L.G.
Probationary
Joined: 19 Feb 2007
{Posts: 1 }
Location: Tennessee
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 Posted: Tue 20 Feb 2007 01:01 Post subject: Generations of mixed people |
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It seems that many of the racial identity issues brought up in this forum pertain primarily to people of recent racial mixture, but there are many people like myself who have two racially mixed parents, who each had two racially mixed parents and on back for generations. How do people who come from many generations of mixed race ancestory decide where they fit into the ridged racial groups our society considers acceptable? I have European ancestry. Native American ancestry and African ancestry, but so did both my parents etc. and so on. I don't think I grew up with the same ideas about race as people who have one Black parent and one White parent or one Native American parent. There are a number of groups with this type of mixture who have a group identity separate from race, such as the Melungeons, Redbones, and Lumbees, but I am not a member of any of these groups either.
I'm sure there are many like myself, and I think we provide an interesting example of how superficial and meaningless race designations really are. I have a sister who looks White, a brother who looks Black, I look Native American, and our parents are a perfect blend of all three. Because of my appearance, I have usually identified myself as a Native American, while my parents and both siblings all identify themselves as White. But lately I have been thinking more about the issue and now I prefer to not label myself as any one of them. I feel like an outsider in all three groups, and yet I am all three. If I were to pick only one part to celebrate I would be isolated from the full richness of my heritage, and the important legacy of which I am a part.
In college I remember drawing portraits of my family members and having my classmates look at me odly and say "So.. your Mother is Hispanic and your brother is Black?" I did a self portait as my final project where I broke my face into three parts, one each of red, white and black. When I explained the meaning to the class everyone started shaking their heads in aknowledgement, as if they finally had the answer to a great puzzle. I marvel at why it is so important to people, why they feel the need to figure it out. I don't mind their curiosity so much as their need to know, as if it were the most important thing about me.
I've always just looked at people as what they are. I've had many first generation bi-racial friends as well as those who fit nicely into an accepted racial category but I never thought of them as anything but people like me, with different faces and different histories. My husband is also mixed except he is Native American, Scotish, German and Armenian. He generally identifies himself as White, but I don't think about him in racial terms any more than he does me. We are just people with interesting faces and intriguing family histories. I wish everyone could see us that way.
It is inevetable that future generations will become harder and harder to define in strict racial terms. Eventually we will have to start seeing people as simply people. I look forward to that day. I think deep down, we all do. |
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