Trackbacks & Pings

1. All-Encompassing Mixed Race and Multi-Racial Body of Literature and Multi-Media « Memory, Learning, Culture, Networks, Spaces, Ecology, Expertises on 05 Oct 2009 at 1:26 pm

   [...] http://www.racialicious.com/2008/03/31/has-multiracial-identity-become-more-accepted/ [...]

Comments

1. Cynthia wrote:

   I think the multiracial identity has been accepted by people who “appear” multiracial longer than people who are, but look one side or the other. In the case of Carmen, if she looked like, say, actress Kristin Kruek, it wouldn’t be that likely that people would question her last name.

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 12:31 pm ¶

2. lori wrote:

   (I just want to say that I was really happy to see you quoted in that NYTimes story, today, Carmen! I lurk on this blog a lot, and learn a lot.)

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 1:38 pm ¶

3. Stephen Martin wrote:

   Carmen! Thank you so much for this website. I have been struggling with this issue for a lifetime. I am a 45 year old Irish/Mexican man from Detroit Michigan. Both parents raised in the US, so I am second generation. I appear to people to be more Latino (brown dark haired) while I have sisters who could be Greek or Italian looking. One sister is very fair and doesn’t look Latina at ALL. While in grade school she was with her friends when I asked her for the house keys since I would be home first. Her friends stared at me and asked her who I was. This was in 5th or 6th grade. When she told them I was her brother they just stared. We would laugh about those types of things, not realizing how different our life experiences would be because of the racial assumptions and ignorance of strangers. My mother was once assumed to my sisters nanny and my dad gets asked who I am sometimes. When I go home and we go to a restaurant, (I’m gay) I wonder if people assume he’s my ’sugar daddy’. I don’t look like him, yet he IS my father. There are too many bigmouths on the Irish side who would jump all over that if it wasn’t the case.

   I’m the kind of person other Latinos will come up and start speaking Spanish with. Growing up in the Midwest was one thing, but in a majority black city (City of Detroit), I learned more about the African American experience than I did Mexican American because we grew up in a majority white but ethnic neighborhood. Our neighbors were Polish, Armenian, Greek, Belgian but no blacks. This was in the 60’s and 70’s. As the city began to change after the riots , my Irish grandmother resisted attempts to ‘blockbust’ and sell out her home to those who wanted her house. So when we visited her (which was often) we were in a totally black neighborhood/environment. We played with the black kids on that street, and our grandmother never did move from that house. She got to know and get along with her black neighbors like she would with any neighbor. She wasn’t the type of women who would be friends with anyone if she didn’t like them. I’m told she was a strong woman.

   Our high school was also mixed. When I was growing up, busing was a hot issue. Many parents black/white/Asian/Maltese/Slovak/Phillipino) ..you name it) did not want their children being bussed. So those who could afford it attended a high school called “Holy Redeemer”. That school had a high Mexican American population, but we had everything else there as well…even a Jewish Photography class teacher.

   I was somewhat shielded from racism by this environment. My mother told us we were Americans, but she instilled into us a love for our Mexican side, as did my father. We attended every St. Patrick’s Day parade and attended a special party afterward where we would see the local news anchor and City Council members. Looking back I took it for granted…little did I know how different my upbringing was from others I would run into later in life.

   Assumptions are made (as you know). My name comes from a great grandparent born in Dublin. Assumptions were made that I had changed it from “Martinez”. Assumptions about who I am continue to this very day, making me far more sensitive to racial stereotyping than I have ever been. Once, while renting a car in a mostly Latino area (where I knew the garage was a better one than what I had been using) an Enterprise Rental agent asked me FOR MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER before she would rent me a car!

   I had been a flight attendant, had rented cars in Detroit, Hawaii, Miami, Houston, LAX, you name it, so I knew part of a car rental never involves the exchange of your Social. But I guess the agent ‘assumed’ I was perhaps not of this nation. Yes, she went there, and when I hit the ceiling, she asked me to ‘calm down’. Imagine asking an angry Irish/Mexican man to calm down….right. She just made it worse. I complained, wrote channel 2 news…everyone agreed something should happen, nothing ever did.

   When I have been issued a moving violation (speeding ticket) before I look at the fine, I look to see what my ‘classification’ is. Because of my name, they feel inclined to put “white”. I don’t feel ‘white’ though. I don’t feel Mexican either. I do feel American though…except when others challenge me on my ‘assumption’. This is a timely topic given what is going on in some parts of this nation when it comes to local municipalities pulling over drivers and asking them for their SOCIAL SECURITY CARDS? Are they doing that to all drivers? How is that part of the process? Is that really the way to solve the problem? Is that clerk at Enterprise now working for the Arizona Highway Patrol? What about my rights? Your rights? This is MY COUNTRY and God help the person who denies my MY rights. I will hire an attorney faster than you can say racialicious.

   Want to complicate matters? Then read on.

   Recently, since we know very little about our “Family Tree” I and other family members did some dabbling into the DNA Genealogical testing going around. My fathers (who is clearly white as they come) came back predictable, but with a little twist.
   His side tested R1b (m343) very Irish or Spanish (white) and his mothers side tested K which is also very French/Irish AND could also be Ashkenazi. Basically white either way. Then comes my mothers “Mexican” side. Both on her maternal and paternal sides we have African influences. Instead of the typical Mestizo type readout I would imagine most Mexican’s would expect, we got back L3e2 and E3a which are strong ties to Africa.
   These are going back several generations and there has been so much intermarriage but only a handful of people in Mexico who have black genes. Trying to find a Mexican group that knows anything about the “third root” of Mexican heritage has been daunting. Mexicans are aware of it, but since most black Mexicans have been absorbed by the general population there isn’t much about it. My leads here in Southern California has led me to a group which focuses more on the “New Spain” (white) Spaniards…which leaves me holding the genealogical bag.

