How To Become White

What would it take to have all the current racial groups listed on the census to seemingly blend and become one group, that glorious dream group, Americans. Lets face it, Ross Perot has more of a chance at winning the 2008 North Korean election than some of the prevalent races in America have at becoming part of the A-team, or W-team if you will. The larger question lies in not if the idea is even possible, but more so if the people of the minority racial groups would allow it to happen. Would they choose assimilation, pluralism, or none of the above? George Yancey paints a picture of an inevitable blending. Giving examples of how overtime different European countries (i.e. North vs. South) have undergone different phenomenon’s that resulted in a less visible line dividing ethnic groups. He describes how assimilation allows for the minority groups to adopt the habits/ traits of the larger group and slowly begin to assimilate into the larger group over longer periods of time. He shows how this has worked in other cultures, and the debates whether it is a certain outcome or whether the minority race can choose to avoid it through methods such as cultural pluralism, where the group is accepted as respectable human beings, however they keep their cultural distinctions. While reading several questions were raised in my own mind. Could blacks truly assimilate after years of slavery, hate, discrimination. It has been a almost constant use of propaganda since day one to point out the differences of blacks and whites to rationalize behavior on both sides of the issue. Is there a inevitable melting pot in the future that will turn us all into one big McDonalds eating, baseball watching, flag flying American? I pose not. American is a hybrid on multiple levels. The thought of assimilation starts with a minority group that wants to be a part of the majority group, and a majority group that over time, allows it. Neither of these conditions exists. Due to the way blacks were treated of the past 200 or so years paired with the fact that the white people have given bits a pieces to not only make blacks happy, but keep the groups separate I think that Cultural Pluralism is the goal for each group. So if a blending of the two groups isn’t a foreseeable plan, but not all are united, what can be done. Well the media has become the frontrunner according to Jennifer Wood to something that I’d like to call “Continue the Hate, Adopt a Negro”. In her piece Wood explains the difference between a “field negro”, and a “house negro”. Wood shows how some blacks have crossed the color line and become a “house negro” (i.e. Brian Gumble, Oprah Winfrey). They are just as any of white person of the media, expect one small detail, they are black, they dress, talk, socialize and get paid, just like white people. They are undoubtedly the rarity. This tool of the media however most likely hurts the black race, as much as it helps in that, Woods shows how they are nothing more that puppets for their rich white employers. Some would thing the solution here is for a black to control the media. The idea is noble however when a black person controls something, Yancey’s one drop rule applies and that object becomes black. Black media is then taken as a joke. The dialect of English used is unfitting and comical to whites, thus furthering the discrimination. Both Yancey and Wood make points that were historically true and somewhat disheartening. The concept of cultural pluralism in my mind is not a bad thing, however that people of other races would have to sell out their own heritage to become successful is disturbing. The two articles points combine to ask a tough question to American blacks, do you want to stay black or sell out and be white? Cited: Rethinking the Color Line