Faulty judging by race is still an issue in America.

The color of one’s skin has been the cause of much debate, pain and strife for years. You might ask why the color of a person’s skin is so important; does it really make a difference in who we are or how we are perceived by society? Most individuals in our society view race as simply the color of a person’s skin. What if I were to tell you that that is a false idea, and the color of your skin has nothing to do with a person’s race? If this is true, then we as a society will have to look deep within ourselves and reevaluate what we have been taught for most of our lives. Let’s look at a few of the definitions of race:

• DOD’s definition: A division of human beings identified by the possession of traits that are transmissible by descent and that are sufficient to characterize persons possessing these traits as a distinctive human genotype.

• Merriam-Webster: a division of mankind possessing traits that are transmissible by descent and sufficient to characterize it as a distinct human type.

• Other definitions of race: A group of people who are generally considered to be physically distinct from other groups in some way, such as skin color, hair texture or facial features (size and shape of head, eyes, ears, nose, and lips, and color of eyes); considered to be distinct by themselves and/ or others.

Now what can you take from those definitions? The third definition is one that is commonly used and or thought of when dealing with the subject of race. Now the first two, they will provoke thought and are in essence a truer definition of race rather than the third.

Generally speaking, when a reasonable person thinks of race, they may identify a person’s race based on the color of their skin. That, for the most part is the common practice and in the EO field we call it is called the Economizing Phenomenon, a perceptual shortcut. But when using that definition and/or that mind set, it leaves you open to error and possible embarrassment when dealing with others of a different race. For example, if you were to see a person in street cloths and he or she possesses a dark complexion; you may assume that he or she is a Black/African American. Did it ever cross your mind that they could be Puerto Rican, Arab or perhaps from South America? In the military, we see this all the time; you might assume individuals to be of one race, but when you see them in uniform and look at their name tag or listen to their speech, you find out that your assumption is incorrect. Even on TV you have a talk show host like Christina, who is Spanish with blonde hair and blue eyes: if you were to have the sound on your TV turned down, it’d be a safe bet that you’d assume that she was a white female talk show host.

Now let’s look at this scenario from another angle. Take a male who has brown hair, green eyes and looks like any other Caucasian/White male you may see walking down the street. Is it possible that this same male is of Black or African American descent, or that both his parents are? This isn’t just a theory, and has even been seen in movies throughout the years. You have The Human Stain, staring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman in which Sir Anthony Hopkins’s character has hidden the fact that he is actually black; how he deals with it haunts him throughout his life. Also there is Imitation of Life, staring Lana Turner, Sandra Dee and Susan Kohner who played Sara, a light skinned black who passes as white; this was a very thought provoking movie of the late 50’s.

So if you’re using definition number three to define race then none of this is possible. But by using and understanding the first two definitions of race, then those two examples can and do exist in our society; you are now basing a person’s race on their genes, not the color of their skin. Genes do dictate just how we look or what traits are passed on to us. There are numerous Black/African Americans who, not by their choice, can pass, as some older folks call it as Caucasian/White. Their skin color was predetermined by the genes present in their parents’ bodies and it just so happened that the two genes that would give them a lighter complexion than say their siblings, were the two genes that met and combined together. Many such individuals faced an identity crisis when they had to choose how they would consider themselves in regards to race. Many just left it up to society as to how they would be perceived.

Whether it’s hair, eye color or baldness, the list of traits that are passed on is endless; no one is able to predict which ones will be present in our offspring or why they skip a generation or two. But this does happen and is even present in my own family. My youngest son has my father in-law’s hair line, while my other two sons have my hair line. Yet all three boys look alike. So as a society what are we to do? Do we walk up to people who look different than we do and ask what race do they consider themselves? Or do we simply just stop judging each other by the color of our skins and instead judge each other by individual behavior? I’d say the second sounds better; how about you?

As leaders in today’s military we must look within ourselves know our strengths, weaknesses and prejudices so that we can then set a positive example for our peers and Soldiers to emulate. This is accomplished by knowing and understanding that we are not all green and that we are individuals first and foremost. And even though we’d like to think it’s not so, there are folks in our ranks who dislike people because people are not the same.

So what it all boils down to is how we, as a society, choose to view each other. It’s a personal choice we make to not judge or classify a people based solely on their skin color. Think about what has been said and how society operates. Education is a great and wonderful thing; it gives us the ability to grow and learn in so many different ways.