I wrote yesterday about tribes and how I believe President Obama is getting us back to respect and need of the whole tribe. I got to thinking about the American Tribe, which I tend to do. What makes the American Tribe unique is that we are a tribe composed of people who were kicked out of, or in rare circumstances voluntarily left, virtually every other tribe on earth. The American Tribe represents the rejects of the world, AND, those willing to escape rather than stay and be persecuted.
22,000 years ago Native Americans left their comfortable worlds, trudged north into the frozen Ice Age lands of what is now Siberia across the Bering Straits, then iced over, into what is now Alaska and eventually into both Americas. Later Pacific Islanders braved the vast oceans to land in South America and migrate north mixing with those who came before. Do we believe they made these treacherous journeys with women, children and their elderly because their tribes in Asia, where the temperatures were moderate, wanted them to stay? Of course not. They were kicked out of their tribes. Their tribes hoped they would die along the way. But, they did not. They became Americans.
The Pilgrims were forced out of England. Georgia was populated by criminals from English jails. German Catholics came here in droves in the 1800s to escape Lutheran persecution. Sicilians and Irish left their homelands for a “better” life, which means their old tribe was not working out so well. Chinese and Japanese fled their countries for our West Coasts. Africans were kicked out of their countries like the rest of us, sold as slaves. We are all refugees from other tribes who could no longer stand to have us around. Everyone sent us off across oceans and thought, or hoped, we would die. We did not. Against all odds, we became Americans.
We, the American Tribe, are the rejects of the rest of the world. We welcome all who are kicked out of their tribes. So says our greatest monument – The Statue of Liberty. What made us a problem to the staid traditions of our former tribes made us stronger as a people. It made us Americans.
Over time we have assimilated everyone. The English first disliked the Dutch (Dutch rub, Dutch treat, which is no treat at all, etc.), but got used to them. The Irish, Scotts, Italians, Germans, Greeks, Jews, Catholics and many others came, were subject of discrimination and ultimately assimilated into the culture. While it took longer, Africans, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics have all been embraced by the American Tribe and have served the US proudly in leadership, diplomatic, civil servant and military positions.
The Baby-Boomer and especially the post-Boom generations are unifying and erasing all past distinctions. We are increasingly a land of mutts. Mixed breeds with uncommon heritage with descendants from many different tribes around the world. Our President is not black. He is an American, all mixed up like the rest of us.
We are all one-eighth this and one-sixteenth that. A pinch of Irish, a pinch of Cherokee, a bit of German, some Korean in there somewhere, and a little something else. Whites are of course not white. Blacks are of course not black. We are all shades and tints of brown. We are all the same basic color.
The term “Diversity” has come to focus us on our irrelevant differences, though it should not. It was a concept important to get where we are today. It, however, is a term of division. A term of the past.
We are now the American Tribe. A tribe of outcasts. A tribe of mutts with varied heritage. A tribe descended from those brave enough to challenge the old tribe and be kicked out for it. A tribe of people our old tribes hoped would die at sea, but we did not.
Instead, against all odds and over many years and through trials and tribulations of great magnitude, we, the misfits of the world, have finally become united as one, the American Tribe.
Unlike most other places on earth, we are a tribe of people with eyes, skin and hair of many colors none of which impact who we are as people. Individually we practice many religions or none at all, speak and write as we see fit, work hard or not, love man or woman or both, and live as we deem appropriate, for that is what the American Tribe is all about. We are unique and powerful individuals within the great American Tribe.
It is time we stop celebrating our differences and begin to celebrate our similarities. Mr. President, make this year’s Independence Day be a celebration of our independence from past discrimination based on our diverse and irrelevant characteristics.
Make it a celebration of the unified American Tribe.