   So how’s that for multiracial? Obama’s speech spoke to me as well. I also support him for President of the UNITED States of America. It’s in my blog and so are my experiences. For the love of my mother (God rest her soul) and my father (who is a Clinton supporter — we’re not talking these days), I will always check the “other” or “mixed” box on the census. How can you not with these type of life experiences? You are bookmarked. I eagerly await those who can share with us what it means or doesn’t mean for them to be mixed.

   Perhaps I (and others) have finally found a place where we “fit in” and where I will be the first to be able to ask “What are you?”

   Remember people don’t ASSume anything.

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 1:46 pm ¶

4. Lisa wrote:

   This suspicion thing is interesting. Identifying as multiracial seems, for me, to be a bad way at avoiding racism! My father is black and my mother is white. Growing up (and even into my early 20s… and even now, to a certain extent), this meant that my white and Asian friends found it somehow okay to say racist things about black people in my presence, and my black friends found it okay to question my blackness.

   But things are generally different for me now than they were 5 or 10 years ago; I get to check the “multiracial” box on far more forms, I am no longer asked by well-meaning but annoying people if I am adopted when I am out somewhere with my mother (although this could be a function of my being older), and I haven’t had to deal with the things in my own interracial marriage that my parents had to deal with in the late 70s–my tires have never been slashed, my husband and I have never been kicked out of a church, etc.

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 2:02 pm ¶

5. Tony wrote:

   I’m still trying to figure out how being multi-racial is avoiding racism.

   I mean, I’m not trying to do the whole ‘tragic’ card, but.

   It’s not like anyone goes “Man, I hate *insert derogative term for any ethnic group*, but you’re only HALF (or a 4th, or 8th) that group, so you’re okay”

   If anything, racists hate us more, we’re the embodiment of their worst nightmare.

   Instead of getting stuck with stupid stereotypes from one race, we get stupid ones for multiple races.

   Seriously, how is it an escape?

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 2:34 pm ¶

6. Fatemeh wrote:

   Identifying as bi- or multi-racial is an interesting phenomenon. For example, a lot of celebrities, like Tyson Beckford, prove that we multiracials are an attractive bunch, which gets some acceptance.

   But this acceptance comes mostly from mainstream white society; in my experience, the pushback more often comes from the non-white side of things.

   There is a racist hierarchy among who “gets” to be Iranian. Despite the fact that many Iranians marry whites or other races, there are still derogatory terms for “half-blood” Iranis that are thrown around. For me, acceptance is much more difficult among Iranis than among whites other ethnicities.

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 2:42 pm ¶

7. Cynthia wrote:

   If you’re 1/8 of race A but 7/8 of race B, can you still identify as multiracial/biracial? Or would it be weird to do so?

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 2:42 pm ¶

8. Nadra wrote:

   I think that in the black community identifying as mixed-race has been problematic because there is such self-hatred among some blacks that it has always been better to be something other than black. Hence, the frequency of comments like, “I got Indian in me.” Such comments were made so that the speaker could feel better/superior about being not merely black. Often the American Indian ancestry these people referred to was of no more significance than that of most Americans who have been living in this country for more than six generations or so. On the other hand, I have known mixed race people with one non-black parent who have admitted to playing up that side, be it Japanese, Mexican, Jewish, etc., because they believed it made them better than “fully” black people. In black circles, mixed-people have long been perceived to be more attractive and desirable, as I’m sure you know. I think when we discuss mixed race identities, among those of African ancestry, in particular, we have to include this troublesome history. While you say that it’s a myth that mixed people believe claiming a multiracial identity will make them white, some mixed race people I’ve known have listed virtually every ethnicity under the sun (sometimes excluding that they were black) when asked to racially identify themselves in hopes that all of the ethnicities would kind of cancel each other out, and they would be considered to be “nothing,” the closest they could be to white. I think that’s why the black community was so upset with Tiger Woods. Had he simply said he was black and Asian, I don’t think there would have been as large of an outcry, but when he gave a laundry list of ethnicities, I think some of us recognized it as B.S. Moreover, Tiger has had a history of making problematic racial statements. Early on in his career he referred to himself as being something like “90 percent Oriental.” Outdated term aside, that’s clearly not true. He simply seemed to feel a strong need to distance himself from his black heritage.

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 2:52 pm ¶

9. MNC wrote:

   What I find so interesting about the whole “mixed race” discussion is the fact that people try to act like some how it is a new “phenomenon.”

   History proves that people have been “mixing” for ages under a variety of complex social and poltical conditions.

   It’s not new to have mixed people or to be mixed, what is new is the fact that people are really challenging the fundamentally erroneous notions of “race.”

   Rooted in that resistance against the idea of “race” is the challenge against the very structures of racism and oppression which really begins with the classification of who is “white” and who is not which is directly related to access to power and wealth in this country and in other countries around the world.

   As a “black” woman in a relationship with a “white” man, we discuss these issues openly and hope to somehow pass on to our children the historical complexities of their existence and of our family so that they have the tools to fight and dismantle the harmful social and political constructions of “race” that we’ve all inherited.

   I think that it’s important for kids to understand history in a practical and personal way (I think family tree/geneology stuff is a great tool for that).

   Lastly, like Carmen said in the video, we need to stop the utopian foolishness and be real in honest with ourselves and with people around us. That’s the only way things are going to change.

   Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 3:06 pm ¶

10. this justin wrote:

    I’ve been told recently that I look like Barack Obama.

