Half Black/Half white = Black? Biracial people

It could be anything. half black/half asian = black. Barack Obama is biracial.
Alicia Keys is biracial. what is with people labeling biracial black people full black...

Do they not realize it stems from racism?

 

You are labelled based on your outer appearance. Until they offer a "Biracial" checkbox on a job application you will choose the box that fits your pigmentation.

Cheers!

 

Biracial people are not an other. They are a both or a many. Someone who is mixed with Black and Asian, for instance, is both Black and Asian. They could identify as Black or Asian or Biracial, and be right each time. It is up to them to identify themselves as they wish, and that can change during different parts of their lives, or even moment to moment depending on who they are with. There's no wrong answer here.

 

See that is the wrong answer. If your half asian and half white then your half asian and half white period. There's no on and off switch. Unless she can remove the asian DNA. she/he will always be biracial. Just because I don't feel like being black doesn't mean I'm not. There both plain and simple.

 

You are assuming that by embracing one part of oneself at any given time, you are denying other parts. That's incorrect.

Obama is the first Biracial president. He is also the first Black president. None of this diminishes his bond with his mother's side of the family, who raised him.

Why are you trying to keep such strict rules on such an imperfect label as race?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008210083_biracial280.html

 

How can someone choose their race?
If I take milk and chocolate mix and stir it together guess what I have? Chocolate milk. It's not just milk anymore and its not just chocolate mix. It can't choose to be either one because its both.

Categorizing Biracial people came from slavery.The slave masters would get their female slaves pregnant and their babies would be biracial. The white slave master was concerned in keeping the purity of the white race. He did not want Caucasian blood tainted with african blood. Thus he created the one percent drop rule. If your 25% Black 75% white your white blood is tainted and no good so you would be considered full black. White people don't except bi racial people into their race. Instead they categorized them in our race.

Anybody who agrees with this logic has a slave mentality or either racist and doesn't even know it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

 

Exactly.
You can argue that a bi-racial person is just black/asian/white,that society views it in a particular way etc. but at the end of the day that's a bi-racial person and that's that.
You can choose to consider it the way you like and he/she may identify the way he/she pleases but the truth it's still the same,no matter what society thinks or whatever.In the middle ages society as a whole viewed the earth as flat ,but that didn't make it that way, it was still round.
I also think that bi-racial or tri-racial ppl that choose to ignore a part of who they are don't have enough respect for themselves or for their parents culture.My bf is bi-racial (his father's white,his mom is a bw) and although he resembles his dad very much and everyone who sees him think he's a hispanic or someth like that (there are many latin-americans here) he has to much pride in his mom's heritage and tells them that no,he's in fact half black.But if we go after the logic that we should identify after what society thinks of us and how it treats us, he should maybe identify himself as latin-american even though he doesn't have a drop of hispanic blood - absurd situation.
The problem is that ppl feel the need to identify themselves the way society views them and that's a sign of weakness and gives in to racist mentalities.

 

The definition of Black came from slavery as well. And race itself is a social construct.

If you have chocolate milk, you have had milk and you have had chocolate and you have had chocolate milk. If someone asks you if you drank milk today, the answer is yes. If someone asks you if you've had chocolate today, the answer is yes. If someone asks you if you've had chocolate milk the answer is yes.

The overwhelming majority of Black people in the United States have "one drop" of non-black heritage. Yet no one demands that light skinned Black people identify as biracial.

You talk about slave mentality, but isn't part of the root of the one-drop rule defining for people what they may identify as?

A Black man whose great grandmother was Native American, but who has never met that grandmother and was raised Black -- should he be required to identify as Biracial? Even if he has never felt that way?


It seems everyone in society feels they have a better idea of who biracial kids are than they do. The Boondocks comic strip had a long series where the central character insisted that a Biracial girl identify as Black, portraying her as confused. And others insist that Biracial kids are confused when they call themselves Black.

I hear people complaining that Obama doesn't call himself Biracial, and people complaining that he doesn't call himself Black. In fact, he has defined himself both ways. And indeed, he is both things.


For more than half my life, I've looked forward to someday raising a Biracial child. When I do, they'll be Black and they'll be White and they'll be Biracial. But most importantly, they will be whatever they say they are. That's about as far from the slavemasters' intention as you can get, don't you think?

