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ISSUES: Racial & Ethnic Discrimination
Chapter 1: Racism & discrimination
of their heritage are acknowledged
equally. That doesn’t necessarily mean
they’re rejecting the parts that jump
out at others as the most physically
obvious or politically salient. (It also
doesn’t mean they don’t understand
that they may face racism based on the
way they look, versus the way they feel.
It’s just that racial identity is a calculation
that’s more complicated than a simple
reaction to prejudice.)
The best bet is to accept that people’s
labels for themselves reflect only one
thing: what’s true to them.
2)What we call ourselvesmight
change. Often. It doesn’tmean
we’re confused.
If there’s a dominant stereotype
associated with biracial and multiracial
people, it’s that we’re confused about
who we are. But let’s be honest: the
very idea of dividing humans into racial
categories is confusing. Who’s in? Who’s
out? Where are the borders of each
group? Who gets to decide?
When a person whose heritage is more
complicated than average adjusts what
she calls herself over the course of life, it’s
not a sign of being racially schizophrenic.
It’s simply a reflection of the fact that
the main handful of racial categories
have their limitations and that they can
change with time, place and perspective.
This malleabilitymay show up in our lives
in more obvious ways than it does in the
lives of people who know for sure they
only check one box, but it doesn’t mean
we’re unstable, unsure of ourselves, or
conflicted about who we are.
We might even have different answers
when discussing our personal, political,
social and cultural identities. This is a
perfectly normal and level-headed
reaction to a society in which the
information people are looking for
when they ask “What are you?” might be
different depending on whether they’re
a census-taker, someone in your group
of friends, a school or employer gauging
interest in affinity groups, your doctor or
your hairstylist.
3)We’re probably not interested in
conducting an impromptu press
conference on our identity
This experience isn’t unique to biracial or
multiracial people. Gay people, very tall
people, people with mental and physical
disabilities, peoplewhoareoverweight or
have recently lost a lot of weight, people
who speak with accents, and pregnant
women (just to name a few groups) all
have to go out into the world bracing for
well-meaning but invasive questions and
comments from colleagues and perfect
strangers who feel just a little too entitled
to having their curiosity satisfied.
This phenomenon is especially striking
when it comes to biracial and multiracial
people, though. It seems to me that
because race is so important in our
society, some are very unsettled when
they can’t place someone immediately.
That’s when the questions start coming:
what are you? What are your parents?
Where are you from? Which of your
parents is white? Do you choose one side
over the other?
The questions aren’t, on their face,
offensive – but they’re invasive, and, just
like any other queries about details of
someone’s family, feelings or upbringing,
they can make for uncomfortable, too-
personal small talk for those of us who
don’t like to be put on the spot.
4)Wemay ormay not be
sophisticated about or interested
in issues related to race
I happen to be really interested in race,
racial identity and racism. This might be
the result ofwhat I’ve learnedabout these
topics from an academic perspective
or because I’m so struck by the way
ethnicity has coloured the experiences
of my friends and family, black and white
alike.
I think it’s common as biracial people for
our experiences and observations, and
the way people react to us, to inspire us
to think more than the average person
about race. We may even think we have
a little bit of special insight because of
the different cultures in which we’re
embedded. Obama, for example,
seemed to display this when he drew on
his experience growing up with a white
mother and grandmother in his famous
race speech.
Because race is so important in
our society, some are unsettled
when they can’t place someone
right away
But this isn’t the case for all biracial or
multiracial people. In fact, a lot of us were
raised by parents whose choice to be in
an interracial relationship went hand in
hand with the fact that they considered
themselves postracial, or colour-blind, or
that they thought it was tacky or wrong
to pay a lot of attention to race.
For example, a reader emailed me
recently to say that when her own
mixed-race daughters ask about their
complexions, as compared with each
others’ and those of their friends, she
simply says, “God doesn’t see color.”
These children probably won’t grow up
with any deeper level of racial insight
than the average American.
That’s why although we provide a lot of
fodder for people interested in talking
and thinking about the complications
of race, there’s a decent chance that we
were trained to do the opposite, and
people who meet us shouldn’t assume
that we’re oracles of racial insight or that
we make a hobby out of talking about
race relations.
5) There’s no one biracial
experience
This shouldn’t be a surprise, given the
nine million-plus Americans who identify
withmore than one race.
That’s not even including the majority of
black people in America who have some
European ancestry even though they
have two parents who identify as black
– some of them consider themselves
biracial, and some of them don’t. Many
white people have “hidden” African
ancestry, too.
Giventhethousandsofpossiblevariations
in heritage, and the way attitudes toward
race can change with geography, culture,
and even within individual families, it’s
futile to try to make generalisations
about how our lives look, how we feel or
howwemake sense of the different parts
of our heritage.
6)We don’t necessarily see
ourselves asmessengers of racial
harmony
“Soon everyone will look like you!”
“One day we’ll all be mixed!”
“Beautiful biracial children will show
everyone that love has no colour.”
These are all things I’ve heard over the
years frompeople who are really hopeful
about eliminating racism. These people
seemto think–not entirelyunreasonably,
