The other day I had an appointment with a new doctor and was told to arrive 45 minutes prior to appointment time in order to fill out the usual biographical tome. Wow! 45 minutes. That must be a truly huge bunch of papers, but what can one do?
Upon arrival and being given the packet, it was a tad thicker, but not that it would need 45 minutes. Well, at least I was armed with a book for the extra wait time and thus assured of non boring time, I began. Like the phrase usual suspects, these were for the most part usual questions, but some were interesting or interestingly phrased, giving rise to some thoughts.
"...adult children". Hmmm. Is any child ever truly adult in the mind of the parent? One can write a doctoral thesis on that question, but as I truly wanted to finish this packet, I moved on. I could always debate or discuss this issue at another time, so...onward.
Wow! I have never seen so many boxes under the question of race! This could be interesting. Practically every Asian country was listed as its own race, which is truly interesting as many are closely related and actually stem from the same source. For example Koreans and Japanese, are racially related, though many might be unhappy at that thought so why separate them and indeed all other Asian countries. Is there really such a difference between Laos and Vietnam? Did such minute differences have great medical significance and if so, then why not do the same with other so called racial distinctions such as people of original Mediterranean stock as they are liable for certain diseases or syndromes and what about Jews for they have certain so called "Jewish diseases" such as Tay Sachs or Gaucher's? So where to start and where to finish?
Having time on my hands, I allowed my mind to wander as this question has truly bugged me for a long time. In fact, I dislike it intensely for unless there is a reason for this that is medically relevant, it should make no never mind as to what race the patient is or came from or will be in the future! Now you might ask, how can we look in to the future and how can race change? Well, just follow along into the world of the absurd.
Okay. So following the example of breaking down the Asian countries into separate racial boxes, we need to do the same to the "white" race as well. Only fair. And full disclosure, checking the white race always bugs me for it is insufficient if we are truly interested in bottom line and why the heck anyway! So. In depth look at the "white" race. Let us begin with the Slavic race for that is certainly a distinguishable race within the larger category of white. But then again we have further division into the Polish Slav and the Russian Slav and then how do we define the person who comes from both or do we refer to a hyphenated version and then what about the Slav who then intermarries with a , say, French person so what is their child to check at the doctor's office in order to be precise.
And anyway, the French differ within themselves for try telling a Frenchman of many generations from Paris that he is of the same racial breakdown as a person from another French city or what about the Basque? Are they of French racial breakdown or are they separate and distinct. Most of the Basque would go for choice number two but uh oh, we have French Basque and Spanish Basque and even American Basque so how do we set up the boxes here and how do we instruct checking them off? Getting complicated, is it not?
Try going to an easy "race" ---aha, the Finns. They are often used as a so called pure race for medical and sociological studies as there is very little mixing there but what about if there is? Does the child then become a mixed race person and if so what box or do we need to set up boxes for all permutations? And even the English of the British Isles - not so simple is it? Look at the mixing of the races there - Picts, Celts, Britons, Saxons, Danes and other Norsemen, Normans, Angles. Wow, tad complicated.
And then of course we can look to ourselves as Americans. We are the great Heinz variety even though the people of Hawaii claim that title for themselves and come to that, there was actually a box for Hawaiian race and I was very tempted to check that - by voluntary and wishful adoption! But back to Americans. There are often intermarriages between Irish and Italian backgrounds so what box to check there? That could be an interesting topic at a family dinner table. And anyway, why not a new race box entitled Americans as no doubt about it, whether the American in question be black, white, pink, red, yellow or chartreuse, one can easily pick out the American in a crowd There is just something different in the way they carry themselves and this is a fact that sociologists often discuss and analyze.
And what about the race I always look for in order to check, but there I am, lumped together with all whites, no distinction amongst us. Yet there is. For example, are Jews a race anyway or is it merely a religious difference but in that case there are many, many people who made grave errors based on that. Perhaps it was merely a question of reeducating Hitler and all anti Semites or perhaps it is really not so simple. Is it perhaps an ethnic difference and then explain the difference between that and race. And what about the Jews who come from Ethiopia or Burma or who return to the tribe after finding that their Spanish background has Jewish roots from way back, or Indian Jews who have discovered Jewish roots to Iranian merchants from centuries ago? I mean, where does it start and where does it end and how many boxes are we to have and why anyway!!
Finally, don't you love the new boxes that ask you if one is of more than one race or partial race or mixed race or even a new race and for Heaven's sake, why does it matter? And hey, what about when visitors from outer space come visiting, say Venusians and do we add a new box and what about if we find that the Venusians divide themselves into three racial divisions so how do we account for their racial mixing and what about if a Venusian marries a Martian and then that child marries a "mixed" race Earth person so how many boxes.....let me see.....let me count....but what if.....and so.....
Hey, anyone know where my migraine pills are?
Seriously, folks, is it not time that we stop categorizing ourselves, separating ourselves, looking for the differences rather than the similarities? Is it not that which is aggravating us all and rending great big rips through our society. Is it not the fact that there are people such as the one who can send me a message and his lettering - "a complete Crazy Shithead....a miserable yenta....", (and we all know the "lovely" gentleman who sends these love notes to me!), people who cannot stand the free discussion and free speech without resorting to nastiness, and even threats such as one that tells me that I had better move - aren't these people symbolic of a race we do not need or want hanging around - the nasty race people!? Why can we not add another box - the nasty race box and perhaps try to avoid them or somehow turn them human and humane again.
Oy, still looking for those migraine pills!
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