I believe this point has been succinctly articulated but i find it of no malevolent doing if i add my own input. The issue of mixed race people (or dual heritage, as those who are "with it" would prefer) is, in my own opinion, poorly articulated and has been covered up for too long it is almost fetishisized. Here's what i mean - folks (blacks and whites, but in my opinion more whites) think of biracial people as less human than exotic. It's almost like a very beautiful dress one is expecting from her significant other but hasn't seen it and so she makes wonderful guesses, along the lines of, "Oh, i bet it is so beautiful". Allow me to go even further with two examples.
A while ago, i was out in the malls with my baby cousin (actually, niece as she's my older brother's daughter). Now she's biracial as her father (my bro) is a black man of Nigerian descent and her mother (my bro's wife) is a Caucasian American of Swedish ancestry. Now myself and my niece walked into Toys-R-Us because i wanted to buy her a toy and so i was looking for the perfect toy. I had finished and was arranging the stuff, ready to pay and then my niece came and then said she saw a particular toy she liked. I told her to go and get it while i wait. Some middle aged white guy, noticing the energetic, hyperactive 5 year old my niece is, then said something along the lines, "Nice, cute girl you get there. The ones with the mixed blood are always the cutest. You're a lucky father.
Now i assume the man believed her to be my daughter which i can understand, though he was wrong. I was thinking in my head, "Do i lash out at this muthafucka or just ignore?" I decided to calmly but firmly admonish the remark beause i honestly thought he was only trying to offer a compliment. I told him that dogs, cats and other animals are mixed, but human beings aren't. He apologized and i could read the sincerity in his eyes but it went further to point out to me how much fetishism rules in America.
Another example was much recently, about two weeks ago. My fiancee, as i recall telling you guys, is pregnant and i decided to share the good news with an employee at work (who is white) who'd been away for a long time. Now this lady knows that my fiancee is Hispanic (of Cuban, Colombian and Dominican descent) and then proceeded to say, "That should work out quite well. After all, there will be a hybrid of colors in her genes". Immediately, i felt dazed and as though i heard a line in a movie and the screeching sounds of rewinding a VCR tape rambled through my brain (as i thought i should check again if i really heard that right) but alas, i heard real, human words. I'm pretty sure the lady read the facial expression that i was less than flattered and then she attempted to backpedal by "clarifying" what she meant. She said she didn't mean any harm and that she was only saying that Latin women are very hot and have white, black and Indian (her word) genes in them so the kid will be "super cute" (again, her phrase, not mine). I decided to "accept" the "compliment" for what it was - a dim, self-serving, half-hearted, attempt at cheers. I was much annoyed than the aforementioned incident because unlike the guy at Toys-R-Us, this lady tried to not only reproduce her remark, but justify it in the process. All i said was "Thanks" and kept quiet, continuing what i was doing.
Now, in all sincerity, i felt that both individuals were simply trying to congratulate me and wish me well. But the meaning and context of their words went deeper than the actual words themselves. I appreciated the context but it left a deeper and more complex imprint - the exoticization and treatment (actually, make that lack thereof) of biracial people as who they are; human beings. I mean, come on? Hybrid of colors? :shock: Are you fucking kidding me? That's what art critics say about a painting, or what one might say about a piece of cloth, or dolls that come in a variety of hues. My (unborn) child should not be defined by what she looks like, but by her qualities (when she has them, of course).
Bottom line, America (actually, the world) has a long way to go until achieving racial equality in all respects and well meaning but insufficient civil right laws alone will not do the trick. It's time to break this racist ideology out of the minds of the people. Ronald Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down that wall; i say we wbreak down the much bigger and stronger wall of racial absolutism.
? Do you white ladies like Bi-racial men? How about my 100% Black brothers, is it true I'm Black :? ? Or am I just mixed....
