Is “mixed” just a way of saying “not black”?
CVK
An opinion piece in the Berkeley Daily Planet poses the question: do people choose to identify as mixed as a way to insulate themselves from the racist behavior targeting their black heritage? The writer uses “The Tipping Point” author Malcolm Gladwell as an example:
A San Francisco Chronicle article on Gladwell (published Jan. 30) revealed that his mother is black and therefore responsible for the curliness of his hair. When he grows it long, it turns into an Afro. While sporting this Afro, Gladwell was pulled over by cops more frequently than he ever was without the wild, nappy hair. Gladwell decided to cut his locks and it is implied in the article that he did so in order to avoid being harassed for driving while black.
Now of course, there’s nothing new about this argument (especially if you’ve been reading the comments on our post about the Essence profile of Mariah Carey). Mixed people are always accused of “running from” their ethnic heritage:
Many years ago I attended a multi-ethnic support group in Berkeley called I-Pride, the “I” stood for “international.” This particular meeting consisted primarily of white women who had given birth to brown babies and did not want their children to be identified as black. During a break I wandered over to the host’s young son who was standing next to his class photo. I asked him to point out his friends in the photo. He named only the white and fair skinned children. Each time I pointed to a brown skinned or more African looking child and asked if this was also one of his friends, he assured me that no, not one of them was. Now, I could be reading into this but I sensed a bit of South Africa in that room, a feeling that the coloreds, while not on equal footing with the whites were at least superior to the blacks.
Stacey Bell wrote:
The I in I-Pride does not stand for International. It stands for interracial intercultural Pride. I-Pride was formed by a group of parents who wanted their children to have the option of checking more than one box on Berkeley Unified forms. BUSD now has an “interracial” category. I have no idea who this person is but I have been involved with I-Pride for 15 years and I don’t know of any members who have tried to distance their children from people of color. In fact, I would say that I-Pride members work especially hard to help their children identify and celebrate the culture(s) of both parents and value diversity in general.
Posted 06 Jun 2005 at 6:17 pm ¶
Mixiebaby wrote:
Whateva to this…
White women need to hush up!
Posted 07 Jun 2005 at 5:05 pm ¶
Openeyes63 wrote:
I think this is just another way for black society to “accept” lighter complexions.
My question is where was black society when we were growing up and our complexions were the same, it is not until we become famous or become highly recognized that black society seems to accept us.
I agree with being able to say that we are “mixed” after all we are too light for some and too dark for others, and we really never fit in unless someone or something wants to use us for our notoriety.
I hear it all the time from both men and women from both races.
Some individuals say it is a blessing to be light, but is it really? You always have to be on guard really never knowing what they really think or what their assumptions are regarding you.
At least when you are dark you know what society thinks and how individuals feel and there is really no hiding behind that.
My personal opinion let individuals be individuals. You will never hear me say that I am white or I am black-why should I have to choose? I am a person and expect to be treated with the same respect and dignity that anyone else would expect.
Ignorance runs in all races and all ignorance represents are individuals that have closed minds and empty hearts.
Posted 18 Jul 2005 at 9:40 am ¶
john wrote:
I see nothing wrong with multiracial people. I am a white man who has mixed races in his family tree,including black.
Dont call me black, cause of that one drop rule that a lot of people want to use. It’s racist and It came with the jim crow law,that’s out and so should the one drop rule. Love my people, that ’s all of them.
Posted 18 Jul 2005 at 10:01 am ¶
Sara Polk wrote:
That’s too bad. I want my kids to be friends with everyone. I don’t think mixed is a way of not saying black. It’s a way of acknowleging both sides. If my kids just called themselves black I would feel hurt. It would be like they weren’t acknowleging me since I’m not black. The best term that I want my kids to call themselves is bi-racial. It doesn’t sound as rude as saying mixed.
Many years ago I attended a multi-ethnic support group in Berkeley called I-Pride, the “I” stood for “international.” This particular meeting consisted primarily of white women who had given birth to brown babies and did not want their children to be identified as black. During a break I wandered over to the host’s young son who was standing next to his class photo. I asked him to point out his friends in the photo. He named only the white and fair skinned children. Each time I pointed to a brown skinned or more African looking child and asked if this was also one of his friends, he assured me that no, not one of them was. Now, I could be reading into this but I sensed a bit of South Africa in that room, a feeling that the coloreds, while not on equal footing with the whites were at least superior to the blacks.
