“Mutts like me” means Obama a realist

I never had a pet as a kid, nor did I ever feel a desire to have one. So all of this talk about the new “first dog” was lost on me until President-elect Barack Obama went out of his way to give a blunt description of what kind of pet daughters Sasha and Malia will get.

“A lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me,” the future president said last week of his preference for a new family pet to move to the White House with the family Obama.

SOME ACTIVISTS HAVE expressed concern about Obama’s use of the term “mutt” to describe himself. Yet I must admit to being pleased to hear it, because it struck me as a realistic description of the people of this country.

Not just Obama, who is of a biracial background. But all of us.

For the simple fact is that just about everybody in this country is of some mixture of ethnicities. The reality reflected in the 2000 Census is that many of us (about 6.5 million people in all) are a mixture of races as well.

Even for those of us who think of ourselves as a single race have to honestly admit to a mixture of ethnicities in our own families. My grandmother used to talk of how our family origins included Italian and German ethnicity – even though our grandfather would say she was exaggerating, and that we were really full-blooded Mexican, which in reality is such a mixture of races and ethnicities that there was once an intellectual movement claiming Mexicans to be the “cosmic race” that included everybody. Future Christmas card photographs of the Family Obama will include the "first dog" who could very well be a mascot for the United States in the 21st Century. Illustration provided by www.VermontersforObama.org.

THE UNITED STATES has become the same. What was once considered miscegenation and a criminal act in certain states is now just the everyday reality of the 21st Century, and it may be this country’s greatest advantage.

Whenever I have written about ethnicity in this country, I have usually tried to find a way to include a phrase that refers to people of the United States as “mutts.” In part because it offends those who get hung up on racial categorization and exclusion of others.

But also, because I think it simply reflects the reality that people of this country now are usually the combination of past generations of people who didn’t stick strictly within their so-called ethnic origins group when having a life.

I personally have always thought that this mixture is a good part of what makes the United States unique and superior to many other countries – which get bogged down with having a native ethnic group that it gets in the way of their national progress.

IT’S LIKE THE United States is a mixture of the best of many different ethnicities and races, helping to create a stronger and more vibrant society. It was always one area where I thought Latin American countries were more honest than the United States, in that they openly acknowledge the fact that all the races mixed to create the current concept of Latinos – rather than trying to pretend like some in the United States do at times that some homogenous racial perspective is being maintained.

So for those people who are offended that Obama would think of himself as a mutt, did it ever occur to you that he actually thinks his biracial background gives him a certain advantage over others by allowing him to comprehend differing racial perspectives – even if some people in our society are determined to refuse to accept that fact?

We ought to start thinking of the fact that the United States is a nation of “mutts,” and that such a reality is one of our advantages. We are a country that can adapt to accept virtually anyone. It’s what allows the United States to become the desired destination for the elite of the human race.

And for those people whose thought process is such that they want to restrict who can be in this country legally, they need to get a grasp on reality. If we ever did get the kind of nation those nativists desire, we’d be well on our way to becoming a Third World country.

SO NOW I will be looking to see just what kind of dog the Obama family gets.

While I understand a priority for the Obama family is to get a pet who will not aggravate daughter Malia’s allergies, I would hope they manage to find a friendly-tempered dog.

Do we really need four more years of a dog like Barney, the Bush family’s Scottish terrier who bit the finger of a Reuters wire service reporter-type who tried last week to pet it?

For with Obama’s use of the label “mutt,” it could very well turn out that whatever dog the Obama family picks will wind up being the perfect representative for what our nation has become in this century.

THE “FIRST MUTT” would become a mascot, of sorts, for the United States of America.

And in calling him a mascot, he’d be a more dignified representative of the U.S.A. than any of the real-life mascots (or honored symbols, as fans of Chief Illiniwek used to insist he was) that exist in our world.

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