Posted: Wed 01 Dec 2004 00:23 Post subject: Damned if you do and damned if you don't
Here's another mixed race idiot whining because whites frequently don't see biracial people as "black." Of course, when they say that they don't want to be "black," the same whiners scream that the dreaded WHITE people will consider them negroes anyway.
>--------------------
>Entering the colorblind zone
11/29/04
Chicago Tribune
>--------------------
>
>Observations from someone who's been there: Welcome to racism when you're
>biracial
>
>By Alysia Tate. Alysia Tate is the editor and publisher of The Chicago
>Reporter, a publication of the Community Renewal Society
>
>November 23, 2004
>
>It's funny how one group's compliment becomes another group's insult.
>
>There sat a TV panel of white male journalists, joined by one
>African-American woman, praising the victory of U.S. Sen.-elect Barack
>Obama. They shared the usual commentary about strategy and vote totals for
>a while; then the analysis took a bizarre turn.
>
>"He's not an African-American candidate," one of the men said. "He's a
>candidate for everyone." Another affirmed his agreement a few moments
>later. Obama hadn't emphasized race and had instead "campaigned as a
>candidate for all of Illinois."
>
>With all the heads nodding, I thought my own astonishment was
>misplaced--until the camera revealed the woman was in her own state of shock.
>
>Here was the third black senator elected since Reconstruction, winning by
>more than 40 percentage points in a race that represented for the first
>time two black candidates vying for the post. But most of the
>analysts--and frankly, most of the white people I know--couldn't
>understand the significance of race in this victory.
>
>Obama's accomplishment, in their eyes, was that he wasn't very black at
>all. He was articulate, highly educated and easily navigated majority
>white settings, all with caramel-colored skin and wavy hair. Though they
>had watched him on the campaign trail for months, Obama's characteristics
>had ironically given the white observers around him license to be
>colorblind. And here they sat, calling that progress.
>
>Welcome to racism when you're biracial.
>
>If you're like Obama and me--a child of one white parent and one black
>parent--feeling like you belong somewhere is not a small struggle, even in
>your own family.
>
>For a long time, my white mom chose "other" when presented with forms that
>asked her to pick a racial category for me. Despite her good intentions, I
>felt the constant pressure to choose--was I black or white? Speaking with
>good grammar and getting good grades seemed to put me into the latter
>category, or so the stereotype said. It looked like hanging with the black
>girls and wearing sharp clothes would put me in the former.
>
>But most of the time, no matter what I did, I never ended up feeling like
>I fit in anywhere, settling for the sensation that I just "wasn't quite
>white" over any sense of being part of a group.
>
>To most of the white people in my life, however, I "wasn't quite black." I
>was the black person whose light skin, straight hair and hazel eyes put
>them at ease, the black person who didn't threaten them. Only much later
>would I learn that most every black family includes members who look like
>me, that the true range of blackness was far wider than I had ever
>imagined. Only later would I realize that "acting black" was everything my
>father did--including listening to classical music and teaching
>psychology--because he did it all as a black man.
>
>But back then, and even at times today, I remained the black person who
>didn't look black to most white people, to the point where they could tell
>racist jokes or lock their car doors when I drove them through black
>neighborhoods. No matter how I protested, in their eyes, I was different.
>They minimized my blackness because something must be wrong with it, I
>concluded. They accepted me because I rose above it.
>
>And now I fear the same thing is happening to our newly elected U.S.
>senator. Today, white supporters praise his bridge-building and focus on
>unity. But what will happen when he wants to advance an issue that
>specifically affects African-Americans? What will happen when he disagrees
>with his liberal white colleagues? What will happen if--God forbid--he
>gets angry in public?
>
>I think we all know the answer. He'll get pummeled for acting too black.
>They won't say it that way, of course. They'll describe his attitude
>problem. He'll be called an activist, or militant. Some may even be bold
>enough to accuse him of playing the race card.
>
>Before that happens, the white people who refuse to see race when they see
>Obama need to recognize the damage that can do. For by not viewing Obama's
>victory as the victory of a black man, as a victory for all black people,
>and a victory for a nation aiming to heal its own racist past, white
>people are reinforcing the very racism they profess to have surmounted.
>Ignoring race, acting like race isn't there, does not ease the road Obama
>will travel. And I doubt it puts him much at ease, either.
>
>It only minimizes how difficult that road will be--even for the Democratic
>Party's new rising star, who happens to be black.
>
A.D had provided an article about Barack Obama in which a mixed race, "black"
identified woman was complaining about whites dealing with Obama as a
"non-black" person.
'
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in
