Using the social construct, most people are "mixed-race"

     In the letter below that was published in the The Boston Globe, I propose that a way to undermine the ubiquitous false concept of "race" is to use that concept to reveal that most people, including "whites," are "mixed-race." In other words, they are "mixed-race" if we apply the social construct of "race." They are not "mixed-race" biologically, because biological "races" do not exist in any way resembling the generally accepted idea of "race." As I said in my New York Times response letter, "When you mix two myths, you get a third myth." So, since biological "races" do not exist, no one is biologically "mixed-race."
     The Globe editors removed some of my quotation marks around "racial" terms. My policy is to put all "racial" terms in quotation marks to indicate that these terms refer to generally accepted false concepts. Nonetheless, the letter as edited makes the point that I intended to make.

The factual underpinnings of this letter are contained in my book, Overcoming the Lie of "Race."

Racism is Real. “Race” is Not.

My book, Overcoming the Lie of “Race”: A Personal, Philosophical, and Political Perspective, is now available in its Second Edition. It contains a new Epilogue that addresses the current political situation and the alarming rise of bigotry. It also contains some additions and clarifications. You may order it from your local bookstore (from Ingram distributor) or from Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

Overcoming the Lie of “Race” relies on history, genetic studies, and the author's personal experiences to expose the politically inspired false concepts, lies and deceit that underlie the idea of "race." It proposes how we should move forward in acknowledging that racism is real, “race” is not.

Here are a few selections from the book:

Prefatory quotations--

“The legacy of the past racism directed at blacks in the United States is more like a bacillus that we have failed to destroy, a live germ that not only continues to make some of us ill but retains the capacity to generate new strains of a disease for which we have no certain cure.”

—George M. Fredrickson, Racism: A Short History (2002), p. 143.

“Racism is, and always has been, the way America has sorted and ranked its people in a bitterly divisive, humanity-robbing system.”

—Debby Irving, Waking Up White (2014), p. 31.

“’Race’ itself is a fiction, one that has no basis in biology or any long-standing, consistent usage in human culture.”

--Jacqueline Jones, A Dreadful Deceit (2013), p. x.

Quotation introducing the new Epilogue:

“The first American revolution protected slavery; the second—the Civil War—destroyed it, but exposed a racism that maintained the subordination of black people.”

—Alfred & Ruth Blumrosen, Slave Nation (2005), p. 257.

From Chapter 11:

“Every solution to the problem of racism in our society must begin with the explicit realization that human ‘races’ do not exist. If we are to eliminate racism, we must rid ourselves of the very idea of ‘race.’”

To inform yourself about combating racism, you should read this book. Remember: Racism is real. “Race” is not.

For more information, go to JohnLHodge.com.

Continuing the growth of democracy in spite of setbacks

     The growth of democracy is a zig-zag through history.  As a young teenager, I saw the devastation spread by Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. The country recovered with the help of a few courageous individuals. Please read: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/31/our-murrow-moment.html?via=desktop&source=facebook . 
     We are now at the beginning of a similar retreat from the values of democracy. The more we are passive observers, the longer the retreat will last, assuming we do in fact recover from it. As I stated in my book, How We Are Our Enemy--And How to Stop, "Democracy . . . is not something we delegate to a ruler or authority but is work that is up to each of us." Often this means resisting and confronting those in power, as the Vietnam anti-war movement did in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
     To keep a perspective and follow up from my previous letter and blog, I wrote the following letter published today, January 1, 2017, in The Boston Globe (in print, page K4, and online):

Democracy has grown from its infancy, but has far to go

HOPEFULLY, STEPHEN Kinzer’s obituary for democracy is premature (“The Enlightenment had a good run”).

Two hundred years ago, America was sustained by slaves. Married women were, in effect, the property of their husbands. Unmarried women usually fared worse.

One hundred years ago, women still did not have a constitutionally protected right to vote, a right that former slaves had but often were violently prevented from exercising. America’s apartheid, benignly called “Jim Crow,” was in full force throughout the nation. Black lives did not matter, and no one would have dared to proclaim otherwise.

Then we were living in a partial democracy in its infancy. Today, democracy has become an adolescent but not an adult. The lives of the poor and of those just above poverty do not matter, or matter too little. Many of them are rebelling with just cause, but in a desperate, self-defeating way, funded by others who will gain at their expense. There is a big problem to be solved.

Democracy is taking a pause but is not dead yet. We need to reflect on where it should go so that it can continue to grow. It will not grow until it eliminates the poverty that fails to treat everyone with the respect that all deserve.

John L. Hodge

Jamaica Plain