This rings very true. by Maria P. P. Root, PhD I HAVE THE RIGHT… Not to justify my existence in this world. Not to keep the races separate within me. Not to justify my ethnic legitimacy. Not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with my physical or ethnic ambiguity. I HAVE THE RIGHT… To identify myself…
I will have to try this the next time someone asks me, “Where are you from?”
At around 16-17 years old I did not have a car. So I rode my bike or walked anywhere I wanted to go. Store managers sometimes searched my backpack or my person only to find I had not in fact shoplifted anything. Loss control or security guards would follow me around the store. Neighborhood watch…
At a party last night, a woman asked where I am from. I told her my hometown. She said, “No, no, no, where are your parents from.” I thought, “Oh, boy, I know where this is going.” So I told her my father is black and my mother white. She wanted to know what part…
Passing is a term for a person with both black and white ancestors who encourages others to think he or she is white. I recall a blonde woman talking about her father having told people he was Greek in order to pass. Has anyone really seen members of the black community excluding people who admit…
Arizon’s new immigration law was a brunch discussion topic. So I told this story about coming home from Arizona: A border guard stopped us on I-10 just east of El Paso, Texas back in 1993. Mom, my brother, and myself were in the car. Several days prior, the three of us and Dad all crossed the…
Honestly, I failed to think about what to put on the census form. There was no question I consider myself both black and white. So this article Black Or Biracial? Census Forces A Choice For Some about people in a similar situation to myself only identifying themselves as black was curious. The best quote: “Put…
Whenever I read on the concerns of biracial adoption, I think of the high school classmate who said it was immoral for me to exist. His point was blacks and whites should not have children, therefore someone like, a product of miscegenation was the result of an immoral act. Perhaps that is a step up…
Last year, I blogged about Loving Day. To recap: Loving Day is an educational community project. The name comes from Loving v. Virginia (1967), the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Loving Day celebrations commemorate the anniversary of the Loving decision every year on or around June 12th. There is a…