    I translate that to mean mixed race identity is on people’s radar and that they are trying to negotiate our identities in a more open way than they have before. Instead of assuming everyone is a tragic mulatto/a and/or feeling the need to place us in a specific category, I find people are excited to discuss my multiracial identity openly and seriously wanting to understand my point of view. They are listening!! Which is very empowering for anyone who identifies as multiracial.

    This opinion and experience comes from California.

    And I don’t think I look anything like Barack Obama.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 3:31 pm ¶

11. Marie wrote:

    What a great website, with so many interesting discussions! I’m Chilean on my father’s side, and Euro-mutt on my mother’s. Since NYC is filled with Hispanics of all different colors, no one who is part of the Latin culture here questions my right to ID as Latina. But when I tell certain types of white people that my mother is mostly Irish and Hungarian I do get some argument or strange looks. I’ve learned that people who like me will see me as one of their family (whether they are Italian, Greek, Irish, Latin or Jewish!), and people who don’t see me as an other. I do think my racial ambiguity has contributed to my lack of advancement at certain corporations, but maybe that’s for another discussion.

    I really enjoyed Stephen Martin’s response–our family did the DNA test too. We thought we were Spanish and Mapuche (indigenous Chilean) and it turned out we we Turkish and African!

    I’m glad to see, though, that we as a culture are slowly turning brown.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 3:52 pm ¶

12. islandgirl550 wrote:

    @Nadra –

    You bring up some great points. Funny that you mention that many black folks like to talk about having “Indian in my family.” Henry Louis Gates spoke of this in his African-American Lives 2 series. He stated that it’s often easier to associate yourself with Native American’s as they were seen as fighters than to the true source of “that good hair” (i hate that!) and “those light eyes.”

    @Carmen – the blue looks great on you!!

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 4:08 pm ¶

13. DivergentDana wrote:

    I’m guilty… I’ve said it, but only because my mother did extensive family geneaology that proved it, not to conceal or obscure the vast majority of my heritage. But the Gates’ hypothesis probably has something to it… hell, my mother’s jokingly claimed that my more uniformly lighter father’s side came from particularly complacent stock….although I didn’t say it, “Pshaw, all that’s Comanche blood!” seems like a pretty natural face-saving response.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 5:19 pm ¶

14. DivergentDana wrote:

    Ah, not “complacent”, “compliant” is more what I’m trying to convey.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 5:21 pm ¶

15. Theora wrote:

    It’s not like anyone goes “Man, I hate *insert derogative term for any ethnic group*, but you’re only HALF (or a 4th, or 8th) that group, so you’re okay”

    Actually, I heard this in high school. My dad’s black, my mom’s white, I look white. A boy who wanted to date me said, “I f**kin’ hate ni**ers, but you’re okay. As long we don’t have babies, right? I mean, they’d come out ni**ger-looking, and my dad would kill me.” He was completely serious.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 5:30 pm ¶

16. Stephen Martin wrote:

    Marie,

    Thanks for the acknowledgment. I think there is far more “ad mixtures” (as they say in the DNA world) than most people realize (not just Brazil). I’ve learned a lot about race in Latin America vs. the view of race here in America. There are similarities, but also major differences in terms of the Spanish, Portuguese and French vs. the English ways of looking at race. Perhaps there is a reason that those from cultures that speak the Romantic Languages are known as such. I guess right now in America it’s how you look today right now. When I visited Brazil, I dressed down, walked the streets at night, and did what I wanted to do without bother. I don’t think it would’ve been that way if I was fairer. No one even thought I was an American. Some guy even thought I was some kind of hustler when I went out to a bar in Rio. When I started speaking English down there faces would change. So it’s not just here in America people have their perceptions.
    If someone is 1/8th or 1/7th something, then can they really lay claim (as others have said) or is the way you look today more important? “What can Brown do for You?” Well, for me it made the streets of Rio less bothersome! That is the only other country I visited where the people looked so much like me I did blend in…until I had to talk. As for my fathers side, if somewhere we are Jewish, then so what? It’s what I am today that is who I am today. Just ask Madeline Albright and John Kerry. Google them and see what I’m talking about.

    Race does become a silly thing after a while…until you realize society refuses to let it go.

    Just sayin!

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 5:44 pm ¶

17. deb wrote:

    In the case of Carmen, if she looked like, say, actress Kristin Kruek, it wouldn’t be that likely that people would question her last name.

    When I first saw Kristin Kruek, even with that last name, I knew she wasn’t quite white.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 6:45 pm ¶

18. Nadra wrote:

    Thanks, Islandgirl. I missed most of African American Lives 2 unfortunately. In my family, my great-grandfather was supposedly half-Native, but it has had no bearing on my life whatsoever, so why claim it? I have no tribal affiliation and participate in no Native customs, so I don’t feel comfortable claiming that. As for black people who do claim to have such ancestry, I’m not trying to put them down, but I think it would be good to question one’s motives for doing so? On the flip side, how many people with no direct black parentage (and who for all intents and purposes are not black) claim to have some long lost African ancestor? Not many.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 6:58 pm ¶

19. jen* wrote:

    I am brown – my dad is black and my mom is white – but most people assume that I’m *just* black. [whatever that means] That translates to being treated as such by most people [the good, the bad, the ugly]. Every once in a while, my actual racial makeup is in question –

    -like the time I applied for a driver’s license in the illustrious state of SC, and was required to declare one and ONLY one race (in 2006)
    -or the time when a (black) coworker was asking me if I had heard the term ’sending up timbers’ [an old term for prayer more common in African American churches, upwards of 50 years ago]. I was unfamiliar with the term and then he said, “Oh that’s right, I forgot you’re not black.” (2007)

    I kinda feel like multiracial is a luxury of more cosmopolitan areas. Where I live, and many other places in the South, the one drop rule is in full effect [except when it's not - as above]. Funny how contrary people can be.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 7:09 pm ¶

20. Mio wrote:

    Navigating the world as a multiracial person is complicated. On average, I’d say I’m more often fetishized (like the time I was walking down the street and a group of tourists literally pointed and said “Look, there’s an unusual looking girl!” or the “ooh your kids will be so pretty!”). That ceaseless question, “What are you?” gets pretty irritating (”A human, asshole. Now leave me alone.”) but, on average, I’d say I probably get more positive attention and benefits than negative. I don’t consider myself white, if only because white people never consider me white. This is difficult, I think, for my white extended family which sees me as different than they are.

