Mixed Identities: Choosing What to Be

Mixed Identities: Choosing What to Be

Americans mostly think of themselves in singular racial terms. Witness President Obama's answer to the race question on the 2010 census: Although his mother was white and his father was black, Mr. Obama checked only one box, black, even though he could have checked both races. People are wondering why. Look at our president. He is half white. "So why is it that the American public and mainstream media have failed to acknowledge his true heritage as mixed race and identify him as black? Why did many question his intelligence and ability to lead the nation just because he has some black blood in his white blood that we so choose to ignore?"(Wayan 210) Do we feel that the value and purity of his whiteness is contaminated by that drop of blackness in him? Did his white mother and grandparents feel ignored and discounted?

"Families with mixed backgrounds are becoming increasingly common in our country. Today, such families are less likely to face negative reactions than they were a generation or so ago. But this doesn't mean that it has suddenly become easy for families who are combining different cultures under one roof. Parents still struggle to honor the various traditions in their family and blend them to become something new entirely. Extended families can add pressure, whether overt or subtle, to make sure their "side" is respected."(Gaskins, 42)

These days, multiracial and biracial people see themselves everywhere -- in public office, on movie screens, in the corridors at school and on the street. Regardless of who their parents are, how they define themselves is influenced by many factors: their age, how they look, where they were raised and how they've lived. And as personal as those circumstances are, they speak of common experiences, too -- of the discomfort in overhearing derogatory remarks about one of the racial groups they belong to. "Of their uncertainty about which race box to check when they can check only one on forms to enroll in school, get a mortgage or apply for health insurance."(Arnold, 124). Why are the majority of biracial celebrities claiming to be black instead of biracial? Especially when they are usually raised by their "white" side?

There is a tendency for some parents in America to have their kids if they are part black identify themselves as being black. This of course is based on the one drop rule socialized in America. "Some people think the children should be made to understand that based on the norms of American society they could be identified as being black. But, they have a right to choose to be mixed race, bi-racial, multicultural" (Cross 213). It is sometimes the limits of environment, socialization, education and fear that drives prejudices. Something as simple as a discussion of a threat by persons of another race to one's means of livelihood, if overheard by a child could instill fear and prejudice in the subconscious.

Let's teach our mixed race babies from a very young age to celebrate our differences. Brown eyes, blue eyes; straight hair, curly hair; big nose, little nose, none of these traits makes a person who they are.. It is of great importance to engage mixed race children in discussions that build self esteem and let them understand that