because people in the USA need to come to grips with it.
Yesterday, I wrote a diary about RACE as a response to the Rev. Wright bashing that was going on around here. I prefaced it with some personal demographics. Today I will continue that discussion.
Today's topic is: "Wouldn't it be GREAT to be BI-racial?"
More demographics: My son is biracial.
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About the time Barack gave his speech about race, I forwarded a link to an article (I don't remember the link) about kids who grew up in bi-racial families. The article was very positive. The kids who were interviewed gave glowing assessments of their situation. I was curious as to what my son's reaction would be.
I want to share it with you:
The benefit of being mixed race is seeing how entirely full of shit (at times) that both races can be. How often have I heard white people of German or Irish heritage wrap themselves up in what they believe to be their heritage i.e. Octoberfest and St. Patrick's Day. Holidays that we well know are acquainted with getting drunk.
A lady in the store went out of her way the other day to tell me that she was Irish. That's funny she sounded American by her accent. As a matter of fact I knew the accent well it was the Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia (or tri-state area accent).
I've got equal disdain for both races being of mixed race is in itself it's own race which no one seems to acknowledge. I've had black people come up to me and tell me that they hate mixed race people. I've had white people come up to me and call me nigger. I've even had the misfortune to not only be called a nigger but to be called a sand nigger which calls my patriotism into question. So please forgive me if I'm not at all impressed with this dialogue on race.
I myself and others of mixed race have been having this dialogue since becoming aware that we were somehow different from people that could claim to be closer to 100 percent of one race or the other than we were. Having said all this, at the same time I still understand that Black people in this country have the unique distinction of being the only ethnic group (with the exception of the Irish who were brought as indentured servants I don't know how many) that were brought here specifically to be slaves. They also don't realize that historically this has all happened in the blink of an eye and get bent out of shape when they hear about affirmitive action or civil rights, it scares a lot of them.
But when I watch Obama give speeches I see a lot of white faces which gives me hope that people are starting to come around but again I say I'm not impressed with this dialogue on race. I welcome it but I won't listen to anymore bullshit about choosing one side or the other or not being black enough or not being white enough.
A white co-worker keeps calling me brother and I want to say to him "I'm not your fucking brother". I'm sorry you don't have a right to call me brother because you watch the NCAA and the NBA and you see your favorite Black players acting a certain way it doesn't make you my brother. The best way to be my brother is to leave me that fuck alone so I can do my job effectively.
WOW!!! Didn't expect that huh? When I got this response to the article, I knew I had to save it. It is very powerful. It came to me as a stream of consciousness, one long, passionate paragraph. I broke it into smaller paragraphs so make it easier to read but otherwise it is intact.
Why do a diary about this? Because it shows what it means to be in the middle. Because my son's experience let us see the raw side of what it is like to Black in America on the one hand and the resentment he experienced from people who are "Blacker" in his interactions with people.
Bitter??? You read it for yourself. So where can we take this thing?
Let me pose a couple of questions:
If you are white, do you understand that Black people don't think that everything is okay now? That the battle for equality has hardly begun?
If you are Black, are you too angry to sit down with white people to hash out some accommodation to make this a mutually acceptable society? Do you think that it is possible for us all to, in the famous words of Rodney King, "just get along"?
If you are bi-racial, do you share my son's experience and frustration? Do you have anything to add?
And if you are an observer, i.e. Asian American, Native American, or other group that you find not included, please feel free to give your observations. And if you are not an American citizen, how strange does this discussion feel to you?
Okay, let's have at it. It's time for Dr. King to stop dreaming. The only way that can happen is for us to finally deal with this blight on our nation.