Giving mongrels a good name

The connotation of the term mongrel is derogatory. And it is usually applied to dogs. A good marketing type will call a mongrel dog an all American dog, while an insulter will call it a mutt. And certain mongrels are so appealing they often become a new recognized breed. Here in America most recognize the negative effects of in-breeding, and still look askance at the benefits of mongrels with the mixing of genes to best ensure a dog with all dominant genes. And while appearance is better assured in pure breeds, there is no guarantee of intelligence or avoiding recessive traits.

Much of the same thoughts apply to humans, also. A socially inept person such as myself will blindly ask a person if they are a mongrel, not thinking about the connotation of insulting this person. Almost all say NO!, that they are such and such, as in Irish and German. But of course there is no genetically pure Irish or German person anywhere that I know of. Most are mixed or mongrels, which in my inept mind makes them genetically superior. But for humans this question has cultural implications that a dog does not have to think of.

A serious question, which I still find humorous, is the “they all look alike” point. Having spent a lot of time in Asia and the Pacific, there are distinct differences in how people look, be they Japanese, Korean, northern Chinese, southern Chinese, Polynesian, Micronesians, the mixtures, etc. And this is a two-way street having been told I could pass for Afghani in Afghanistan by Afghanis, or a few years later asked at a Taco Bell in NC by a black cashier if I was black or white? You should have seen my kids fall on the floor laughing at this most sincere and socially inept question. Of course being a Marine meant she deserved an answer, and with an impish wink of an eye I answered that I best looked like Willie B, the silver back gorilla in the Atlanta zoo. Then I got my food.

The importance of mixing genes in rural settings in the old time USA is well respected and understood. My time in SC on a 23,000 acre place with many small churches (the numbers vary over time) has the churches meeting not every Sunday, but on a rotating basis just to ensure congregations travel and mix to ensure all the advantages that being a mongrel brings. This doesn’t take an advanced degree to recognize, nor a government to organize.

Now there are census terms that avoid the term mixed or mongrel. What a shame. Terms like Latino or Hispanic are invented. Native American has over 500 definitions depending on the tribe. And this has even become a science problem if you follow the Kennewick Man legalities over the last decade or so. Even Barack Obama, progeny of a Kansas mother and a Kenyan father, is being represented as a Negro when he is definitely an all American mongrel (he will never get my vote, though). And in the state of Hawaii there is discussion of giving legal preference to pure Hawaiians, as if there are any left. And the original Hawaiians were transported mongrels anyway.

We Americans are genetically superior because we are mongrels. If we can get past all the old world cultural connotations and new world academic cultural prejudices to become an American culture, then we will be the guiding light for the world.