I do not agree. - Edit 1
Before modification by nossy at 23/07/2013 07:34:21 PM
View original postRace is a social construct. We've known that for ages. Do you really think taxi drivers looked at Obama and said "oh, he's biracial?" Do you think waitresses looked at him and thought "Oh, he's biracial. He's not like African-Americans, who don't leave tips, so I'll serve him well?"
View original postHis experience has been almost unilaterally that of a black man. Handwaving away the difficulties he's faced as an African-American man in the States by calling him "biracial" is pretty offensive.
Isn't that sort of what we're talking about? That someone of color is forced to be known simply as "black" or "African American" because he looks that way? And because a certain greater sympathy may exist for the group that was more willing to accept him?
Haven't we been arguing that people are so much more than color, and they don't like being put in boxes because of it? Or, well, that's what I thought I was talking about.
He is biracial, because though he's felt the sting of this "shared history," many of his thoughts, reactions, personal historical notes, etc come from a white (for lack of a better term) background. And being of mixed race carries its own drama (some would argue that it can be worse than belonging solely to one group or the other), so how can you feel comfortable dismissing the actual life he's lived, and then tell me I'm "hand-waving away" anything?