…You get muddled articles like these two. John McWhorter of The Root wrote this article, “Why Are We Angry At Biracial People,” which attempts to support people who don’t exclusively classify as Black; however I finished the article not feeling triumphed, but alienated. His conclusion just doesn’t get it right:
“There will be actual black people. There will also be those who are only part black, and there will be more of them by the decade. It’s high time that America, black and white, stopped telling them that there’s some kind of higher wisdom in adopting the racial-classification strategies of Strom Thurmond. Go on, “biracial” people. I call it “black to reality.”
But then, there’s a response like this one: Bene Viera’s article in Clutch magazine titled “Stop Bringing the Biracial Issue to the Doorsteps of Blacks.” (The title is enough to make you cringe, right?) She heavily critiques McWhorter’s article. I was happy to see that she made clear that mixed race identity is more complex than portrayed in the other article, however, I still feel that she treats, (as she calls it) “the biracial issue” with insensitivity. Don’t even read the comments – its not worth the energy.
Mixed Reader 