posted July 03, 2008 11:06 AM         

I admit that I thought maybe I was being a little nonsensical and even
irrational to feel conflicted about my ethnic identity because of the
presidential race,but after reading this article,I now feel that what
I have experienced is something that is shared by other mixed
people. I feel that what I have expressed are valid concerns and viewpoints about the mixed "Black" person.

I do wonder how many inter-ethnic relationships have been affected by
the presidential race. I know that mine has.

Interestingly, I found this article with transiting Mars-Saturn conjunction in
Virgo currently in grand cross to my t-square of Moon in Pisces in
6th,Jupiter-Neptune in Sagittarius in 3rd,and retrograde Saturn in
Gemini in 9th.

not only that

transiting Moon-Venus conjunction in Cancer in my 11th house and
transiting stationary Uranus in Pisces in my 7th house in Grand Trine
to my 2nd/9th house ruler Venus in Scorpio in 3rd house.

Transiting Sun in Cancer in my 10th/11th house sextile my Ascendant in
Virgo and square my retrograde Eris in Aries in 8th

Transiting Eris quincunx my Venus - 1 minute of arc applying

Transiting Neptune square my Venus

Transiting retrograde Jupiter in Capricorn in my 5th sextile my
Mercury in Scorpio in 3rd

Transiting Saturn in Virgo in my 12th sextile my Sun in Scorpio in 2nd/3rd house

I think that those transits are in fitting synchronicity with me finding this article and feeling validated by it.

By ELIZABETH DAVIDZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 3, 3:14 AM ET

WASHINGTON - This presidential election is about more than checking a
box for either a Democrat or a Republican. For me, it's also about
choosing a box that identifies my race.
ADVERTISEMENT

Because I am biracial, I always dreaded those forms that asked you to
check one box only. Are you black? Are you white? Are you Hispanic?
Are you Asian?

For anyone who is like me or Barack Obama, racially mixed, the choice
has always been clear. We would choose the minority box because that
is how the world sees you. To choose the white box was to try to pass
as white, to be ashamed of that drop of blood that makes you dark. To
choose "other" was to have your race not counted at all.

Those forms are gone. But when it comes to race in America, we still
tend to talk about it in terms of black versus white or some race
versus another. In this election, Obama's diverse family has come up
again and again, but in the end we tend to define him one way.

Yes, Obama is black. But he is also white.

Increasingly, families are bridging these divides. People in my
generation who grew up in the '80s, and those younger, may hardly see
interracial families as revolutionary, since the numbers have grown.

But interracial families have been an American taboo since colonial times.

Interracial marriage was once banned in 41 states.

In 1961, when Obama was born to a white woman and a black man from
Kenya, 22 states did not allow interracial marriage. Those
prohibitions fell when the Supreme Court, in 1967, overturned a
Virginia law banning whites from marrying nonwhites.

A year later, when my parents were married in Ohio, it was legal but
not easy.

My mother is white and my father is a dark-skinned man from Indonesia.
My mom's father refused to come to the wedding. A family member told
my mother no one would marry her children because they would be "mutts."

My dad's family, in Indonesia, didn't attend.

I never experienced the tensions in my family surrounding my parents'
marriage. By the time my brother, my sister and I were born, the
family's initial doubts had been put to rest — my grandfather's
included. They showed us nothing but love and acceptance.

Still, it was hard to grow up biracial.

In our small Midwestern community, we never really fit in. Other than
a spattering of Confederate flags and a few KKK's scratched in school
desks, racism was never really the issue. The daily frustration was
ignorance. My siblings and I continually faced the questions.

"Where are you from?"

"Here. Ohio."

"No, where are you from really?"

My brother, my sister and I would exchange stories about what people
thought we were: Hispanic, Jewish, Native American, Mediterranean,
Middle Eastern.

The guesses never got it right. It was clear that even though we were
half white, and culturally white, to be part white was to be not white
at all.

We may have been sheltered in our small town, but what we knew of the
outside world in the '80s through TV, movies and news was that America
was still divided into black and white. The only interracial couples
we knew were the neighbors on the sitcom "The Jeffersons" and the
tragic couples in the musicals "Show Boat" and "West Side Story."

Things got better in the '90s. Biracial celebrities were taking the
stage in sports, TV and in music. Interracial couples started to grace
the screen in happier circumstances. For the first time, I saw
biracial-multiracial boxes and marked them with joy.

In 2000, the U.S. census allowed Americans for the first time to
identify themselves by more than one racial category. Nearly 7 million
did.

And the last state ban on interracial marriage finally fell, an
unenforceable law that had lingered on the books in Alabama.

In that year's presidential election, John McCain faced false rumors
spread during the South Carolina primary that he'd fathered a black
child out of wedlock. In fact, he and his wife, Cindy, had adopted
their daughter Bridget from an orphanage in Bangladesh.

Increasingly, couples like the McCains are adopting internationally.
Since 1990, the number of international adoptions has more than
doubled, to more than 20,000 in 2006.

