of looking at people, I recalled my “man in the moon” efforts. That was it! “Race” got dumped in the “tooth fairy,” “Santa Clause” bin. With cloud and moon faces, at least, no one ever deceived me to think those things were real. Even “tooth fairy and “Santa Clause,” their sweet deflations were long ‘ere childhood’s end. It is hard to a half-centenarian accepting one’s gullibility. (I still get mad as Hell!)

    James importantly targeted the government’s complicity in our “race” brainwashing. Our government entangles itself in “race,” preserving it at the behest of “minority” intellectual elite — folk who ought to know better. But they are blinded by self-interest. They have good jobs in the government-subsidized, “racism fighting,” prison-industrial complex. Years ago Government helped “majority” “whites” maintain their “supreme” dominant caste. The racial segregation of the “Jim Crow” era was not based on hatred exactly. It was based on tribalism (same as modern Multiculturalism is). Pseudo-science invented “race” as a rubric justifying Eurocentric “white” supremicist tribalism. Reacting tribally, “white” men once grounded their exclusive access to “white” females on allegedly shared “race.” Legal segregation sought to prevent “race-mixing” (“miscegenation”), which was recognized undermining the “separate races” concept. (For the same reason modern leftist Multiculturalists oppose interracial marriages, and their progeny self-identifying “mixed.”)

    Now government reinforces the “race” illusion/delusion all over again (all its cast-building), supposedly trying to unwind the racism which centuries of “race”-mythology bred. This is perfectly Orwellean “doublethink.” It is self-fueling “doublethink.” (Compare this Townhall.com column by Paul Greenberg.) Like a perpetual motion machine, the “racism” which government-subsidized racialism purports to fight depends on “race” — the ultimate source of all racism. One consequence of this “doublethink” contradiction stuffs our prisons with “minorities” now. (When discrimination was serious & legal, “minority”-crime, prisoners were underrepresented.) Another consequence is that NO young “minority” American can confidently attribute achievement to his/her own talent or effort. Defenders of AA affirmative action (and white supremacists, too) inevitably will attribute any young “minority’s” achievement to AA’s assistance if they dare to criticize AA. Ward Connerly and John McWhorter are among those who have heard themselves accused of “pulling up the [AA] ladder behind them.” Die-hard AA proponents are truly heartless. The AA benefit is illusory, and “minority” intelligencia would see it if they possessed courage to see past their own narrow self-interest. The most serious consequence of the “doublethink” is that “race” is reinforced — made to seem real, substantive. Everyone is deflected away from realizing that “race” is only a bad idea — abstract labeling of people. “Race” is only a way of viewing people’s “attributes,” just as we learn as children to see the face of the man in the Moon.

    I applaud James’s showing this society’s way clear to childhood’s end.

    George Winkel

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