2.  Breaking The Chains
    by James Landrith
    james{at}jameslandrith.com

Special to TLE

Once again, California is in the midst of a firestorm with regard to that
favorite of American controversies -- race.

As a man who can check more than one "racial" classification box,
an "interracially" married husband and father of two
"multiracial" children, I can say without reservation say that
"racial" classifications, born by the early government of this
nation to further the hideous enterprise of slavery, are an evil
aberration.

They eat at the soul of a person.  They force people to abandon the
sanctity of the individual in favor of group-think, leaving in its wake an
unhealthy "us vs. them" mindset based solely on arbitrary,
government created boxes.

The alternative to abandoning this historically wretched practice, is to
keep "boxing in" our children based on a completely unscientific
program of government enforced mental segregation, modeled on the desires
of slavers and subjugation of human beings for profit.

Contrary to the lies being spread by those in favor of these
classifications, they were not created for the purpose of tracking
discrimination or unscientific methods of eyeball classifying for medical
purposes.  Their origins lay in much more horrendous designs. Through their
support of slavery era racial classification schemes, opponents of
Proposition 54 are continuing the work of those who engaged in the
disgusting trafficking of human beings for profit.  Do not be deceived;
these classifications were not created for civil rights purposes.  Their
continued existence is a disturbing reminder of a period in American
history that shames her still today.

Many despicable individuals have used these classification schemes over the
years in their campaigns of racial intolerance and terror. One of the worst
being Walter Plecker of Virginia who used racial classifications to
persecute and disenfranchise multiracial individuals all over the state for
years.  Plecker even attempted to spread his disgusting campaign of terror
into other states via letters and intimidation.  Without these
classifications, his campaign of harassment and intimidation would not have
been possible. These categories, used to enforce slavery laws, disgusting
anti- miscegenation laws, the one-drop rule, and the internment of
Americans of Japanese descent were not created for the greater good of
humanity.

As someone who can check more than one box on government forms that collect
racial data, I am forever aware of their origins.  I can't escape the
thought that these boxes were used to segregate and persecute some of my
own ancestors. Those opposed to scrapping the boxes are lying when they
assert otherwise.  This last vestige of our evil slavery heritage must die
a necessary death.  It is time to break with the past and let this evil go.

Racism isn't ingrained or instinctive.  It is learned.  As such, it can be
unlearned, and better yet, never taught via these classifications, which
are forced on the very youngest of our citizens at the time they are most
vulnerable to such programming -- elementary school.  The proponents of
such unscientific classification schemes reduce a person to the status of a
mere serf at the mercy of a myriad different special interests who have no
real interest in the person's well-being, only in how including that
individual in their number increases their ability to manipulate social and
political will.

It is an offense to free will and justice to force such a mindset on
children via the State.  Those who witnessed the recent efforts to reform
Census classifications to reflect the changing demographics due to the rise
in interracial marriage and multiracial births since the 1967
Loving v. Virginia decision, know exactly to what I am
speaking.

The world has changed and is continuing to change, contrary to the wishes
of those who want to maintain these slavery relic classifications.
Proposition 54 will succeed and it will spread to other states until it
eventually achieves critical mass forcing a much needed change on the
national level.  Further, it will awaken those arrogant elites who live to
force the one-drop rule and other
racialist designs on their fellow Americans, be they white supremacists on
the right or racialist ethnicity advocacy groups on the left.  The paradigm
has shifted and it is time to shed this last vestige of American slavery.

If we truly wish to defeat racism we must first deal with the race-think
born of such classification schemes.  In order to further that goal, we
must abandon yet another vestige of our pitiful slavery heritage -- racial
classifications.

--
James Landrith is founder, editor, and publisher of The Multiracial
Activist (http://www.multiracial.com) and The Abolitionist Examiner
(http://www.multiracial.com/abolitionist/) and publishes a daily
libertarian political weblog (http://www.jameslandrith.com).  He receives
e-mail at: james{at}jameslandrith.com

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