My Sons Are Biracial, Not Black OR White {And so is President Obama}

When this story from Global Grind appeared all throughout my Facebook feed, “Taye Diggs Fears People Will See His Son as Black Rather Than Mixed”, before even reading it, I knew Taye would receive a lot of negative backfire. I knew there would be people who wouldn’t understand his logic regarding his reasons for wanting his son to embrace both races of his being.

After reading the article, I thought, “how could anybody disagree with a parent wanting his child to acknowledge all of who he is?” But, as expected, people misconstrued his comments making him seem like some self hating Black man. I read comments in which people called him a “coon” and a “weak black man suffering from self-denial”, saying he doesn’t take pride in his race.

I know I’m not the only one who see’s an issue with those ridiculous comments.

I believe he’s being highly misunderstood. He never denied being Black, he actually stated he’s a “proud Black man” so it can’t be self-denial. He never denied the fact that his child is Black, he said his child is Black and White, and that’s the truth. His ex-wife, who happens to be a White woman, contributed her own DNA and carried their son in her womb. They’re successfully co-parenting with to raise their child, so I don’t understand why it’s an issue that he wants his son to acknowledge his own biological White mother.

I was a little shocked to read so many comments regarding societal views of race, basically telling parents of biracial children that society says mixed children are Black so that’s just the way it is. “Society will remind him who he is everyday,” one woman commented. Someone even mentioned that because we can’t change the fact that society will always see the child as Black, it means the child is officially Black.

The ignorance!

Many people of color have redefined their own race, some only wanting to be called African American or Black, not both. Us, as Black people fight to redefine societal views of beauty, moving away from European beauty standards, growing out our own natural hair, embracing our African features, and displaying the tags #Blackbeauty, #Blacklove, and #Blackgirlsrock, because we don’t believe we get enough love and support for our race from society. In those aspects, we have redefined ideas and set our own standards.

Now, when parents of biracial children decide to move away from the societal standards of race, no longer accepting the “one drop” rule, no longer making our children choose one race over the other, we’re told that we’re ashamed of our Blackness and we need to abide by what society tells us about our children? That’s hypocrisy and foolishness.

I personally don’t care what society has to say about the race of my children. I also don’t care about anyone’s opinion of me. If anyone chooses to believe I’m ashamed of my race, they obviously don’t know me. My children know that their mother is a {very proud} Black woman and their father is a White man, they can see that. They know that my husband and I created them together. They understand that they are a part of both of us, myself and my husband, which makes them Black and White, not Black or White. They are MIXED and BIRACIAL, whichever they choose to say. When I ask my six-year-old son what color he is, he says he’s “caramel” and “mixed with Black and White”.

I don’t expect my sons to say they’re white only, failing to acknowledge me, their biological mother, a Black woman. Out of respect for my husband, their biological father, I don’t expect them to say they’re Black only. Obviously, my daughter does not identify as biracial or mixed and if she ever wanted to, I would not allow it. She’s Black, because both of her biological parents are Black, and she’s taught to be proud of her unique beauty.

According to my husband, “When speaking about children with multiple races, there’s no {air quotes} ‘black or white’, there’s always a grey area. Taye Diggs made a logical observation and any biracial child that can intelligently observe differences will notice that they are not Black or White, they are a mixture of both. And yes, it would bother me if my sons said they were only Black or only White.”

I agree 100% with Taye’s statement that, “When you call biracial kids Black, you risk disrespecting that one half of who they are…” Children of two races being called mixed and biracial shows respect and appreciation for the race and heritage of both parents.

Biracial children should be taught to be proud of who they are, fully embracing both sides, not having to pick or choose which of their parents race they identify as because the racist bullies of society tells them they can only claim one or the other.

Annnnd, President Barack Obama is biracial and the first half-Black president of the United States.

Thanks for reading!

Originally published at www.britneydearest.com on November 24, 2015.