I am all races — I am American

USA Today: “America is browning, and Hollywood needs to catch up ...” Gayle King on “CBS This Morning” on Friday made a racial reference using the term “whites” in a pejorative context. Across the country the Oscar nominations are adding fuel to the already smoking issues of racial inequality especially amongst police tragedies.I do have a solution. Everyone even thinking of taking public office or having the capability of speaking publicly should take a DNA test. Gayle King? No way she is not also part of other races. Jerry Falwell, skinheads, the LA sheriffs, the St. Louis cops, the NYC police or even President Obama ... all of them should take and post their genetic lineage. Me? I know I must be part Nordic, part north African, perhaps part Asian ... I have recent Italians on one side and Prussian on the other, but family history shows my ancestors lived all across the globe. In fact, with DNA testing, there is not one person alive who does not have genetic roots that do not span back to other races, other continents, other skin color, eye color, hair color, shape of skull, chemical make up ... the list of variations in every one of us is scientific fact. Let’s leave aside those Venusians or whatever Scientologists think they are.Look, people have this conversation all wrong. Yes, there is skin color discrimination. Yes, there are facial muscle, body type and other physiological differences. But we all came from a distinct and clearly defined group of common mothers (DNA traces the mother’s line, not the father’s). What we need to do is bring our true genetic background out of the closet, see ourselves for who we truly are. I refuse (and have refused) to tick the box “Caucasian” on police and immigration forms. Why? Because it tells only part of the story, and therefore it is, in fact, a lie. If any police officer is frightened because of the color of someone’s skin or Italian accent or Russian background, how much more secure would he or she feel if they knew they had ancestors in common, and not only see the differences?Commonality, that is the American way. Integration as one country. It is time we added racial commonality to the equation. And the only way to stop people using their eyes to discriminate and mislead their psyche is to have each and every one of us to realize that, genetically, we are all the same. There is NO racial difference except in petty percentages. And really, do you see anyone pretending “You’re Asian and I’m not,” when the ratio may be 62 percent to 55 percent. Such a distinction would be, is, silly. Language, cultural, religious differences could then exist without the overtones of racial superiority playing a hand. We are not all the same in all tastes, beliefs or the words we use. But when it comes to racial background? You bet we are.Of course, there is one other societal discrimination that DNA testing will not solve: sex. But as for men and women, I say vive la difference. For anything else, I say, “I am human.”Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.