posted October 23, 2008 01:56 PM            

I believe that Eris has to do with ideology,diversity

With Barack Obama(the son of a black and white woman) running for president, there is a lot of focus on his just being black. There seems to be a strong belief in the one drop rule (if you are part black, then you are black). The thing is that is a racist rule that was created to keep people of any black ancestry from having relationships with whites. This one drop rule is strongly outdated. After all, there is no slavery,Jim Crow laws,nor interracial marriage bans. Even the 2000 US Census allowed people to pick more than one box for race/ethnicity. This whole idea that you can't be more than one race is ridiculous. The idea that if you are mixed with the majority race and a minority race,you can only identify with the minority race is stupid. It's like many people don't seem to acknowledge that interracial relationships are existent, and that they disregard the existence of multiracial people. I also believe that being the offspring of a black and a white parent is different from being the offspring of parents that are "lightskinned blacks". One of the reasons is that unlike having lightskinned blacks for parents, many children of interracial black/white couples aren't viewed as being biologically connected. Many can't see past skin color to even notice that they have some feature of their white parents, and they say things that they don't look like his/her white parent. Some of them get annoyed when people assume that his/her white parent adopted him or assume that any black adult that is with them is their mother/father even though their mother/father is white. Many offspring of interracial black white parents often are given a hard time by some blacks for having a relationship partner the same race as their white parent, and get accused of betraying their race(black) and being called sell-out. Often, they given a hard time by some whites that don't like blacks(to them,that includes anybody who is part black) mixing with whites,and believe that interracial marriage bans should have been kept in place.

Many offspring of black-white parents do embrace the one drop rule because they know that society will mainly view them as black, and even only date blacks. They know that they are black enough to be called the n'word and other black racial slurs by some whites and others that aren't black(some asians,hispanics), but they also know what it's like to be called "zebra","oreo","mutt",and even "confused" (mainly by som blacks). Many others defy society and embrace all their heritage and date people of any race.

The great Abolutionist,former slave Frederick Douglass was the son of a black slave woman and white man(might have been his master), and he embraced both his heritages. His first wife was black,and his 2nd/last wife was white. Blacks including his family gave him a hard time for marrying a white woman,and accused him of betraying his race. Whites were angry with him too. His response was "My first wife was the color of my mother, and my second wife is the color of my father"

We are in the 2000's, and I believe that it's about time that we get rid of the one drop rule as interracial relationships and multiracial people are considerably increasing here in USA. The reality is that we live in a multiracial USA, and we are mixing it up like never before. Racial boundaries are being broken away from,dissolved,obliterated,and being forced to be redefined by many people that are more than one race. These people are tolerant of diversity because they are born from the tolerance of diversity.

I don't believe that Barack Obama can close the gap between black and white. I believe that all the blacks and whites have to do that on their own. This means dropping all barriers between them and accepting that interracial relationships are a regular part of society and that multiracial people like Barack do exist. They shouldn't have to be forced to choose which one to belong in nor should they be marginalized as only one race. There shouldn't be a racial tug-a-war. Barack and other multiracial people belong to both the black and white community and not just the black community. It shouldn't be just Blacks that claim Obama, but Whites should also claim Obama too. We don't have segregation laws. Interracial marriage bans are non-existent here. Multiracial people are a fact of life here. It's about time both blacks and whites wake up to that reality. Frederick Douglass knew that the one drop rule was a joke,and he lived over 100 years ago. It seems like he was more modern in his thinking than we are as a society today. Lets get rid of the Tower of Babel (God meant for the races to be separate) once and for all.

another thing ........This applies to not only black/white mixed people but also people of any mixture. Barack Obama's half sister,Maya is half Asian and half White. She doesn't belong to one race either. It seems ludicrous to consider Obama as only a black person when his own half sister is not even part black. Many mixed black/white people do have halfsiblings that aren't part black. So much for a brother being a "brotha" and a sister being a "sista" which are words that I don't care to use. They just seem ridiculous and irrelevant to people of mixed race ancestry.

I love this poem.....Biracial Hair......a teenage girl, Zora Howard recites a deep,passionate poem of what it is to be biracial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HBkjtwFSQw

Organizations in regards to Multiethnic People

The Center for the Study of Biracial Children produces and disseminates materials for and about interracial families and biracial children. The Center provides advocacy, training and consulting. Its primary mission is to advocate for the rights of interracial families, biracial children, and multiracial people. We believe this population has unique needs and challenges not addressed by society's institutions. http://csbchome.org/

Association of Multiethnic Americans http://www.ameasite.org/

Interracial Voice http://www.interracialvoice.com/

MixedFolks.com http://www.mixedfolks.com/

http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/final.paper.pub/_pwfsfp/00000085.htm
http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/final.paper.pub/_pwfsfp/00000071.htm

Multiracial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiracial

multiracial people won a victory of sorts after years of effort when in 1997, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) changed the federal regulation of racial categories to permit multiple responses, resulting in a new format for the 2000 United States Census, which allowed participants to select more than one of the six available categories, which were, in brief: "White," "Black or African American," "Asian," "American Indian or Alaskan Native," "Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander," and "Other." Further details are given in the article: Race (U.S. census). The OMB made its directive mandatory for all government forms by 2003.

Raymond