Posted on 05/28/2008 10:17:03 AM PDT by fightinJAG
[snip]
At the same time that the nation’s growing diversity and changing social attitudes are helping to swell the ranks of multiracial Americans at 10 times the rate of the white population, the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, son of a black man and a white woman, has brought new attention, curiosity and discussion to their experiences.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Here we go with PMSLSD.
I remember a black child telling a multi-racial child at my daughter’s school
“If your momma ain’t black, you ain’t black”.
The vast majority of black kids at her school are actually multi-racial. So there is no segregation like we experienced when I was in school. There is no racial divide because the “black” kids are all being raised by white people.
my daughter is half Asian - Chinese to be exact
as i tell my wife and her she is an American First and any ethnicity second
The “multiracial activist” quoted in this article says mixed race is not “less race,” it’s “more race.”
Wrong.
The more “multiracial” a society becomes, the more race becomes ONLY a social construct. Historically, race was basically determined by how a person *looked,* sometimes coupled with some ethnic context.
As more and more people are multiracial, it becomes impossible to group people based solely on how they look. Obama, for example, is no more “black” than he is “white;” he’s simply choosing a racial “identity” based on how he looks. (Ironically, in the past such choices were forced on people-—e.g., through the idea that a person was “black” if he had “one drop of black blood” in him.)
“Race” today in America is not much more than a proxy for identification with a particular cultural/socio-economic milieu.
Yes, there is a genetic component to race, but even that becomes less relevant when a person is multiracial.
More seemingly endless focus on race...
Personally I object to being classified as white or even Caucasian. What nonsense. I usually say Euro-American just to confuse the issue. I also would like a better definition of what Hispanic means. That your ancestors (how far back?) come from a place colonized by Spain? That’s it? So what? What’s that all about?
We have white friends who adopted two boys; one is black and the other is hispanic.
The wife tells us when she runs into hispanics, they all recognize her one son as hispanic and they beam and smile at him and her, and the hispanic ladies say to her, “Oh, you’re a sweet mama” and so on.
When she encounters blacks, she was shocked to find that they often glare at her when they realize she is the mother of a black child. As if, “how dare you try to raise a black child.” The boy has been really hurt on occasion that some black strangers have shown contempt for his (adopted) mother.
I’ll say it again, as long as there’s financial gain to belong to one ethnicity or another, we will always have the “racial” issue be devisive. There’s really no big deal with multi ethnic communities, having lived in one my whole life, as long as we are all Americans. The worse thing we can do is hyphenate our nationality.
Huh? Doesn't more "multiracial" mean less "diversity"? Whatever... we are a melting pot.
Exactly. This is why I say race in America today is simply a social/political construct. Because we are NOT a racist, bigoted society, we have many, many mixed, multiracial, transracial individuals and families. Those people should not be classified into a “race” construct simply on the basis of how they look!
Imagine . . . anyone who is or knows a mixed race family knows the children can range widely in which physical characteristics they have. We have friends who are Korean and Caucasian; one child doesn’t look Asian at all and the other child’s facial features are somewhat typically Asian, but she has blonde hair. They enjoy their Korean heritage, but they’re Americans, that’s all!
I would ban all racial classifications on census forms, job applications, etc., but the eternal grievances market will not allow it. Why, pray tell, is a white Argentinean a "protected minority" while someone of Arab descent is not? My ex-girlfriend (who was Egyptian) would put "other" when asked, as she "didn't feel white" despite the fact that the gov tries to categorize middle easterners/north africans as white.
Ever hear of these people talk about being productive in life? All they want is social handouts. Look at the nations where a lot of these people come from. What have they ever offered the world? Maybe we “should” let China take over the manufacturing industries..........we sure as hell aren’t interested. All we do is offer social services.
“When she encounters blacks, she was shocked to find that they often glare at her when they realize she is the mother of a black child.”
It could be that they assume she is his birth mother. I have heard that black women don’t like white women going with black guys.
I would ban all racial classifications on census forms, job applications, etc., but the eternal grievances market will not allow it. Why, pray tell, is a white Argentinean a "protected minority" while someone of Arab descent is not? My ex-girlfriend (who was Egyptian) would put "other" when asked, as she "didn't feel white" despite the fact that the gov tries to categorize middle easterners/north africans as white.
I would ban all racial classifications on census forms, job applications, etc., but the eternal grievances market will not allow it. Why, pray tell, is a white Argentinean a "protected minority" while someone of Arab descent is not? My ex-girlfriend (who was Egyptian) would put "other" when asked, as she "didn't feel white" despite the fact that the gov tries to categorize middle easterners/north africans as white.
Sounds alot like Latin America. 89% of the population of Puerto Rico is classified as “white.” Even though, if we went by biology, that figure would be 40% at best. In PR, as in Brazil, Costa Rica, etc., those with African or Indian blood, but whose white ancestry is still predominant, to say nothing of “socially conscious” racially mixed people who want the status that comes with “white” identity.”
I object as well. When we are asked for our “race,” we are really being asked either for (1) the color of our skin or (2) our ethnicity (heritage before coming to America). What’s that all about?
Or, (3) we are being asked which social/cultural milieu we WANT to be identified with and then that is called our “race.” Obama, for example, chose to call his “race” black. Okay, and what’s that all about, too?
They can put racial classifications on census forms, etc., all they want, but if many/most people decline to fill them out, or simply put other, over time it will be the same as getting rid of the classifications all together.
I would recommend to everyone not to mark these at all, or mark other, and teach your children to do the same.
I say, too bad!
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