Statement of Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
Speaker of the House
Before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology
of the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight
Hearing on Multiracial Identification
25 July 1997
MR. CHAIRMAN. America is a nation of immigrants. We have,
in America, people who have, for various reasons come to
America for a better opportunity. Before there was a
nation called the United States, Pilgrims, fleeing
religious persecution, landed in a place they called the
New World. In the 1800's the Irish came to these shores
fleeing a famine which had devastated their country. As
recently as the 1970s, Vietnamese fled a homeland wounded
by decades of war. These and so many others saw hope and
opportunity in America. They came here for a chance to
succeed. They made the conscious decision to become part
of a new family -- to become Americans. And becoming an
American is a unique experience, which comes with certain
responsibilities, certain habits that one has to absorb
and accept to successfully finish the process.
An American is not "French" the way the French
are or "German" the way Germans are. You can
live in either of those countries for years and never become
French or German. I think one of the reasons Tiger Woods
has had such a big impact is because he is an American.
He defines himself as an American. As Tiger described
himself, "I just am who I am, whatever you see in
front of you." I think we need to be prepared to
say, the truth is we want all Americans to be, quite
simply, Americans. That doesn't deprive anyone of the
right to further define their heritage -- I go to
celebrations such as the Greek festival in my district
every year. It doesn't deprive us of the right to have
ethnic pride, to have some sense of our origins. But it
is wrong for some Americans to begin creating subgroups
to which they have a higher loyalty than to America at
large. The genius of America has always been its ability
to draw people from everywhere and to give all of them an
opportunity to pursue happiness in a way that no other
society has been able to manage.
Andria Brown1, writing in the Chicago Tribune on April 18,
1997, wrote about Tiger Woods: "We might be saved by
the amazing grace of golf. And by a kid with a swing,
whose mixed heritage could be a recipe for hope, proving
to the world that it's not what color you are, but the
way you carry yourself and the way you persist to reach
your dreams. When he steps to the tee, Tiger Woods does
not represent the struggle of African-Americans. When he
sinks a putt, the athletic future of Chinese-Americans
does not rest on his shoulders. Rather, what Tiger Woods
does embody each time he walks a golf course is the
potential of youth and the reward of diligence...What Tiger Woods typifies is the best of
what we all can be."
America is too big and too diverse to categorize each and
every one of us into four rigid racial categories. The
administration has made a decision to force us to choose
artificial categories that do not accurately reflect the
racial identity of America. Millions of Americans like
Tiger Woods or my constituent, Ryan Graham, who testified
before you earlier this year, have moved beyond the
Census Bureau's divisive and inaccurate labels. We live
in a technicolor world where the government continues to
view us as only black and white.
It is time for the government to stop perpetuating racial
divisiveness. It is time to treat individuals as
individuals and to adopt the attitude about our fellow
Americans that Lou Ann Mullen, a Native American Texan
who fought valiantly to be allowed to adopt two Black
children, expressed about her own family when asked about
their multi-racial make-up, "We are often described
that way but I don't think of us that way. To me we are
just my family."
That should be our goal for the way we as Americans feel
about one another. That is why, ideally, I believe we
should have one box on federal forms that simply reads:
"American."
But, if that is not possible at this point, we should at
least stop forcing American into inaccurate categories
aimed at building divisive subgroups and allow them the
option of selecting the category "multiracial",
which I believe will be an important step toward
transcending racial division and reflecting the melting
pot which is America.
Editorial Footnote:
(1) The quotation attributed to Andria Brown is inaccurate. The first two sentences of the quotation did not appear in her Chicago Tribune piece nor in any of her other writings. The original source of these sentences is unknown. The full text of Ms. Brown's column on Tiger Woods can be viewed at http://home.midsouth.rr.com/declines/tiger.html