    As for whether it lets us avoid racism or taking sides — good. The amount of racism out there is bad enough. If I can get a couple benefits from my muddy-waters background, then by all means, I’m taking it and running.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 7:14 pm ¶

21. cacy wrote:

    What do you call yourself if you are Black, Asian & Latino?

    If you said PERSON, thats awesome. Try explaining that in America.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 7:59 pm ¶

22. Cynthia C wrote:

    deb,

    I meant that when people know you’re mixed, they aren’t likely going to question your last name. Kristin LOOKS like she’s mixed while Carmen doesn’t. And the Hong Kong girl “voice” she has (even though she’s basically accentless….I can TELL by hearing her that she spent some time in Hong Kong…I’m around HK people too much) makes her sound even MORE Chinese. Carmen sounds a lot like the boarders at my high school (or those who went to university with me) who went to international or English schools before coming over here.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 10:18 pm ¶

23. Mark N. wrote:

    I’ve definitely noticed a bit of a different reaction from 12 years ago when I moved back to the US for undergrad. Back then, almost all the reaction ranged from confusion to insistence that I was Chinese only. It seems little more nuanced these days even in the reactions down in East Texas where my father’s family is from. Also thankfully, no one has asked me if I know kung fu in long long time. LOL!

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 11:41 pm ¶

24. Michelle wrote:

    I think that when Black people openly and proudly display their ethnic heritage, other than Black, it is a sign of the great things to come in our society. A Black man celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with his Irish father! Great! I love it when I see girls who are Black and Korean entering into the local Korean beauty pageants. That will go along way in building unity and tearing down barriers. I think that those things are becoming more and more accepted. People are starting to be okay with the idea that Irish or Korean or German or Dutch, doesn’t have to look, nor will it look, the way it did 40 years ago.

    But, what does it mean to be white? If race is a social construct, why the need to define oneself as White and Black and Latino and Asian? If we all pretty much agree that race is a crazy figment of the collective American imagination, then what is it about being White that is so necessary to one’s multi “racial” psyche? Are there White parades that you feel that you can better participate in if you are able to call yourself White? What is the sense of urgency about being able to call yourself White? And if race is America’s own little idea of how to classify humans (well we have certainly made it into an art form), can you really ever be White? I mean, is it possible to both Black and White? And if our point is to deconstruct race, then why fight to be multiracial? Doesn’t that only reinforce the notions and concept of race by further classifying people based on race?

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 1:16 am ¶

25. ashley wrote:

    i can honestly say that i am happy to be multi-ethnic/bi-racial. inevitably, i will be asked by friends and strangers “what are you?” as i can be pretty ambiguous, depending on factors like how i fix my hair, what i’m wearing, what season it is, and how i apply my make-up…hah.

    i do feel a responsibility to “enlighten” ignorant minds when approached with certain things. for instance, i cannot tell you how many times people have told me i look “just like halle berry”. i do not. now, i guess it is meant as a compliment…but tan skin + hair that is not kinky does not = halle berry look-a-like. thats like saying all redheads look like carrot top. anyway, when faced with these “compliments” i just look at the person and say “no, i honestly do not look like halle berry”. and they will continue to insist i do, and tell me i should accept this “compliment”…i’m sure it gets annoying when i sternly defy and deny it…until they just give up.

    i guess i hope that by my denying i look like every and any multi-ethnic woman on earth might prompt the other person to actually LOOK at me for what i am and see what is so unique an distinguishing about me…i take every opportunity i can to quash someone’s narrow perception of who i am based on my ambiguous ethnicity. i am what i am. i’m not a halle berry. i’m not a barack obama. i’m me.

    also, when i decide to let someone know my different ethnic backgrounds i purposefully list unexpected ones ahead of “african/black and white”…just in an effort to keep the inquirer thinking i suppose…

    …all this in hopes that they get frustrated and decide that its not worth consciously thinking about what i am…haha…

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 3:47 am ¶

26. Fade wrote:

    Go back far enough through your family tree, and we’ll find we are ALL multiracial… Multiracial are rapidly finding themselves more accepted because they can’t be pigeonholed into the simple stereotype of one race, confusing those who use their racism as a label. And in my multiracial experience, when they can’t easily file you away, they sometimes actually try to figure you out, and discussion/education is the best way to defeat these people’s knee jerk racism.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 8:02 am ¶

27. bdsista wrote:

    I totally agree with Nadra about Tiger Woods. If he said that same thing now, Black folks would be pissed! Reason is because he felt the need to create a whole new word that describes what essentially most AfricanAmericans are already, which is White, African and Indian. We acknowledge that in the community, so for Tiger to have to make up a word so in essence deny his African Americaness was a real slap in the face to a community that accepted and rooted for him as a first in his sport. It was the most ungrateful and hurtful thing he could have done to the Black community. He would have done ten times better to simply say he was bi-racial than to create some artificial name as a means of denial.
    With the legacy of slavery and intermarriage within the Black community, none of us at this point are “pure” African blood and have not been for hundreds of years, so to act like there is some other term is to deny yourself ( or at least a part of yourself). To that end, speaking of self-hatred have you ever seen Tiger date a Black or Asian woman? For all that yak about honoring his mom, I have yet to see him date anyone Thai! Guess neither one of his parents are good enough.