Posted 18 Jul 2005 at 11:25 am ¶
Doris Jean wrote:
“Mixed” is a way of saying “mixed”. You are black combined with white. You are white combined with black. You are asian combined with black. You are black combined with asian, etc etc. etc. It’s describing a story of people who have gotten together for whatever life has gotten them together for, hopefully love. They can make it a good story or a bad story, like any other plot.
Posted 18 Jul 2005 at 11:26 am ¶
A.D. Powell wrote:
I would like to ask Ms. Price why she doesn’t have a hissy fit over the fact that Latinos and Arabs also don’t want to be “black” despite the fact that nearly all of them have at least a “drop” of the dreaded “black blood.” I also note that no amount of “racism” from so-called “pure” whites seems to make them “black” in the eyes of American blacks and pretend blacks. Why is that? Why no lectures for the Latinos and Arabs on how they ought to turn tail and run to blacks if any “whites” are ever unkind to them? Could it also have something to do with the fact that blacks as a group are very nasty to mixed people and no other groups match them in bad behavior?
Anglos and Creoles who are “tarbrushed” don’t want to be “black.” YES!! That’s exactly right! Why? Because they are NOT black. Price and so-called “blacks” of her ilk have no more right to demand a forced “black” identity from mulatto and mixed white Anglos and Creoles than they have to demand it of Latinos, Arabs, or Chinese!
Actually, Latinos and Arabs would rather be “white” than “black.” This is proved by their answers to the Census “race” question and their own lobbying efforts over the years. If blacks hate the “multiracial” option so much, may I suggest “white” as an alternative? If it’s good enough for the Arabs and Latinos (who are “no more” than mixed-race people themselves)…
Posted 18 Jul 2005 at 5:10 pm ¶
Billy wrote:
There are only two races in this world, Caucasoid and Negroid. (Technically if Negroid is used to define Blacks, then Blancoid should be used to define Whites.) All people on all continents and islands, in all nations or countries are either Semitic, Hamitic, or Japhetic (from Shem, Ham, or Japheth.
The Semites and Japhethites (i.e. Indo-Europeans) are both members of the Caucasoid or Caucasian race. The Semites originally were a short-to-medium statured people, somewhat stocky, of a lighter skin complexion in the lighter tan range (Saddam Hussein color if not lighter). They all possessed brunet hair, dark eyes, light, but not fair skin, just a very light brown pigmentation, and had very prominant aqualine facial features with prominant noses. The original Semites were the true Mediterraneans, not what people consider Mediterranean today. The Japhethites were all originally Nordic in appearance, that is, they possessed fair skin, blond or red hair or the inbetween color of light brown (dirty blond), blue-green-gray eyes, and were generally medium-to-tall in stature, somewhat muscular with stern, sharp facial features.
The Hamites were the Negroid or Black race. They all originally possessed very dark, near black skin pigmentation and could be short-to-tall, slendor and cut. They had broad, flat facial features, black hair (some curly or kinky and other straight), and dark eyes.
So, there you have it n a nut shell, the Caucasoid or White (Mediterranean and Nordic) and the Negroid or Black race. “Well,” you might ask, “what about the Latinos/Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, Arabs, etc., etc.?” To answer this, if all people on Earth were either White or Black then that means anybody left on Earth that seems to be outside that box or doesn’t quite seem to fit that box, are obviously Mixed, or as I prefer, Multiracial. Asians, Arabs and Indians included are varying mixes of the White and Black races in different amounts, thousands of years ago. “Arab” itself means “mixed multitudes” in the Semitic languages. Latinos and Hispanics are predominantly mixtures of Black and White during the modern slave trade era. It must be noted here though that many Latinos/Hispanics are clearly White and many are clearly Black, thus proving them not races but ethnicities or cultures. American Indians (Wrong term thanks to Columbus), are no exception. They are also an ancient mix of Black and White.
