Reply to Racial issues in DCPS for mixed race kids

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[quote=Anonymous]There was an interesting article on a DNA and racial identification study conducted by 23andMe.  Two points I thought were interesting:

1) white Southerners had more African DNA on average than whites in other parts of the country.  
 
2) more germane to the OP's situation, individuals who had about 1/4 African ancestry or less tended to identify as white.  Above that threshold, individuals tended to identify as black.  So if trends hold, the OP's child may identify as white, although there are of course exceptions (e.g., Mariah Carey--I believe mother is white and father is an Afro-Venezuelan so mixed racially, but I believe Mariah Carey identifies as black).

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/science/23andme-genetic-ethnicity-study.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0

I'm the EOTP biracial PP, and I have blue eyes and light skin (probably giving myself away to folks who know me, but oh well!).  The blue eyes are actually from the "black" side of my heritage, as one of my parents is from a country with a lot of ethnic mixing.  I identify as black, as do my siblings--I don't think this is at all a denial of our non-black heritage, but an acknowledgment and acceptance of how American society views folks with "one drop" of black blood.  Our identification might be different if we lived in say, Brazil or elsewhere.  But here, we're perfectly happy to embrace a black identity.

Just to introduce a little levity to the topic: I'm a walking Rorshach test, and OP's son may be too when he gets here.  Similar to another PP, people have asked me if I'm mixed black and white (I'm actually black and another race), Italian, Moroccan, Lebanese, etc.  I've been mistaken for Puerto Rican when I'm in Latino neighborhoods (I just nod and smile since don't speak a word of Spanish), Jewish in Forest Hills, Queens, and North African when traveling.  I hate to look too conspicuous, so I like that I can pretty much blend in wherever I am, outside of say, Northern Europe.  Some of it depends on whether I wear my hair straight or curly.

So there are advantages to looking ethnically ambiguous, people!  It's not all tragic mulatta stuff. :)[/quote]

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