    New book out by Karen E. Quinones Miller called Passin about a light with blue eyes Black woman, who gets denied a job and changes her name and passes for white and gets the job. She then dates a white guy at work and ultimately marries a black guy who thinks he has found his dream white woman and if all falls apart in the end. Would love to get some reaction from LaToya, Carmen and the rest of you about it. Takes place in NYC, very provocative!

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 8:04 am ¶

28. CVT wrote:

    I’m not so sure about all these claims that mixed folks are a magical “cure” or “bridge” between the races, either. As far as I can tell – at BEST – we’re just becoming a NEW racial category of “mixed,” which is STILL not accepted by any other side (i.e. I don’t “get” to be white, I don’t “get” to be Chinese . . . I’m “mixed”).

    The only times when people will of one of my sides or the other will “let” me be “one of them” is when it’s convenient for them: I am “pretty much white” when I want to educate people about racism and my personal experience in that regard (”Oh – you’re ‘pretty much white,’ so what do you really know?”). I am “Chinese” when people want to stereotype me that way and explain why I’m good at math or ask me if I know any martial arts . . . Somehow, it never seems to be when having claim to a specific part of my racial identity is convenient for ME.

    And there’s the ambiguous part – where I ALSO get to experience racism as a number of other ethnicities that I have NO blood claim to, whatsoever. It’s really fantastic.

    We are NOT a bridge – more like an island.

    I also don’t really buy that there are that much more of us these days than in the past – I think it’s just more people being allowed to ACKNOWLEDGE their mixed identities. Like a huge number of African Americans in the States haven’t ALWAYS been mixed, to some degree or another. People are just more conscious of it, and so there’s a little bit less of assuming one race per person.

    Pretty negative outlook, I guess. On the plus side – I certainly feel like I have a pretty damn good understanding or race from many different perspectives (whether of my true background or not) from all of this . . . Unfortunately, we go back to that myth that people like me don’t actually “get it,” so nobody’s listening . . . So much for that bridge again.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 9:16 am ¶

29. Balian wrote:

    I think the multiracial/ethnicity identity is becoming more accepted, but I see the identity focusing on what ethnicity’s you are, then race; if that makes any sense. I’ve even seen some mixed people identify themselves as religion first with ethnicity’s following suit. I believe its the desire to identify oneself as unique as possible. To say i’m any less then Swedish/French/Polish/Russian/German/Black/Blackfoot/Chinese would feel wrong.

    Its nice to be able to check more then one box so to speak, but I don’t ever see the need to have it there. Where your from and money seems to matter more.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 10:03 am ¶

30. summer wrote:

    until i hear tiger woods say that he rejects any part of his black heritage, i will give him the benefit of the doubt. i don’t believe that inclusion necessarily equals exclusion. i am not and never have been offended by tiger’s word — a word that he admits to having made up as a child.

    having not walked in the shoes of a mixed race person, but having had extensive conversations with my bf whose race is inconclusive based on appearance, i don’t believe i have the right to tell them how to identify themselves.

    in addition, to compare the mixed racial identity of African Americans in general to Tiger’s specific experience is an incorrect analogy that is shaky at best. My saying that my great-great somebody might have been Cherokee versus Tiger looking at his MOM who IS Asian is NOT the same.

    Why do people take it so personally? I just don’t get it, and I’m glad that I don’t.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 1:47 pm ¶

31. Michelle wrote:

    When Tiger refers to his NA ancestry he is referring to his AA father. Who is just like every other AA man who is a racial mix. The caucasian part of his word comes from his dad too. Again, his dad was just a regular Black man. But Tiger felt the need to dissect his father’s lineage in a way that many Black people do not.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 2:00 pm ¶

32. deb wrote:

    Cynthia C, there’s a “Hong Kong girl ‘voice’”? I had no clue. (I’m not being pretentious. I really didn’t realize.)

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 2:08 pm ¶

33. Cynthia wrote:

    Deb,

    The HK girl voice is hard to describe (harder to describe than Valley Speak/Uptalk), but it’s there. If you’ve heard it enough, you recognize it pretty quickly!

    C

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 2:50 pm ¶

34. Nadra wrote:

    Summer, I did say that blacks would not have been offended if Tiger had simply said that he was black and Asian. I said there was public outcry because he seemed to be reaching to claim the American Indian and white part. Like Michelle said, if Tiger is no more Native or white than the average black, what was the point in naming those ethnicities? Black people took it personally because Tiger was considered to be a trailblazer in the golf world. You can bet that if Serena and Venus had said that they weren’t black during their rise to tennis fame–but American Indian, white, etc.– the black community would have been pissed at them, too. Anyway, I raise this criticism as someone who is bicultural, whose parents are from two different countries and religious faiths and who has known many transracial adoptees and mixed-race people. I’m also in an interacial relationship myself. If I had mixed children, and they wanted to say they were biracial, so be it, but if they started to claim the ethnicities of long lost ancestors they never knew or heard of, then, Houston, we have a problem.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 3:12 pm ¶

35. summer wrote:

    but maybe michelle, tiger has another motive than denying his AA heritage. maybe people who think that is his motive are projecting either their own feelings or the experiences and feelings of someone else on to Tiger. that’s all i’m saying.

    having never walked in his shoes, i can’t know how utterly exhausting and upsetting it is to constantly be questioned “what are you” your whole life.

    i’m just saying, maybe it’s like ashley wrote above: also, when i decide to let someone know my different ethnic backgrounds i purposefully list unexpected ones ahead of “african/black and white”…just in an effort to keep the inquirer thinking i suppose…

    who knows? or maybe breaking down his dad’s ethnicity is tiger’s own way of actually agreeing with the concept that we are all multi-racial, so that people will quit making a deal about it. isn’t that possible?

