Reply to Racial issues in DCPS for mixed race kids

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[quote=Anonymous]I am a multigenerational mixed (MGM) person if I read these last few post correctly. I look white and come from MGM parents. My mother looks complete white and dad looks biracial. I rarely see another person such as myself, so I thought I'd offer my perspective. I personally identify as biracial because I was raised to do so.

I grew up in a majority AA neighborhood as well as my parents. In that environment I was constantly harassed for my appearance and found people did not accept my simple answer if I said I was black and I found that people rejected me if I answered that I was biracial. Anyways, I decided to go with biracial because it's accurate- I'm 61% European (British Isles and France), 15% Asiatic (Probably Native American), and 24% African (most likely Senegal and Nigeria).

Even still I hear from AA people and some biracial people born of parents from two different races that I'm not biracial. I understand the AAs that do this. It's in their best interest to keep their numbers up which can only be done by forcing the black label on as many people as possible. But, it saddens me when biracial people do it. It reflects the hatred espoused by AA and white racists. I think what this thread has shown is that people from mixed backgrounds are demanding their voices. They're demanding them from the oppression of white supremacist, racist AAs and, in my case, other biracials. I believe the solution is that biracial people are left alone to just be who they are. You don't have to agree with them, but you don't get to define them. They don't need you and can do it for themselves. Also, while many AAs come from mixed backgrounds, that is know reason to disenfranchise MGM with a more obviously mixed ethnicity. Their experiences are not the same as African Americans. I know few AAs of majority African ancestry who have people asking them everyday if they're white or black. It may happen, but I've never seen or heard of it.

Lastly, when I was in Latin America and West Africa i claimed white, which it was insisted I was in those areas. Americans get caught up in being some type of authority on race categories, which stems from a deeply hateful racist past and egocentrism. You'll never get a valid perspective from that.

I encourage people to get DNA tests, which are a game changer IMO. It feels validating to know exactly what I am and it helps to challenge the racism that forces MGMs to be classified as black. We have a right to our heritage too- black, white and whatever else.[/quote]

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