Powell
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Joined: 27 Nov 2004
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 Posted: Tue 12 Aug 2008 12:47 Post subject: Are you 'biracial' or 'black with a white mom?' |
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Are you 'biracial' or 'black with a white mom?'
| Quote: | | Michelle Hughes’ mother is white and her father is black. Michelle describes herself as “biracial.” Some mixed-race people---such as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama----consider themselves “African American or black with a white mother.” As Michelle explains in her essay, the way a mixed-race person with one black parent identifies is often the result of several factors, including whether the person feels pressure from some in the black community to identify as black. What I find interesting now is the pressure from some in the white community to get Obama to identify as biracial. In a recent e-mail, a reader told me that Obama excludes his white heritage when he describes himself as African American. “This exclusion in effect alienates white voters and is a missed opportunity to connect with the U.S. voter population.” Michelle is an adoption attorney in Chicago and co-founder of Bridge Communications, Inc., a company specializing in diversity training for multiracial families. She offers her insights as one who refuses to define herself in any way that doesn’t include both of her parents. This is Michelle Hughes’ essay: |
| Quote: | A friend told me recently that my parents were a unique inter-racial couple. Even though my parents have been married for more than four decades, my mother, who's nearing 70, is still very much the optimistic white woman who grew up on a quiet Minnesota farm years ago in an all-white community. Being married to a black man hasn't altered her mannerisms or her speech pattern, or her "whiteness.” Similarly, my 82-year-old father in large part is still the black man who came of age in Texas during the Jim Crow South. He can tell you stories of white men demanding, "Take your hat off, boy, in my presence." He remains an advocate for racial justice as well as a dad who can't sit at a stoplight without reminding his children that a black man invented it.
My parents married two years prior to 1967 when it was still illegal in 14 states for them to do so. When they had their three children, in keeping with the thinking of the day, my parents considered us "black with a white mom.”
As a child, I felt as though we were always on stage. Whenever my family walked into a restaurant or visited a different church out of town, everybody stared. My parents' racial makeup was unmistakable. But what about their children: Were we black, white, or both? My family was also unique in our South Side Chicago neighborhood, and later in our suburban one. In the 5th grade, I remember explaining to a classmate that a black person and a white person could actually produce a child. So, at the ripe old age of 10, I found myself giving a dual lesson in sex education and being biracial.
Because I don't look particularly black or white, people often are curious about my racial makeup. Depending on the depth of my tan and if I’m wearing my hair curly, I could be labeled a light-skinned black person, a Latina or even an Italian. Those curious try to figure it out by using coded language, such as 'What are you?' or 'Where did you come from?' or "Where are your parents from?" Rarely do people forthrightly just ask, 'What's your racial background?'
They may be confused, but I've always been clear about who I am. When asked, I tell people that I'm biracial, or more precisely biracial via a black/white mix. "Biracial" gives me the option of recognizing both of my parents; both of whom were very much a part of my development.
I do understand why some mixed race people identify as "black with a white mom. " If you look black, often it's simply less complicated to identify that way. It’s easier to just relent to how society will define you. Sen. Barack Obama has said that he considers himself African American because he looks African American. He jokes that, in the past, he's had difficulty hailing a cab. So, why doesn't she show the same sympathy for people who "look white" and identify as white? What about "black-looking" Latinos and Arabs?
Still, "black with a white mom" is such a throwback to the old one-drop rule, which demanded that one drop of black blood so overwhelmed (and tainted) the white blood that it colored the person black. It seems offensive and derogatory to me to honor the rule.
And yet, the term biracial doesn't offer a cakewalk. It has social and political ramifications. "Biracial" sometimes plays poorly in the black community. Remember what happened to golfer Tiger Woods when he described himself as "Cablanasian," mixing his Caucasian, Black, and Asian ancestries? Some African Americans felt rebuffed because they wanted him to identify with them. At the very least, they wanted Woods--- the son of a black man and Asian woman---to see himself as "black with an Asian mom." Isn't that because of the black inferiority complex?
The whole "biracial" or "black with a white mom" nomenclature is such a product of this country's complicated and sordid racial past. There was a time when it was so objectionable to be black that some blacks wanted to be anything but. Some even claimed they were part Cherokee or latched on to some distant white lineage even when the evidence of such was little more than hearsay. So by the time black pride movement began, if you were biracial, considering yourself "black with a white mom" was important if you wanted to be part of a black community ever in the throes of redefining itself. Who in the hell is she talking about. The situation is quite the opposite. Anatole Broyard, for example, was often condemned as having little or no white ancestry simply because most of his recent ancestors had been falsely classified as "Negroes" or "Colored." That didn't change the fact that they were Creoles of predominately European DNA and with their own culture. "Ethnic Cleansing" in the U.S. is still praised as long as people are forced into the "black" fold.
But times are changing. You could say that I was born into the multiracial movement. What started with social networking groups has since blossomed to combine a variety of organizations advocating for efforts ranging from those on behalf of racial justice to fair media depictions of multiracial people and multiracial families.
I sit on the board of the Association of Multiethnic Americans (AMEA, one of the oldest national multiracial family organizations in the country. AMEA was instrumental in changing the 2000 census to allow multiracial people to check all the boxes that applied.
Since Obama has gained national prominence, more people are recognizing biracialism. In recent months, many articles have been written on the subject. Still, the candidate himself really hasn’t explored it much beyond what he’s written in his books. In short, his presence helps the movement by making us more visible. But he himself has been all-too silent.
These days, younger mixed-race people are anything but silent. More and more are inclined to define themselves in ways that represent both of their parents.
As for the Hughes family, my parents don't consider their three children "black with a white mom” anymore. They reared three independent thinkers who racially define themselves in various ways. My sister generally identifies as black. My brother has a complicated racial identity structure that starts with him being "human."
I will always be biracial. Like my father, I'm committed to advocacy and community outreach. Like my mother, I can look at the realities of a situation, see it clearly, and remain somewhat optimistic. Those are qualities that aren't particularly racial but necessary in moving forward when it comes to all matters of race.
You can learn more about Bridge Communications, Inc. at www.bridgecommunications.org and about the Association of Multiethnic Americans (AMEA) at www.ameasite.org
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http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/race/2008/08/being-biracial.html#more |
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