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 3:35 pm ¶

36. summer wrote:

    even by your saying “regular” black man, you are indicating that tiger was making his father more than a regular black man by breaking down his ethnicity.

    no, tiger just broke it down. for all we know, maybe tiger thinks his dad is a “regular” multi-racial man. others have added all that other weight to his words.

    i am just careful of misreading others’ words and actions based on my own preconceptions and biases.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 3:39 pm ¶

37. CKJ wrote:

    Does anybody actually know anything about Tiger’s geneology? I admit that I have never made a point to research his family, nor do I give the way he choses to self-identify much thought. Isn’t it possible that his father’s side included white and Native American that was known and not that far back? Or maybe his father considered himself mulit-racial? People are making MASSIVE assumptions about why he identified the way he did, and I doubt most critics are closely familiar with his family’s history.

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 4:05 pm ¶

38. Mestiza wrote:

    Living in the south has been difficult for me. With my looks alone (brown skin, long wavy black hair) I’m perceived as black and white, but my dad’s Filipino and my mom’s Puerto Rican. Resulting in names of all races. I had always felt like I was by myself until I had to write about stereotypes in my College English class, and I decided to write about how people judge multiracial people for their looks and what they’re mixed with instead of who they are as a person. Thanks to my online research, I now know that I am not the only one, but I also know that it’ll never end anytime soon.

    Posted 02 Apr 2008 at 10:32 am ¶

39. Larry wrote:

    Tiger Woods’ dad was, I believe, AA, NA and Chinese; his mother is Thai, Chinese and Dutch. Which makes Tiger just as much AA as he is Chinese.

    Posted 02 Apr 2008 at 2:13 pm ¶

40. Michelle wrote:

    Found this, maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not…

    “His father, Earl Woods, is of mixed Black, Chinese and Native American ancestry. Woods’ mother, Kultida Woods, is originally from Thailand, and is of mixed Thai, Chinese, and Dutch ancestry. This makes Woods himself one quarter Chinese, one quarter Thai, one-quarter Black, one eighth Native American, and one eighth Dutch. He refers to his ethnic make-up as ‘Cablinasian’ (a portmanteau of Caucasian, Black, American-Indian, and Asian).”

    Maybe we can use that as a basis for any further discussions on Tiger.

    Okay, deep breath for me….

    In the Black community, all of us, and I will say all of us, are some sort of racial mixture (Mod, I know you don’t like generalizations but I hope you forgive this one). If you are a Black American descendant of people who were enslaved at anytime during slavery, you are racially mixed. In the Black community, many people who have claimed their various ethnicities sometimes did so as a way to escape the stigma of being Black, i.e the oft heard “I got Indian in my family.” I am hoping that you don’t have to be Black to get what that comment represents.

    Now, we are living in a different time. So people are claiming all kinds of things (and rightfully so), when 15 years ago, they would have just been Black. And I will submit that in Earl Woods day, nobody cared what his granddaddy was or was not. So, the man was Black. Experienced life as a Black man, lived life as a Black man. And from what I am told, the racism that Tiger faced was because people viewed him as a Black child. After all, he is rather dark and to the untrained American eye, he would have just looked like a Black kid. Of course, this was 20 years ago, before this blog and the greater visibility of racially mixed people.

    Which brings me to my question, again. Do we really want another racial classification? Do we? Does that help us at all? How does it help us, all of us who are of color, Black, sorta Black, Chinese, Korean, half Korean, half Thai, become more fully human, including all of our brethren in that humanity, if we are carving out yet another category in an already dehumanizing system?

    Posted 03 Apr 2008 at 12:39 am ¶

41. James wrote:

    Question – Does anyone consider Filipinos multiracial? I am Filipino, I call myself Asian, but as a result of hundreds of years of Spanish colonization, I and millions of Filipinos have Spanish blood and Spanish family names. Sometimes, I prefer to identify as multiracial, not to avoid racism, but because I often am faced with similar challenges that other multiracial people encounter. In Montreal, where I was born and live currently, few people have even traveled to the Philippines, and the question “Where are you from?” irritatingly comes up too often. I like to identify as multiracial also because it seems more precise and addresses that colonization period that is an enormous part of Philippine history and is embodied in its people.

    Posted 03 Apr 2008 at 8:56 am ¶

42. marge perko wrote:

    thank you so much for this site. as a multiracial person in ohio, i often have to preface my explanations on “WHAT” i am with the almost apologetic “but i have white relatives in pittsburgh!” as a cop-out to everything else that BOTH my multiracial parents are. i have been scared to say i grew up in the philippines as an overseas american – because they look at me like i married my caucasian husband for a green card (then my apologetic tone continues with explaining how my family for generations have been american citizens, etc. etc.). my youngest sister looks more spanish – and she may have an “easier” time in certain situations. my middle sister looks more asian – and she too has an “easier” time in other situations. i wish i did line up aesthetically, one or the other, living here in cleveland. but i don’t. i didn’t have as huge a consciousness about race before, living in an expat community in manila and for nearly a decade in my twenties in hawaii.

    here in cleveland, the conversations are there. i can’t help bristle at a french lady (however nice she is) asking me to be her nanny or telling me i should bag groceries to earn extra money (my inevitable reaction inside is “would she say that if i looked more like my green-eyed mother?”, or when a job interview ho-hums my philippine/hawaii experience (vs. the mainland experience).

    i don’t want to be so defensive – because that breeds a negative reactionary -ism from me. thank you for this site – i look forward to learning more about being in this new demographic.