I have rarely pondered my race in recent years. It wasn't until this
year, with my parent's 40th wedding anniversary and the presidential
election, that I've once again faced the old frustrations, confusions
and emotions.

Looking through my parent's wedding photos and hearing the old
stories, I think about how hard it must have been for them and Obama's
parents. Hearing Obama talk about his white mother and grandparents, I
think about my own.

Reading about his black father and his Indonesian stepfather, I think
of my dad. When I see Bridget McCain's photo, a dark-skinned girl in a
sea of white faces, I think of my own childhood insecurities.

When people file Obama under black and only black, I feel like I am
once again facing those old forms, that chasm between the races. Check
only one box — never mind one parent, half my family, one part of who
I am.

This historic election is about more than black versus white; it is
also about families that fill the in-betweens.

Regardless of who wins this election, if it is McCain or Obama, a
racial milestone will be met. America will have its first interracial
first family in the White House.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Elizabeth Davidz is a multimedia producer for The
Associated Press' bureau in Washington. On Deadline is a weekly
political column. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_campaignplus/20080703/ap_ca/on_deadline_biracial;_ylt\
=AojKZAWSdLZQN1MlLw03mIVsnwcF

Raymond

posted July 03, 2008 10:10 PM         

People cannot live in the past relying on their learned behaviour of judgmentalism. They will be forced them to confront the real issue as we grow as a global community - WE ARE ALL RELATED

One of my oldest family matriach's name is Lucy - she was born and died on the African continent.

posted July 04, 2008 04:36 AM         

i am mostly asian. i look nothing rather than asian anyway, but in a neutral state i feel like i'm just a person. i don't feel or think of anything when being among other races, and the word "race" is not something that floats inside my head often... i don't care what other people's races are, so i often don't necessarily resister people's appearances by their races.

posted July 06, 2008 02:04 AM         

That's another thing about being part white and something else, if you don't EMBRACE the non-white part of you, people think you're ashamed. It's ridiculous.

posted July 06, 2008 02:18 AM         

once i struggled a lot, because i felt guilty that i was not like how i "should be" according to the stereotype, and studied the history and culture of the country, hoping to assimilate. but after 15 years of doing this, i realized that if i have to study to be like someone i think i should be, that means i am not. then i started telling people honestly, that i am just not at all like the people from this country so please don't mention it as if that means a lot to who i am. it is NOT because i don't want to be considered the same as these people. while i feel that i should be who i am, it does make me feel guilty still, like i failed. because i'm different. i'd rather be treated as who i am than be reminded that.

posted July 06, 2008 02:35 AM         

I am an American, plain and simple. Calling me "the asian girl" invalidates who I am and casts me as an "other".

I don't even practice Chinese astrology.

posted July 07, 2008 01:12 AM         

i m posting my reply from another thread

you know this whole racism thing has me hooked..
fact is we are one of the most racist countires in the world..i m fair enough to pass for a latin white...my brother looks dark enough to be a native
we have like 10 different races...originating here..every major reliigon u can guess, 5000 languages and dialects, communiities bsed on religious offshoots...circus it is.

THAT is the whole agenda behind arranged marriage..keep the blood real
although in recent times arranged marriage is
has more or less died in cities..now its small towns and villages who are stuck with it.
BUT the generation preceding us has had a hardtime keeping up. my parents freaked bigtime when i declared i was going to have a love mrraige..and no i wouldnt date someone specificlly from our community, religion, language etc....

now that the dust has settled and more and more frinds and acquaintances have gone the love way...mixing culture and race..its getting hilarious.
i just complied a list of reactions , my parents to a interracial match..

white - " welcome to the family "

black - no words will be spoken....my parents will look like a witnesses to a car running over a puppy.

chinese,korean,japnese..etc - "have you lost ur mind ????"

muslim - any race, country - " you are dead or us...we dont have a daughter..."

posted July 08, 2008 12:57 PM         

I just want to transcend ethnicity and just think of race as just the human race which we are all a part of.

I respect everybody's decision what to acknowledge themselves as. I can't judge people if they do or don't embrace all their heritages. Heck...I also believe that it's ok to acknowledge diversity of ethnicities as long as we don't think ourselves are inferior nor superior to other ethnicities. That's how racism starts. I believe in ethnic equality. I believe in loving people of all ethnicities and being tolerant and accepting of them.

hey...when people asked me what I am

I respond " I am Black,Portuguese,English,German,French,Italian,Puerto Rican,and Native American. I even said that I was part Jamaican because my mom told me that my paternal grandfather was from Jamaica. I am not sure about that though. His parents might have been from Jamaica. I think Reggae is pretty cool music. I won't wear dredlocks though. hahahaha I even started telling people that I am part Jewish because my maternal grandmother's mother had a name that people told me is Jewish.

Now I will respond "I am a human being....a homo sapien just like you"

any ways...I am fine with who I am, and I just want people to accept me for all of me and not part of me. I wish that for every person of mixed ancestry.

I also want to reiterate that everybody is born a fine human being regardless of where there ancestors came from.

any ways....that's all I have to say.

Peace

Raymond