Free Will
(or The Right To Not Decide)
by James A. Landrith, Jr.
October/November 2000
in The Abolitionist Examiner
The former multiracial movement was, to the casual observer, about the right of those Americans who considered themselves to be multiracial to check more than one box on the census and other forms that collect racial data for the government. Notice that I said “former multiracial movement.” There is no multiracial movement now. It has evolved into an entirely new construct, which lacks an adequate name. Maybe that’s the point.
At its very core, however, the movement was about much, much more than box checking. Its true motivations lie in:
Individuality;
Self-determination;
Freedom of thought;
Freedom of choice;
Freedom.
Those of us who fought the good fight weren’t scamming for public money. We weren’t fighting for power. We weren’t asking for “our share” of the pie. We were fighting for the right to choose our own identities, whether multiracial or monoracial.
The end result of this struggle was a check-all-that-apply scheme that, at the end of the day means nothing. See, you can check as many racial boxes as you like, but how you will be counted is up to the NAACP, the Office of Management and Budget and various Census advisory committees. Oh yes, and don’t forget to include in that number the demographics companies who look to the Census Bureau to provide them with taxpayer financed racial demographic information. Free, of course. Well, that unholy alliance has already decided that “one-drop” is the rule and that’s that.
Move over Tiger! Homer Plessy is back and boy is he mad…
It’s the year 2000, and the former movement stands at a fork in the road. In one direction, we can continue fighting the NAACP and the rest of the Jim Crow Crowd for multiracial categories and whatever scraps of freedom they’ll begrudgingly “allow.” There’s nothing wrong with wanting acceptance and recognition. Bear in mind though, that a victory with this strategy will require millions of dollars and a radical restructuring of the current national multiracial organizations. Got a rich uncle? Anyone?
However, there is also another direction we can travel.
The Undiscovered Country
Walk down this road and the view is different. It’s still a dirt road, but it’ll soon be paved by the impact of multitudes marching. Down this road we can strive for a life without racial categories, one-drop rules and racial group-think. We can struggle to break the chains of this collectivist mindset we’ve inherited generation after generation that dictates unnatural allegiences based solely on false “racial” categories.
As a wise man and songwriter named Neal Peart wrote not so long ago, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” The song that line comes from is “Free Will,” from the album Permanent Waves by Rush. That is what this is all about. Free Will. The right to not decide. It’s about the right not to be intimidated into racial conformity by government, Maxine Waters, Melanie L. Campbell, Alicia Simon, Tom Joyner, the NAACP, school administrators or anyone else. It is your right for the taking. Like all other rights, this one must be continuously and aggressively asserted or it will become a privilege. Sadly, that has become the case in America today. Civil rights groups, corporations and a handful of politicians now control this right for you. However, it doesn’t have to remain so. You can take it back. You can refuse to be subordinate.
Decision Time
Take your pick friends, the fork is now before us. I’ll make it a little easier for you by going first.
“From this day forward, I, James A. Landrith, Jr., choose not to decide. I will assert my right to not identify and will stop asking for permission.”
Okay, your turn.
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.
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