Statement on the Racial Privacy Initiative

by James A. Landrith, Jr.
October/November 2001
in The Abolitionist Examiner

As editor and publisher of The Multiracial Activist and The Abolitionist Examiner, one half of an “interracial” marriage, and an individual who can identify as “multiracial”, I would like to take this time to express my commitment to ending our government’s obsession with classifying Americans by “race.”

These nasty little classifications have been contributing to America’s “racial” problems from the beginning of our nation’s history. It is far past time for Americans to unite, abandon the insidious concept of biological “races” and deconstruct the arbitrary “racial” walls dividing one American from another. Continually dividing our fellow Americans by “race” reinforces the concept that one group of Americans are so different from another group of Americans that they must be viewed differently and as a nasty consequence of this type of thinking, treated differently. These “racial” classifications do not end or lessen “racism.” These classifications do, however, reinforce the concept of “race”, which in turn fosters the twin demons of superiority and inferiority. This is government-coerced segregation of the body, mind and spirit. It violates the most basic fundamental principles of privacy and fairness. It is just plain wrong and if we are to survive as a free nation, we can no longer allow it.

Many people believe that abolishing these categories will allow “racism” to multiply unchecked. These alarmists want people to believe that abolishing the categories will bring back the horrors of Jim Crow. I believe those people are wrong. I believe that continuing to force people into little boxes for the purpose of fighting “racism” is intellectually bankrupt and a form of collectivist intolerance. These nasty little boxes were designed from day one to keep people separated for the purpose of ensuring legislative power in slave states. The very idea that these categories have the magical power to end “racism” is a perverse concept when you consider the reason they originally came into being. You cannot fight “racism” while simultaneously promoting the concept of different “racial” classifications.

Further, the potential for abuses of such “racial” data are immense. Just ask those Americans that the Census Bureau so kindly singled out as being of Japanese descent during World War II. Just ask the Department of Justice, who used this data to corral these Americans into concentration camps for the sole crime of ancestral heritage For those who wish to round up citizens based on supposed “racial” background, there’s nothing better than Census rolls which identify people by address, “race” and number of people in the household.

Of course, during the 1980’s and the Gulf War, politicians and Administration officials once again discussed rounding up American citizens based on ancestral descent. In particular, the INS created its now-infamous “Option Paper,” which laid out plans “to locate, apprehend and remove a body of aliens from the U.S.” This scenario included the use of a 100-acre prison in Oakdale, Louisiana for holding detainees. This time, instead of Japanese, it was Middle Eastern ancestry that became a reason to put people in concentration camps. Fortunately, in January 1991, politicians like Representatives Don Edwards, Norman Y. Mineta, and Romano L. Mazzoli, among others spoke out and changed the direction of the debate away from the ugly path that America appeared to be headed down. Now, in light of the events of September 11, we need more than ever to abandon this insidious concept of separating Americans by supposed “race.” Unfortunately, the terrorist attacks have led some to commit cowardly retaliatory attacks against those perceived to be of a specific demographic. Our government only feeds this type of mindset with its insistence on dividing Americans by “race.”

When fascist forces rear their ugly heads again in government, we must not make it easier for them to fulfill their horrific agendas by providing them with lists of Americans by “race” and home address.

So, with the thought in mind, that in order to defeat “racism” in America we must first defeat and destroy the concept of “race,” I have accepted Ward Connerly’s invitation to serve on the steering committee of the Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI). RPI will ban the State of California from classifying people according to race, ethnicity, color or national origin. While this alone will not end “racism,” it is an important first step in allowing Americans to break out of the “racialist” mold. Governments must not be allowed to continue to impose “race”-based thinking on it’s citizens.

“Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything-you can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.” -Robert Heinlein

The concept of “racial” classifications is one of modern history’s biggest “hoodwinks” and is anathema to the concepts of liberty and free will. These nasty little boxes, as used by the government, have now become the weapon of choice by “racialist” groups like the NAACP and National Urban League in their battles for political power against “multiracial” people and “interracial” families who refuse to submit to the oppressive “one-drop” rule. The “one-drop” rule as currently applied by these groups dictates that individuals with even the slightest amount of so-called “black blood” must identify solely as “black” for the sake of “black” political power. Aside from being biologically false, and perpetuating “racist” stereotypes of what is and isn’t acceptable “black” behaviour, this offensive philosophy violates the free will of Americans to identify how they see fit, including the right to shed a “racial” identity altogether. This is intolerable and must end now. The American public has pushed the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations to the fringes of society, so shall it be with the NAACP, National Urban League and other traditional civil rights organizations if they continue to push these offensive 18th century “racialist” designs down the throats of “multiracial” people and “interracial” families.

It is my steadfast belief that until these categories are gone, we will not be able to begin to give “racism” the appropriate burial it deserves. These categories, created for the sole purpose of ensuring slave state political power at our nation’s birth are not the solution to “racism.” To state otherwise is a perverse distortion of history. America, it’s time to step out of the 1790s. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, yet here we are in 2001, still trying to ensure slave state political power.

It’s time to let the deconstruction begin.

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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