When I was growing up, the Italian kids at my school had this sort of club that nobody was allowed in unless your name ended in a vowel. They rolled up their white T-shirt sleeves to the top of their shoulders and they flashed their gold Italian horns that hung from thick chains around their necks. If anyone called them an ethnic slur, the group tracked the kid down and sent him home with two black eyes.

As soon as we were old enough to think for ourselves, our parents told us to be proud of who we were - whether it be Italian, Irish, African American, Native American, Hispanic, Muslim or any other race or culture that can be added to this list. The Italians gave us Columbus Day, the Irish have St. Patrick’s Day and African Americans have Black History Month. Councils for Native Americans have successfully campaigned to remove sports’ teams’ mascots with derogatory names. Muslims wear their traditional hijabs on their heads as a religious practice.

Speaking of religion, my father was Greek Catholic and my mother was Roman Catholic and it was always an argument in my house as to which church we should attend.

I was told I’m a Hungarian by ethnicity, but my mother said I’m part Slovak, too. On special occasions we ate Polish food. We never practiced many customs, but I still hold a sense of pride about my Eastern European descent.

In the mid to late 20th century, certain comedians made fun of races and ethnicities to try to make us laugh at ourselves about being stereotyped by our race or culture. The other day I caught a video of Don Rickles and Denzel Washington from the David Letterman show. Rickles was mocking his own Jewish customs and then he went right after the blacks and he had Denzel laughing so hard he nearly fell to the floor. “I make fun of the president, why not?” said Rickles. “I make fun of everyone. That’s America.”

Rickles’ type of humor would be considered highly offensive today, as might these comments from the late George Carlin. He said, “I could never understand ethnic or national pride. Because to me pride should be reserved for something you achieve or attain on your own, not something that happens by accident or birth. Being Irish isn’t a skill, it’s a genetic accident. You wouldn’t say I’m proud to be 5 foot 11 inches or I’m proud to have a predisposition for colon cancer. So why would you be proud to be Irish, or proud to be Italian, or American or anything?”

To me, Carlin is half right and half wrong. He’s right that we don’t achieve or attain our own race or ethnic background, but whether we’re born here or we moved here from another country, we achieve the status of being an American because we live here, we work here, we play here and we take advantage of our freedom to do whatever we want within the parameters of the law. That’s accomplishment. That makes us proud to be the people of the United States of America.

Yet I wonder what replies I would get if I asked the question, “Who are you?” to people on the street from randomly different groups. They might answer, Italian American, Irish American, Asian American, Native American, Muslim American or African American, but would anyone give me the answer, “I’m an American”?

According to William H. Frey’s report, current trends of American demographics are rapidly changing the face of the American population largely because the white population is in decline. Fewer white women of childbearing age are choosing to have children.

Frey states, “The unanticipated decline in the country’s white population means that other racial and ethnic groups are responsible for generating overall growth. Nationally, the U.S. grew by 19.5 million people between 2010 and 2019 - a growth rate of 6.3%. While the white population declined by a fraction of a percent. Latino or Hispanic, Asian American, and black populations grew by rates of 20%, 29%, and 8.5%, respectively. The relatively small population of residents identifying as two or more races grew by a healthy 30%, and the smaller Native American population grew by 7.6%.”

One significance of this study projects that the relatively small population of residents who identify themselves as two or more races is growing at an extremely fast rate.

These statistics prompt me to think that we are not one people of America. We appear as a country separated by invisible walls of nationalities and races where everyone keeps to themselves.

We may claim to be pedigrees of our family’s ethnic heritage, but we also belong to a national family who share the land of this country. The demographic trends suggest there’ll no longer be pockets of pedigrees of races or nationalities in the future. With the current phenomenon of interracial and intercultural relationships producing children of multiple ethnicities, we are rapidly becoming a population of mutts, if I may use a canine term to make a metaphor about who we, the people of the USA are becoming.

The children of my children’s children might someday answer the question, “Who are you?” with this reply. “I’m white. I’m black. I’m Hungarian. I’m Latino. I’m Asian American. I’m a little bit of everything, and that makes me an American mutt.”

These all-inclusive races and cultures will be soon be living in the homes of Everytown, USA. Then, perhaps the walls of racial and cultural separation will come tumbling down and Americans can finally unite as “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Rich Strack can be reached at richiesadie11@gmail.com.