Posted on 04/07/2006 10:49:37 AM PDT by Alice Linsley
Growing up Bi-racial
Joshua Brown
(Joshua Brown is a cadet at Millersburg Military Institute in Kentucky. He is studying Journalism and Creative Writing.)
Their hair may be black or golden brown. Their eyes may vary from cat green to bark brown. Skin tone may be light with freckles or a Hawaiian sun tan brown. These are some of the physical features of bi-racial persons. Bi-racial persons are faced with tough decisions when it comes to their families. White parents-in-law may not accept white daughters-in-law, or vice versa. The children of bi-racial marriages are often caught in the middle, having to choose which side of the family they will identify with.
A person shouldn’t have to pick sides, but in reality a kid can’t wear Abercrombie without their black side calling them white, and they can’t dress in Roca wear without being questioned by white family members. People say that society doesn’t care about race barriers, but in the day to day of bi-racial persons, it is evident that society does. Decades after desegregation, many Americans haven’t adjusted to inter-racial marriages and bi-racial offspring. Unfortunately, children who grow up with families not liking each other often feel that they are the cause of the conflict.
My own family has seen this dilemma. At my nephew’s birthday party, his mother’s side (white) wouldn’t celebrate his birthday with our side of the family, so they threw him a separate party for their side. It is their choice, but are they considering how this may affect him? My nephew will go through this when it comes to the holidays also. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter become times of conflict and pain.
Sometimes I find myself tripping out about the clothes his mother lets him wear or the way she gets his hair cut. I like a coordinated and sharp look, but I would never try to dress him to fit in with only one side. It is tough to grow up having to please both sides of one’s family. For an interracial couple it is already tough, because they deal everyday with discrimination, but when they have to deal with watching their children suffer in strained relationships, it gets tougher.
People will need to open their eyes to the realities of bi-racial children and adjust. Why should a kid have to worry about things like: “Will grandma get mad if she hears me listening to rap music?” or “Will my uncle say something about me if I have braids?” Bi-racial children need room to live as normal children. What they need most is for their families to love them.
I would not expect you would... Most prejudice I have seen in my life is between the black and white cultures...
I lived in Sasebo Japan for over three years. Got to know many and their customs. An oriental with a southern drawl would be unique to say the least! ;)
I think she's just a very dark shade of French.
Her mother is actress Marcheline Bertrand and her father, Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight. Marcheline Bertrand is a French actress of partial Haudenosaunee (Native American) descent.
No one ever tells them to embrace or celebrate their whiteness, either.
I have found that any race mixed with Japanese is quite beautiful.
She's actually adopted by Richie, but still bi-racial.
(Ted Danson is an idiot and an a-hole)
She is Black Creole, Mexican and Caucasian. I remember reading about it in one of my daughter's teen magazine.
I now see the wisdom of the Thai ~ grandpa is cremated ~ grandpa goes in little boxes ~ everybody gets a box ~ boxes go into the flower beds.
In the days of segregation, Jim Crowe, etc a black person was defined as having 'one drop' of black blood in their system.
Today's race pimps have adopted that standard for themselves.
We are a bi-cultural, blended family. Latino/Catholic and Plain White Bread/Mormon.
Even though you might consider them both Christian, they each consider themselves the one-and-only-true-church!
The music is different, the food is different, the prayers are different, the language is different, the spirits are different.
By race, they are both white. By culture they are worlds apart!
When you are racially unidentifiable (don't know how else to say that), you hear the pure racism of everybody. Whites think you're one of them and there is a lot of uncensured racism spoken in non-mixed company. Likewise, blacks have their own brand of hate-whitey. In mixed company, everybody denies being racist. It's all hand-holding and "I have friends who are black..."
The question of "fitting in" is real for a child. It's the grown ups that make the life of a bi/multi racial child difficult. Deny it if you like. Say it shouldn't be so. But it is. Biracial kids definately have a hurdle to overcome in the development of their self esteem, just like all other kids for other reasons. Calling or treating them like victims is just another racist expression - as if an innocent child is a victim of his parents.
I honestly wonder what he was thinking!?!
I mean about dating Whoopi Goldberg.
I think his current wife is a much better choice.
That is sooo funny to hear. Heard a comedian (who was quite hilarious BTW) once on MTV and it was a little odd. Till I moved to my very rural area in Georgia and met my Arab or Indian (don't know for sure) owner of the local convenience store. Only store for miles around. I call him affectionately Bubba Abdul. He thinks it's funny (I hope, he laughs anyway. His name is REALLY Abdul though)
BTW, I grew up in Australia and was just a "damn Yank".
Growing up"mulatto"in a tough black neighborhood would be really hard?
My black compatriots tell a different story.They claim the fairer skin kids had a big advantage,especially the girls, whom the boys swooned over.
Now its true that the boys sometimes have to fight a little harder to show their darker skinned brothers that they have "heart".
Yet if you think about it,that"disadvantage"probably made them stronger people in the long run.
"My kids are half French and half Texan"
Still caucasian. Not nearly as difficult in society as it is for someone who is a mix of culture and race.
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