HumantheonlyRace:
Though you have made some very valid points, you are missing the main subtext of why people of mixed "race" chose to socially identify with one over another. It has nothing to do with being a coward. If you don't think psychological equilibrium and well being, social acceptance, and personal value are not reasons to do so, then you have no inkling to what it is to actually be singled out as different. For you to compare such a fundamental life choice to having non-stereotypical tastes in music or non-prejudice choices in friends is not only ludicrous, but insulting to those who have struggled and/or lost their lives because of the rejections of society. Not to act in the best interest of personal social survival is against our very nature as humans.
The onus of why ethnic and racial identity is so imperative is not on me or anyone that makes such a choice, but society and the fact that we haven't evolved in thousands of years. We aren't talking about a Jew denying his or her religion or ethnic pride to fit in with their WASPish peers or a light skinned black man passing for white.
The bare fact of the matter is, for hundreds of years, Americans of African descent were treated a inferior because of their skin color. Laws were enacted that counted us as one-third the worth of those of Caucasian descent. Having any recent genetic ties to "The Dark Continent" was considered an ugly stain on one's social worth. This is a belief that is not even 50 years out of practice in popular society; that is still held by a considerable amount of people. Now in the wake of the fact that less than two percent of the American population is now made up of the offspring of interracial couples, you want all of them to stand up and socially proclaim their membership to a new racial group with no real foundation in our societal makeup. I say, you want because, well, in spite of the fact that our society's fundamental social structure was built on intolerance and delusions of racial supremacy [hundred of years of such behavior, and about 30,000 years of tribalism versus about 236 years of the new American ideas of social equality written by the hypocrite or all hypocrites, Thomas Jefferson], you think that sh!t is just gonna change and all people will recognize what these people of mixed race are trying to accomplish by calling themselves mixed race. All they are going to see is more tribalism.
It's too bad for you, my friend, that your ideals may be hundreds of years away from being realized. We, as Americans, have a way of getting in our own way when it comes to progress. Just imagine where society would be now if Christians actually followed the ideals of Christ; if Americans actually embodied the ideals of the constitution; if the powerful were not driven by the need for more power, no matter the cost; if people didn't worry about social acceptance, and lived by their own principles and within their own means.
All of this leads back to those nuances I was referring in my other post that people either fail to recognize or are just plain ignorant about.
The day I can interact in a world where people don't remind me with what they say and do that bigotry does in fact exist is the day when I feel a change will come. Until then, I'll be black with a rich multilayered ethnic genetic background and you can be judgmental and outraged that people like me don't stand up and be counted as something too new to be considered relevant in the society we live in now.
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