« Feeling proud and confident in one’s racial-ethnic identity can potentially protect Multiracial individuals from discrimination and the negative mental health consequences associated with rejection or attacks on their identity.
Now Beacon, Now Sea: A Son’s Memoir »

I wish I could ask my grandfather what drove his family to stake such a full claim to their Blackness. Why did they choose to celebrate it when they could have easily hid it?

I wish I could ask my grandfather what drove his family to stake such a full claim to their Blackness. Why did they choose to celebrate it when they could have easily hid it? Not only did they choose to live in a Black world, my family rejected the idea that their proximity to whiteness made them better than their darker brothers and sisters. Even when they could take advantage of the privilege afforded to them by the Black community — joining elite Black organizations because their skin was indeed lighter than a paper bag — they didn’t. This kind of self-determination set the foundation for radical self-determination seen during the Civil Rights and Black power movements, decades before it was fashionable or even accepted.

Elizabeth Wellington, “Choosing Blackness,” The The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 15, 2021. https://www.inquirer.com/life/inq2/black-identity-america-wildest-dreams-20210915.html.

Tags: ,

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 21st, 2021 at 02:09Z and is filed under Excerpts/Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.