As James McBride, the biracial author of The Color of Water, notes, “When you’re mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.”

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That's exactly what race was founded on…business. I've been reading a number of books in the past couple of years dealing with the historical aspects of racism and race. And among the books I've read(Black Labor, White Wealth & The Color Complex)they both link the creation of racial categories to economics.

Racial groups were created for the sole purpose of allocating wealth. With the strength of your economic status equated to the "lightness" of your skin color. White at the top, black at the bottom.

So while taking away the racial categories and the need to "check a box" may make some groups more comfortable, unless we deal with the unjust motives behind the "boxes", the inequities will continue.

Not everyone will agree with these books assessments of race, but it really helped me to see how much damage these categories have done and to see race as so much more than simply skin color.

Thanks for the article Cord.

You don't have to be mixed to see how ridiculous it ought to be. But it's not ridiculous to people who have to deal with racism's continuing effects. As long as the criminal justice system, and the educational system are tainted by institutional racism, it won't be a laughing matter for some of us.

Honestly, even before there was a business of race, there was an establishment of likeness. I'm sure a caveman would've pummeled a beardless brethen just cause they dont look like everyone else.

Neanderthal man and early modern man never got along, which is why neanderthal man is no longer here.

Slightly off topic but an interesting read:

The British Oprah: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag.....ge_id=1773
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag.....vance+date
Back story to the Russian Oprah:http://www.fanclub-lille2004.org/
Yelena Henga and her family tree.
—————
Trisha goddard:
Goddard was born in London, England to a white English father and a black mother from Dominica[1]. Brought up in Tanzania, East Africa and Surrey her early career as an air stewardess led to travel writing for magazines and then, when she settled in Australia in the mid 1980's, a new career in television.

She then became a presenter and roving reporter for Australia's 7.30 Report which led to her establishing and presenting the prime-time show Everybody. Then she started her own production company, devising, producing and presenting more than 400 programmes before returning to England in 1998 to host her own talk show on ITV, Trisha.[citation needed]

Apart from her family - husband Peter and daughters Billie and Madison - her two great loves

I forgot to mention that I've had alot of mixed friends and ethnically diverse friends that I feel were never really armed for what their reception would be. And you can blame that on the parents or their idealism("we are all the same") but they would be forced(i.e. the dominating community.) to choose a side and I don't think they ever really came to terms with themselves enough to embrace all of it. And then I have a best friend who is filipina,mexican,irish, and afro-portuguese and she embraces it all and has no issues if people call her one or the other. I have and never will know whats its like to be in that sort of position but I think when you're a minority or minority whitin a minority, people are going to have their ways of rationalizing what they don't understand and I think its best to correct them and if they dont want to hear it, eff'em.

I can not believe that her friends rode her about a t-shirt, so what. I bet those chics were jealous of her more than anything.

The only way you have a choice is if you look like one race entirely (sp) JD. Otherwise, you become the darker of the two or mixed. I do not see why people are still making a big deal out of being mixed.
As long as you have different types of people being exposed to one another, they are going to mate. Whenever I walk down the street, I have all types of men looking at me. I am sure if I offered a number of them a piece, most would not hesitate to take it.

In the ancient world, racism as we know it today did not exist. People discriminated against each other based on where you were from, and your society’s level of civilization. The Greeks and others made mention of skin color in their works but they did not equate it with intelligence (except when talking about the northern Europeans)

That Trisha chick is not the black Oprah in any sense of the word. Oprah would never publicize her trashy personal life to the press, and Steadman at least looks straight in photos. I could tell Trishas' husbamd was gay just by looking at his photo.

The russian version is much more interesting, for a lot of reasons. I actually saw her in some 48 hours murder documentary last night. I did not realize she was black until I actually turned towards the tv.

I am the product of a Black mother and a White father.

I am Black. No questions asked. I am not, nor will ever be, biracial, mixed, or any of those other things.

