The American Race

             In Takaki's A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, the author spends a lot of time comparing the different races, and how the people of the United States are only here because they were once people of a different country.  Takaki writes,
            "Together, 'We the' diverse 'people of the United States' transformed America into a mighty economy and an amazingly unique society of varied races, ethnicities, and religions. In the process, we transformed ourselves into Americans. Together, we composed "e pluribus unim" - a reality discerned by Herman Melville over one hundred years ago. Our country was settled by "the people of all nations,' he wrote. 'All nations  may claim her for their own. You can not spill a drop of American blood, without spilling the blood of the whole world.' Americans are 'not a narrow tribe.'
          This strikes me as a powerful quote because so much of today's world is focused on discriminating different races, when people do not realize that we as a nation are an "American" race. The idea of just grouping everyone together into one, single race called the American race seems impossible for some.  We all live in the same country, we are all "citizens" of America in one way or another. On the other hand, we are all different.  We all came from ancestors who were from different countries and continents.  If an American dies, it is not only the American part of him but also the part of his ancestors that tie him to a different county.  We are all tied together in one way or another whether we like it or not.  Why distinguish people from which culture or country they came from? Is there a need to distinguish between Asians, Africans, Norwegians, etc, if we are all American's anyway? If we are really "Together, We the diverse people of the United States", why can we not just be the American Race and stop discriminating based on the origin of our family?