    Posted 03 Apr 2008 at 9:00 am ¶

43. CVT wrote:

    Michelle -

    To respond to your comment about whether or not we need a new racial classification, etc.:

    I would argue here that the black experience in America is a very DIFFERENT question of multi-raciality (made up a word there) than other mixes. I agree with you that most (if not all) Black folks in the U.S. are mixed to some degree or another (and have been). Only now are people consciously identifying those mixes and questioning degrees, etc. Therefore, that makes for a sticky situation in regards to how people identify – since, in all likelihood, other people are going to identify a mixed-Black person as simply Black, and treat them as such.

    However – I can speak to my own mix here (Chinese/white) – very few people identify me as Chinese. Nobody identifies me as white (including Chinese and white folks, alike). Therefore – I find myself absolutely NEEDING a separate classification for myself, because I am not accepted into either racial category from which my blood comes. Therefore, it would be absolutely ridiculous for me to claim myself as simply a “white” person or a “Chinese” person and leave it at that – because I have lived neither of those experiences. I have lived as an ambiguous “mixed” kid (I am assumed to be Latino just as often as Asian, these days) – and that speaks to a completely different racial experience than that of any one, single race.

    And I would argue that more clearly “mixed” Black folks would have similar experiences (those with a parent of another race, not so much the vague “everybody’s mixed” experience of other Black Americans). For those who aren’t mixed in this way, it’s easy to say “we’re all mixed, so we need to claim one” because it’s a very specific situation that few can understand – but it really DOES change things. If neither racial side is willing to fully “claim” somebody – how can that person justify fully “claiming” just one side?

    So – I would rather claim a new category – “mixed” or “multiracial” – and feel right and honest in that claim while simultaneously emphasizing my experience as a person of color, than to claim a race of one of my parents that nobody has ever “let” me lay claim to. If I were to do the latter, nobody would take me seriously, and I would lose my ability to further the fight for people of color, in general, because of that “false” claim. No full-Chinese person would be okay with me trying to represent them – because I have had a different experience – and I wouldn’t feel okay doing that, anyway.

    Posted 03 Apr 2008 at 9:16 am ¶

44. Michelle wrote:

    So CVT,

    You are saying that by claiming a new category, you will have more solid ground upon which to stand, the power of naming, if you will. And as such, you can then come from a position of power to actually create the change you wish to see in the world. I am assuming that world is one where race is no longer such a powerful social construct, but please correct me in that if I am wrong. Did I get what you were trying to tell me?

    If that is the case, then I get it. And given the position of power a name/title/category gives the person who looks mixed race, I fully understand. I do think that another racial classification will reinforce the classification system. But, I have not had your experiences so I guess it is a necessary step in our social evolution. I just hope that, given America’s proclivities towards race, that we don’t end up with a caste system that looks very similar to the South African classification system.

    But, seriously, thank you so much for such a candid response. I really appreciate you showing me some things that I have not seen before.

    Posted 03 Apr 2008 at 1:40 pm ¶

45. Bizonka wrote:

    [Apologies in advance for this long post... I've been looking for a long time to "vent" a bit about this whole multiracial thing, and it's so great to see blogs like this!]

    I’m a half-Japanese (with a bit of Ainu), half white (with some American Indian) mix, and I grew up in Japan. While living there, I was referred to as a sort of 3rd race, or “Half.” I grew up with people staring at me, asking me to say things to them in English, saying I was lucky to have brown hair and “round” eyes, etc. It felt nice, like it was ok to be different. I fully identify myself as MIXED, not Japanese or American.

    When I was 13, homesickness finally took over my American dad and we moved to the states. Neither of my parents expected the culture shock I would encounter (I have no siblings, unfortunately). When I first moved here, most people saw me as “Chinese,” nowadays the more general and so-called PC term of “Asian.” This was REALLY weird to me, since growing up all I heard was “You look so different from normal, not American OR Japanese.”

    We initially moved to Florida. There, people often asked me “Where are you from?,” usually suggesting their own guesses (Chinese? Vietnamese? Korean?). When I would tell them the truth, most people answered with “Oh, so you’re Japanese” (kinda like your experience, Carmen!).

    Once, my dad took me to the eye doctor and when the doc was introducing himself to us, he said “So… are you… man and wife?” I was 14 when this happened, and I thought this man must be insane, but later I realized that he was just thinking I was some mail-ordered submissive sex toy that looked nothing like my dad (although I DO have some of his facial features). Pretty sad.

    In New York City the experience has been a little different. People here are some of the most racist I’ve ever encountered (especially non-whites), rarely asking where I’m from, usually just assuming. I receive racial slurs and degrading “Ching chong” cat calls on a daily basis. When I’m riding the subway with my husband (who is white, we recently found out he’s ethnically Jewish) or just walking around with him, some people snicker and stare because I guess they think I’m his “Asian escort.”

    Once in a rare while I get the “Are you American Indian?” comment, to which I usually say “Yes” because the person asking has lots of positive things to say about them. It’s a nice change of pace from the mumbled insults and ignorance.

    I don’t know if it’s just New York City, but I feel like race relations have gotten worse and worse in the States since I first moved here. Nowadays people seem to resist being curious, they just assume and feel like they have the world all compartmentalized and figured out. Friends and acquaintances will say “So you’re Japanese?” and I’ll reply with “Well I’m mixed, half Japanese and half white” and 9 times out of 10 they’ll say “That’s the same thing.” America the melting pot, my ass!