 

I agree with the bit i've highlighted, if someone wants to indentify themselves as black or even as white when they are Bi Racial that's there choice, as Mother to 2 biracial children i would prefer they identify with both parents not just one, BUT! we can't tell people how to think or feel, each to there own choice.

But maybe the original poster was talking about the pressure from others who think they should identify as black due to the one drop mentality, which i personally feel is bollocks.

 

Exactly.
Your on point.
I love smart women. :smt055

 

People who are asian and white are mostly concidered White by the majority.

 

Did you have milk to day?
"Yeah I had chocolate milk." (thats the only answer)
It wasn't regular milk. I didn't eat the chocolate by itself. I combined it and had Chocolate milk.

Ahhh this arguement again. There's a big difference to someone being 85% Black 15% w/e. Then someone blantly being half white and half black.

Are black people of today purely black? Of course not. But there mostly black not half or a quarter.

No they will be biracial and it doesn't matter what they think they want to be. How can you choose your genetics? People can assume their black if they look black but at the end of the day she's bi-racial.

 

But people who are black and white are considered black by the majority??? You don't see the prejudice or the double standard? The hypocrisy

 

No. I'm arguing against that. You read this argument wrong. I think the one drop rule is wrong.

 

Who the heck talks like that? The US govt., when I was a kid, required that we be given milk at lunch. We had two options: regular milk or chocolate milk. They were interchangable, because they're both milk. Milk doesn't stop being milk, even when you add chocolate to it.

I have known biracial people who look white and biracial people who look Black . They are who they say they are. Why do you feel the right to tell them who they are, based upon the percentages of their DNA?

Johnny Depp was raised by his White mother and his Native American grandfather. He considers himself both. Another person may have a Native American grandparent that they never met, and may have never been raised as anything but White. Are they both?

How are you, demanding that Biracial people declare themselves ONLY as biracial, any different from those that demand Biracial people with African American heritage declare themselves ONLY as Black?

What business is it of yours how someone defines themselves?


Should Biracial people be barred from receiving scholarships and benefits designed for Black people?

 

I don't think that's what the original poster is getting at, but I do agree completely with you, on both paragraphs. Rep added.

 

This is not going anywhere. Since I can't convince you. Im going to let BIRACIAL people tell you them damn selves. Just give me a second.

 

The one-drop rule is an American trait. You cannot expect those who offer no family ties to America to understand the philosophy behind such American propaganda.

It was only when I joined this forum I heard about such nonsense. Bear in mind the world does not revolve around America's customs and you must not draw to a conclusion on things you have no experience on.

CBQ's first reply was very clear to understand that their is no picking of sides but more towards having the best of both worlds in which a person can adapt to either environment in addition to understanding where both races stand.

If one cannot understand CBQ’s reply it means you do not fall within the Biracial or multi-ethnic community.

Cheers!

 

Did you even read any of the article I posted on the last page? Did you not see that the most respected organization of Biracial people in the nation was clearly making the point that Biracial people should be allowed to define themselves as they like?

By all means, bring in all the Biracial people you like. It will be interesting to see if they, like you, insist that Biracial people be forced to identify themselves in only one way at all times.

I don't know if you really don't understand a word that I'm saying, or if you are actually as rigid as you are coming across. To clarify:

Biracial people should not be made to define themselves as one of the races of their heritage.

Biracial people should not be made to define themselves as anything but what they want to define themselves, in any given moment in time.


If you object to that, by all means, do what you can to convince me. But I'm not easily swayed towards the idea that Biracial people have no right to self-definition. You may have to prove to me that up is down first.

 

Let me make this clear my arguement is that Bi -racial people are Black and white and they cannot choose to be either. They are both.

Your argument is that Bi -racial can choose if they want to be black or white. And somone who is clearly mixed still chooses to be considered purely one race or thee other. Despite the fact they only have half that race's genetics.

So before I post dozens of youtube videos of Bi-racial people and other Black people agreeing with my point and disagreeing with yours I just want to verify thats what this debate is about.

It seems people are misreading and twisting the argument.