I went to a Biracial persons gathering once in college, and got a less than warm "we know what it is like to not be accepted, race is s o stupid, we are all in this together" welcome. I got a "what is she doing here" reception. Why? Because I look Black. Blackity, black, black. My skin is brown, my eyes are brown and my hair is what people would call nappy. No light skin or silky waves cascading down my back.

I am in the small minority of people who can say, without question, the whole issue of Biraciality is based on phenotype! It is not based on some desire to change the world. It is based on what they look like. I know, because Biracial people do not accept me as Biracial because I don't look it. Period. So, I just wish that Biracial people would just be honest about the real reasons they are fighting for another moniker to use for themselves.

Michelle you said a mouth full and I totally agree.

@Michelle:

Your statement was really powerful. Thanks for being brave enough to put that out there.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/s.....amp;page=1

Michelle, I appreciate you!

Michelle, thank you for speaking frankly and yet so eloquently. Your story is the perfect illustration of what I've been trying to make my 'Mixed' husband understand for years! The pressure to choose an ethnic identity is about fulfilling a basic human need: belonging to something greater than oneself. No one wants to feel as if they don't belong, and often times we will go to great lengths to ensure we fit in somewhere.
My husband identifies himself as 'Mixed' (mother: Black Creole, father: Black, White, Puerto Rican) and I identify as Black (even though I know I'm of a collection of different ethnicities), we just had a baby 4 months ago, and he wanted him identified as 'Other' on his birth certificate.
My son's bc reads 'Black' for one simple reason: in America perception is reality. It's not about what you are, it's about what you look like!
My son will go through life being treated like a Black man and I intend to prepare for such a battle to the best of my ability!

No offense… but only an African (like I) can wear a 100% Black. Lol, I kid… I kid.

If her friends were giving her a hard time for that, they're not her real friends. Race is socially constructed. If she feels/relates more to her "blackness," she can call herself black. Heck, a racist would still call her a nig***.

To those who responded to m post, I thank you for understanding. I am grateful for your compassion.

Michelle, I concur wholeheartedly with what you said. I was in a group on yahoo who called "Generation Mixed" and they were the exact same way. They would take people like Beyonce, Ananda Lewis and Tyra Banks and call them "multi-generational mixes" just because they didn't fit the stereotype of what they decided "black people" looked like. There was even one person on there who said Tatiana Ali was obviously mixed because she has "silky hair." To me, they just seemed like a new verison of the Brown Paper Baggers. You know, the kind of organizations back in the day that you couldn't join unless you were lighter than a Brown paper bag.
All African-Americans are mixed race and to me it is unfair to say that because you have light skin or light eyes you are less Black. Black families are colorful and always have been. And I find it ironic that they used Tyra Banks as one of there representatives because she is my "mixed features" who has black parents. Her brother is dark Skinned and would never be consider mixed by anyone in society, yet he has the same genes as his "mixed" sister. I bet good money that group would never have a picture of him as a representative.

Funny thing : in France we're trying hard to have the question of ethnicity integrated to the census and to legalize the collect of datas about race. Without statistic you can't tell anything about the real evolution of your community or even more simply about the evolution of black people perceived as a "color group". It means that you cannot evaluate the impact of racism. We don't even know precisely how many black people live in France or are french.

Ethnic datas are allowing to have a macro vision of a group evolution.

Michelle, thanks for keeping it real. Race is about what you look like (& how others see you) and ethnicity is how you see yourself.

Nicole, I see your point, but even w/o government tallies of race, colorism still exists. Brazil is a prime example b/c it did (does?) not keep records of employment, poverty, health, etc. based on race, but the class/race hierarchy is clear. Government-based identifers come and go, but people's biases will still remain.

Japan is one of the most homogenous nations, and it still managed to create a class of scapegoats- the Burakumin.

Lunanoire,

I just googled Burakumin…..wow! Thanks! It goes along way to support many of my assertions about race and why I see myself as just Black. Maybe that will be the name of my autobiography.

For anyone who is interested, please check out the following article by one of the most enlightened women on the planet when it comes to race, Sylvia Wynter. Here's the site

http://www.stanford.edu/group/...../wild.html

I would love to see what people make of her assertions.