It don’t matter what nation or tribe or person from history whether, ancient, medieval, or modern a person comes from, he is either White, Black, or Multiracial to put it simply, but truthfully. The varying features possessed by different nationalities and tribes of Multiracial people can be explained by several different means. One way is inbreeding within small pockets of people creating certain characteristics that in time become dominant features. Another way is by the percentage of race to race that intermingled. By this I mean different pockets of people would have different ratios of Blacks to Whites which would obviously create differences in appearance. One final way is by selective breeding, or weeding out bad genes by discarding defective infants (which is horrible). All this has given the world a diverse look of people, but if you look real good and peel away centuries and millennia of the above mentioned phenomena you can see that all people are clearly White, Black, or a mix of the two to varying degrees. Sounds too simple, but it would take volumes to properly outline a discussion like this of which there is no room here.
If anyone wants to e-mail meon this for whatever reason, you have my address, please respond. Thank you.
Posted 12 Sep 2005 at 1:32 am ¶
HB wrote:
I don’t know most white people’s opinion on claiming the “white side” of mixed people but I feel that most blacks would rather have a mixed person identify more with their “black side” because of the PRIDE issue. Their is such a stigma of negativity surrounding blacks in a whole. When Black people ask for mixed people to choose the black side, we are really saying ” Please don’t be ashamed of us” wear your black skin proudly.
Posted 19 Oct 2005 at 11:04 am ¶
k wrote:
I know my post is somewhat late, but I felt the need to respond. I can say with true honesty that at the moment I really feel no real ties with “mixed raced people” as a group, and I am “mixed” myself. For the past couple of months I have been logging on to various web sites geared towards people of mixed-raced backgound, and I am shocked by the level of anti-black propaganda dissiminated on most all of these forums. There seems to exist this paranoia among mixed-race people (especially those who are the product of a black/white marriage/relationship) that black people are out to get them. Reading the postings of A.D. Powell on this forum, as well as others, is evidence of this paranoia. It is such sentiments that make me now very suspicious of mixed-raced people and their claim that they want to bring the races together and help to eliminate racism. I know that not all mixed-raced people are anti-black, I’m not, but there are many mixed-raced people who are anti-black and the hate they spew is disgraceful. I was raised to embace both sides of my identity and to see the humanity in ALL people. These are qualities many mixed-raced people seem to lack.
As I see it, the mixed-raced movement is too divisive and will bring more harm than good if people such as A.D Powell are allowed to remain in the fold. Whether a mixed-raced person wants to classify themselves as mixed is fine with me. But when they try to use their mixed-heritage as an indicator thet they are somehow superior to persons who are not of a mixed-background–people they refer to as “black”/monoracials–THEN I have a problem. I love my mother, who just so happens to be black, and when I here mixed-raced people denigrate black people as a group it angers me because they are essentially denigrating my mother and half of my family, the people I grew up with, loved and still love, and owe much of my very existence to. They are denigrating all the black people who struggled during the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement to free black people and all people of color from the racist social institutions that gripped this nation. I feel many mixed-raced people have too little respect for the (black) men and women who made living in this country more tolerable…who helped create in part the opportunity for there to even exist as much multiculturalism as there exist today. No you don’t have to call yourself black if you don’t want to, but you ought to respect what it black and understand that some of the freedoms we now enjoy in this country would not exist if it were not for your “black” fellow citizens.
Posted 20 Jan 2006 at 4:25 pm ¶
Creoe Lady wrote:
I am a Creole from one of Louisiana’s oldest Creole towns. I consider myself as black, my family considers themselves black and many Creoles here consider themselves black even the ones who with such a light complexion that they are damn near white and are very easily mistaken for white, but will get very upset and offended if someone refer to them as white or they are mistaken as white. They will correct you with attitude “excuse you I am not white!” My father’s side of the family is the really really light completive bunch and my mother’s side has some color. Two of my brothers and my only sister are really light and pale and I was the blessed one with some color. I am sometimes mistaken for a Puerto Rican or Dominican when I travel to the east of the US. We claim being black with pride but we represent our Creole heritage. But, I personally do not refer to myself and do not wish to be referred to as African-American, especially by whites. I think mixed people add Beuty to our culture.
Posted 12 Feb 2006 at 9:33 pm ¶
Lol wrote:
What garbage Creoe Lady.
Posted 22 Feb 2006 at 7:11 pm ¶