Generation Mixed: Breaking the Race BarrierPosted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, New Media, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States on 2010-03-05 22:46Z by Steven |
Generation Mixed: Breaking the Race Barrier
Yes! Magazine
2010-03-04
Adrienne Maree Brown
“I have to be a healer… my ancestral colonizer’s blood runs through my veins.”
—Cara Page
I’ve never been into identity politics. I’ve long felt that people spent too much time analyzing the labels of past generations and too little time feeling part of the mystery and miracle of humanity.
I’m sure this is, in no small part, because I am biracial. My first experiences of race were of people asking me to choose a side, choose a parent. People telling me that in spite of the love, joy, and wholeness of my family, I didn’t fit, or offering me unsolicited judgment about who they thought my parents must be. These people showed no interest in my actual experience.
My parents fell in love in South Carolina in the 1970s, in a way that surprised both of them. Their experiences were poles apart—poverty versus wealth, black versus white, outgoing versus shy. My mother was disowned by her family for some time after she and my father eloped, and they faced deep racism throughout their lives. But they are still in love today—visible, stable, solid, sweet, dedicated love.
I spent most of my childhood in Germany on military bases, as an army brat surrounded by a lot of other racially and culturally mixed kids. By the time I arrived at a Southern middle school, where the kids segregated themselves into white and black, I didn’t feel beholden to any labels.
This isn’t a universal experience for mixed people…
Read the entire article here.