Posted on 04/07/2006 10:49:37 AM PDT by Alice Linsley
Growing up Bi-racial
Joshua Brown
(Joshua Brown is a cadet at Millersburg Military Institute in Kentucky. He is studying Journalism and Creative Writing.)
Their hair may be black or golden brown. Their eyes may vary from cat green to bark brown. Skin tone may be light with freckles or a Hawaiian sun tan brown. These are some of the physical features of bi-racial persons. Bi-racial persons are faced with tough decisions when it comes to their families. White parents-in-law may not accept white daughters-in-law, or vice versa. The children of bi-racial marriages are often caught in the middle, having to choose which side of the family they will identify with.
A person shouldn’t have to pick sides, but in reality a kid can’t wear Abercrombie without their black side calling them white, and they can’t dress in Roca wear without being questioned by white family members. People say that society doesn’t care about race barriers, but in the day to day of bi-racial persons, it is evident that society does. Decades after desegregation, many Americans haven’t adjusted to inter-racial marriages and bi-racial offspring. Unfortunately, children who grow up with families not liking each other often feel that they are the cause of the conflict.
My own family has seen this dilemma. At my nephew’s birthday party, his mother’s side (white) wouldn’t celebrate his birthday with our side of the family, so they threw him a separate party for their side. It is their choice, but are they considering how this may affect him? My nephew will go through this when it comes to the holidays also. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter become times of conflict and pain.
Sometimes I find myself tripping out about the clothes his mother lets him wear or the way she gets his hair cut. I like a coordinated and sharp look, but I would never try to dress him to fit in with only one side. It is tough to grow up having to please both sides of one’s family. For an interracial couple it is already tough, because they deal everyday with discrimination, but when they have to deal with watching their children suffer in strained relationships, it gets tougher.
People will need to open their eyes to the realities of bi-racial children and adjust. Why should a kid have to worry about things like: “Will grandma get mad if she hears me listening to rap music?” or “Will my uncle say something about me if I have braids?” Bi-racial children need room to live as normal children. What they need most is for their families to love them.
And she is? Besides skinny, I mean.
The Russian woman living with my wife and I is a strawberry blonde asian.
I am half Irish. My family tree has been called a name or two in it's history. Point being, If you get involved in a bi-racial relationship for any other reason besides true love, then the child is indeed a victim. True love relationship would be instilled in the child through upbringing, which in turn will give the child the strength to overcome prejudice in the matter. How many are the former/the latter?... Knowattlemean?
Nicole Ritchie, Lionel Ritchies daughter.
Frexicans? ;)
White girl.
She's his adopted daughter.
I am bi-racial, Asian/White, and grew up in The South in the 60's. During the Vietnam War was a really tough time to be Asian looking in The South. I was called everthing from Gook to Ho-Chi-Minh by white kids who had relatives in the war.......
I'm glad you posted those comments.
There is no downside to being biracial. I'm tired of the whining from the victim-makers.
By 'relationship' I assume you mean 'marriage" ... and a loveless marriage is in trouble regardless of the ethnic background of the spouses. My point is that raising kids to constantly worry about what 'society' thinks (or living by such worry yourself) is dumb. IMO. See comment about my wife and the 4473.
I think society is pretty color blind. I have biracial neices and nephews and their "problems" are NOT racial -- they are self-imposed (like most kids).
My wife is from Mexico and we encounter very few problems.
Frexicans? - actually they were born in California - they are nuts!
LOL!
I can only imagine. Was/is the Asian side of your family more open to the Bi-Racial bit than the white?
I tried to date a Chinese girl once and have a feeling the family put an end to it. Either that, or she knew she could do better :)
Never knew the Asian side or my father. Was raised by my grandfather in rural Mississippi. I'm one of a very few Asian looking people who speak with a Southern accent..........
I'm ethnically ambiguous. My daughter's friends say I look like an 'old' Vin Diesel. I don't claim any culture in particular although I was raised in an a white world. I identify myself as an American. In fact I am an American patriot. I think the best thing about American culture is that it is a smorgasbord of the best of cultures from around the world and one can take from it what one wants.
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