http://hater site.com/668658/the-truth-bi-racial-children-are-asked-questions-about-race-my-daddys-brown-video/
My kids are biracial and they're not old enough to be aware of race yet. But my wife and I are just going to tell them they're biracial. They don't need to identify with one side or another. They are the best of both worlds and they are their own people.
Interesting... As a mother of 3 biracial children (18, 14 and 5) I do understand the difference in distinguishing between brown and black at a young age. My daughter will tell you (she's 5) that she is brown. However, she also indicates that her father (who is black) is also brown. Recently (probably because of comments she has heard among her peers at school) my daughter has started CLASSIFYING the different shades of "brown". She says now that her father is "chocolate" and she is "caramel". This is all very interesting in my eyes... I have always taught my children that they are "biracial" and when they ask, I tell them I am white and their father is black. I do not like to label their skin as a color (for instance, brown) or use the word "mixed" because I do not want to blur the dinstinction. I don't want them to think they are less special or different because they are "mixed" indicating to a young mind that perhaps they are "messed up" in any way. This video was very interesting though. I read a lot of the comments and I see that hater site dis-enabled their comments section for reasons of racial discrimination/remarks. Even someone stating the video is "scripted". I thought it was remotely interesting, and definitely a subject I am sensitive to...
As long as the social construct continues to thrive in our institutions via government, businesses, etc...we'll still see people use such labels as a means to show some level of differentiation. Despite the fact that our physiological make-up is very minuscule compared to the rest of the humans (we're 99.5% similar), we still see ourselves as completely different creatures. We either erase those labels by gouging out the eyes of everyone or simply try radical experiments for new generations until we all simply recognize one another as simply human. But then again, there won't be a need for websites like http://www.WhiteWomenBlackMen.com
Great post...I totally agree. My hope is that my kids identify with who they are on the inside rather than the outside. The color of your skin or hair means nothing.
At an early age my son thought calling us 'black' was silly because he used to say "No one is as black as a black crayon, Papi. We're brown." He identifies people culturally or uses color only descriptively but so far I've been lucky that he hasn't internalized any of these hang-ups.