The night before Super Tuesday, I wrote a short post in preparation for this one asking you to think about a couple of things. I want to relist them here, and I really want you to think about them a little bit before you continue reading.
How important is race as an identifying factor?
Not particularly for you as an individual, but as a societal collective.
What defines race? Is it a cultural thing? An ancestral thing?
How much belief do you put into the 'one drop' rule?
And from there, how do you consider multiracial identity?
Is multiracial enough to be considered an "identity", or will those individuals be forced to choose? To conform to the one box rule?
So... why is Obama a Black man?
You're probably unaware of why I am even asking this seemingly abusrd question.
Obama is a biracial man. His mother is White and his father is Black.
I point out this fact, and someone will usually ask me (either in an apathetic way or an offended way), why should we even care?
We're kidding ourselves if we ask this question, because we do care. No matter how much we tell ourselves that we're "colorblind" (my feelings on this term later on) and that race doesn't matter... it still does. We have not yet reached a societal epiphany that the only difference in race is melanin and skin pigmentation.
Individually? Maybe. I'm not even comfortable certifying that there are certain individuals who are free from reactions, thoughts, or fears that don't tie into race or racial situations. Think about yourself honestly.
So, yes, it truly is remarkable (despite our perfect world type of aspirations) that a man who is not White has advanced this far in our national elections.
I say not White... but he's not not White. He's not Black, yet he's also not not Black. Is this making sense to you? It should, and I know it doesn't.
The idea of multiracialism is something that society has not fully come to grasp yet.
I've come to the upsetting conclusion that the emphasis on his Blackness is merely a political tool- and that's not necessarily his fault.
It's common place in our society. Think about other multiracial celebrities:
When did Tiger Woods become Black? When was he multiracial?
When was Mariah Carey White? When was she biracial? Who were her target audiences at this time?
What about "ambiguouslly ethnic" celebrities? What are the benefits of never outright declaring a race? Think about the roles actors and actresses get.
There are societal benefits to denying one's multiracial identity.
It's harsh, it's cynical... but is it true? I believe so.
To claim a multiracial identity is to alienate yourself. Racial categorizations are still prominent, externally and internally.
Multiracial individuals are often forced to choose which race they identify as- that's a lie. They ARE forced to choose-- every time an application needs to be filled out (with the recent exception of the Census).
In the case of Barack Obama, you are figuring this is easy. He looks Black, he married a Black woman, he is referred to as Black, his children look Black, if you had no idea who he was and you saw him on the street, you would probably assume he was Black. So... he's Black, right? That's the box he chooses fill out on each application.
It's more complicated than that.
I wrote a paper last semester for my Whiteness & Multiculturalism class, one of the 10 most dangerous classes in America. Multiracial identity was the issue I chose.
As I was writing the paper, I remembered an old friend from home, Becca, and the struggle she had filling out her college applications.
Her father is Italian, her mother is Puerto Rican, but she's always assumed to be just Hispanic by others. She spent most of the college application time leaving the "check one" section that applied to race completely blank.
I decided to interview her for my paper, about why this decision was so hard, "It's not a choice, it's my family," she told me. Neither White nor Hispanic alone could identify her.
But would it be better if she could choose one box? Maybe the stability of society, which has so firmly grounded itself in racial stereotypes, would benefit from the one box rule.
So which one does Becca choose? It's not so easy if we want to analyze some of the factors:
She looks Hispanic, but she looks more like her father. She speaks more Italian and English than Spanish, and her family is culturally 'American'
If you're thinking about immigration, her mother has spent more time in this country than her father has.
Despite their assimilation, both her parents are extremely proud of their cultural roots and do their best to pass their pride onto her.
It is each of these elements that make this decision so hard for her.
But there are few people who are sympathetic to this struggle.
So, there are some questions we need to ask ourselves.
Should multiracialism be non-existent? Then, what exists? How do we define multiracial individuals?
Looks? A parent? Culture? Language? There's no easy way to do it, just review Becca's case.
What is the problem with defining multiracial as a group?
I want to leave you with these questions. Think about them, comment if you wish, but continue to think about these questions and the complications of multiracial identity.
This post has gone on long enough I think. In a few days, I will post my own response to these questions and talk about my own experience as a multiracial individual.
I can't guarantee it will be the next post, but it'll come...
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