I largely agree with what you are writing… we are a multi-racial family… ranging from almost pure white to African, Asian, African American, Asian American, and Asian-Hispanic-White American. We talk about how dumb people are stressing race all the time when we are all part of one identity group… American.

We think of skin color, eye color, and hair color as the normal variations that Americans come in. We “preach” the commonality of a people that hold to the civil rights outlined in the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution.

But what happens when a political party begins to subject Americans to the idea that they are not Americans first, but an “identity group” that has been victimized by other “identity groups”. That identity groups should have different rights. That identity groups are “tribes” that compete for social dominance. Schools reinforce those identities. My children are confused when they are asked to identify their “race”… why would school ask such an obsolete question? And based on their recent 23 and me DNA tests, race seems an inappropriate criteria for anything.

Who is privileged more, my African American grandchildren growing up in an upper income household in one of the wealthiest suburbs in Philadelphia or my white grandchild growing up in a middle class household in Arizona. Maybe we need to stop associating “privilege” with skin color. Maybe privilege has more to do with income and the educational attainment of one’s parent.

For example, when asked why African American unemployment is twice as high as white unemployment, the first impulse is to blame “racism”. But what if we point out that full time employment among African Americans with college degrees is exactly identical to full time employment among whites.

In other words, education will determine their future more than skin color. It totally changes their view of the world. They can’t do much about whatever skin color they are born with… but they can do a lot about how they do in school and the ultimate education they receive… suddenly they miraculously transition from victims with no chance to succeed to competitors pursuing the American dream.

When they are told that non whites are a minority, I point out that over half of the babies born today are “minorities”. How can the majority of babies… be “a minority”? I tell them as “mixed” race babies they are the “American dream”, the big melting pot… that initially transitioned Italians, Germans, Poles, etc. into Americans is now doing the same with Africans, Asians, and Hispanics. I tell them that America has an immigration process where 80% of new citizens come from non white countries. These “guests” study to become Americans just like they are… they are here (like their mother or my wife) because they saw this as a great country even if they were not white and still do.

I am fighting an uphill battle against a media, political environment, and educational system that stresses race beginning with the first form children fill out to attend school. Children are told they are “victims” and that can impact their ability to succeed. Maybe its time to examine the messaging children are getting from politicians, schools, and the media.

When my children want to understand race, I teach them that skin color made sense when humans needed special biological mutations to thrive in different parts of the world. While skin color is the most obvious mutation, there are many others including sweat gland concentration and body hair density.

Those differences were biologically relevant for survival at one time. But that modern technology no longer makes those differences relevant and so people focused on race are living in a past. They are Luddites no matter what skin color they have.

The development of sun screen and Vitamin D fortified milk (along with other innovations) means the biological advantages of skin color have largely gone away and that being the case… the races will blend until we are various shades of the same skin color. So the “more blended” they are, the farther ahead they are… now they think being mixed race makes them “more advanced”… and that eventually everyone else will catch up…

Change the way children view skin color and you change the way they think of those with different skin color… so how do we get the politicians on board?