Beyond Ethnicity

You know, it's nice to be somebody. When a stranger asks an annoying personal question that flummoxes you, it's nice to have ethnicity to fall back on. Ethnicity is usually just one word, maybe two. It's so easy to say. Ethnicity is a fuzzy, warm place in the universe that does not require the owner of the label to have to think very deeply about humanity, nor does it place any demands on the owner for personal introspection beyond the label he wears. It's an identity he can slip into like a fine silk suit that molds to his body. It allows him to say, while staring in the mirror and nodding his head approvingly, "Yes, this is so me. Yes, completely me, truly me." The trouble is that ethnicity only goes so far as an identity, especially if you want to interact with others on the planet who aren't as obsessed as you are with your ethnicity or racial label. Imagine that I was your good Norwegian friend (forget that bland "white" label that carries no ethnicity). Wouldn't you start to wonder about me (or tire of me or get bored with me) if I insisted on wearing traditional Norwegian garb most of the time (especially at your company's most important client meetings), couldn't eat most of the food at your social gatherings, because, well, it wasn't Norwegian enough (really, you should have geared the entire menu towards me), framed every question you ever put to me in terms of how it related to Norwegian political values and power (those ethnic holidays are nice, but, come on, when are you going to start celebrating May 17th?), and worst of all, judged the quality of our friendship by how Norwegian you were willing to become (a desert vacation might suit you, but if you really supported my ethnicity, you'd go cross-country skiing instead). You see, ethnic identity can become a straight jacket rather than a fine silk suit. It can leave you locked in an ethnic past you really haven't experienced and don't actually live in today. It can choke off opportunity now and in the future, because rigid definitions don't let you do or try things outside your ethnic or racial comfort zone, nor do they allow you to take as your own the best of what others are doing and have created. Clinging too hard to an ethnic label can leave you isolated, stagnant. Take another look in the mirror: has your pretty little ethnic identity suit turned into a straight jacket?