    I’m 5′8″, have brown wavy hair, a strong brow bone, double eye-lids (”white” features), as well as strong cheekbones, easy-to-tan skin, dark brown eyes (”Asian” features). But when I’m in America, I have “black, silky hair” with “yellow skin and Asian eyes.” When I look in the mirror, I see a “Half” person. I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m insane, and everyone else is right.

    In a couple of days my husband and I will be visiting Japan, and I’m nervous/excited to experience the “Half” life again. However, with the common hair-dying and eye surgery happening nowadays in Japan, I don’t even know if people will notice that I am multiracial. I’m hoping the “3rd race” is still alive and well in that country, and that they haven’t completely assimilated the American way of thinking about people and nationality.

    [Thanks for letting me vent, sorry again about the long post. ]

    Posted 03 Apr 2008 at 3:12 pm ¶

46. marge perko wrote:

    re: Bizonka

    I get the same thing too, from people here (Ohio) when they see my Caucasian husband and I walking together – whether outright smirks or pursed lips of disapproval. It’s a little better now that we’ve moved in a university-centered neighborhood.

    It’s actually worse among his friends – while they’re nice, for the longest time they thought I married my husband for a green card. Tentative (and what I still consider quite rude) questions and comments later (usually in that “so really, just amongst us girls” environment) they find out I have been an American citizen since birth. (Though it’s a bit difficult for them to process that you can still be American despite growing up outside the U.S.)

    There were worse comments from people who are thankfully no longer in his life. I am still not quite comfortable being around a group that had such assumptions about me. When I brought my husband to my home state – Hawaii – I was so relieved to be among close friends who really knew me. I hate to compare, but they didn’t question our relationship.

    Well this is a long response too! But thanks for sharing – I see so many mirror experiences on these posts.

    Posted 04 Apr 2008 at 7:30 am ¶

47. CVT wrote:

    Michelle -

    You got it. To knock down to the basics: it’s a personal power thing, and taking (what I feel to be) a more accurate “name” gives me more power in representing “people of color,” in general. And I have found that to be (more or less) true in my personal experience.

    On the flip side – in spite of all that, I still agree with you that we’re just adding new racial categories that aren’t going to change anything in terms of perception on a large scale; I do think the U.S. will just get more of a caste-like outlook as in South America. We already do, really – we just don’t have words for it. But it’s not like it would be a shocking thing to suggest that Obama might not be getting to do what he’s doing if he was much darker-skinned.

    So – what to do about it? I still need my power, so I can fight more effectively. THAT is a positive. Just having more racial categories? Not so much (although I don’t know if it would actually make anything WORSE in any particular way).

    Marge and Bizonka -
    I’m all there with you. Just got back from a trip to Hawaii, where I finally got to blend in for a full week of my life. The only time people assumed I was FROM THERE, as opposed to from anywhere BUT there. That felt beyond good.

    And then I come back to the mainland, where people tell me “you don’t LOOK like you’re from California” – whatever that even means.

    One last thing, though – I DO think that people ask less and assume more now because they think that’s BETTER. As if they can demonstrate their enlightened ability to “know” races. It’s totally counter-intuitive to us, but I’ve had conversations with many white folks who were shocked that I’d rather they asked me with respectful curiosity than to “try to figure it out” on their own . . .

    Posted 04 Apr 2008 at 9:06 am ¶

48. Torontonian wrote:

    I couple of days after I read this post / watched your video, I read this article in the newspaper that made me sad:

    Four decades after Hollywood’s first interracial kiss in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” shocked mainstream America, Canada’s multicultural society is increasingly showing signs that love is colour blind.

    [...]

    Wendy Roth, a sociologist at the University of British Columbia, said the reason intermarriage and mixed unions prove so interesting is that they serve as a litmus test of social relations between different groups.

    “If this is a sign of anything bigger, it’s a sign of the fact that those barriers, those social barriers between racial groups are being chipped away at a little bit,” Roth said from Vancouver.

    “The rate of increase of mixed unions is not huge, but it’s steady, and the fact that it continues to be steady in different censuses suggests that those barriers are diminishing.”

    Posted 04 Apr 2008 at 8:55 pm ¶

49. nichelle wrote:

    The multiracial movement will learn what every great movement hopefully learns (it it is to be successful). The masters’ tools cannot dismantle the masters’ house. I long to read more mulit-racial commentary that goes beyond identity politics. Sometimes if you give people enough rope they will hang themselves.

    Posted 21 Apr 2008 at 8:55 pm ¶

50. Caro wrote:

    Well the above gels with my experience of identity and predjudice.

    Its suprisingly how often people of a different sexual preference or coluor can be more bigoted that the sterotypical ‘whitey’, or pass judgement based on appearance…

    An example being, trawling the lcoal ikea for a passable rug with my partner, a gay man made a few derogatory remarks to his … along of the lines of ‘oh look, why do all the short mail-order asian chicks setting up house with a tall white man’… Being french and adopted), my cultural/social framework is entirely french, so it was an example of (a lazy and false stereotype) based entirely on appearance…

    Its sometime seems, (and not based on one isolated example) POCs/gays etc do feel that multicultured/bi-racial folk are fair game for prejudice…. Its a shame really, as one hopes gettung it from the man would build an appreciation of tolerance and also solidarity, but sadly thats not always the case…

    Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 4:49 am ¶

51. concreteRoze wrote:

    its true, america is not yet comfortable with mixed race people, Latinos are really throwing things for a loop, because americans can’t seem to wrap their heads around how you can have afro features and speak spanish at the same time, somehow you aren’t “black”, my mother is african american and my dad is a ashkenazi jew, i always got i couldn’t be “both”, but of course thats ridiculous.

    Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 12:46 pm ¶