White, Black, or Other: A Reactionary Examination of Choosing an Identity
The Multiracial Activist
by Scottie Lowe
July/August 2004
How many racial boxes do we really need? Jasper Short, author of a similarly titled article in the September/October 2001 edition of Upscale magazine, poses that question to address the issue of biracial persons with African American lineage choosing their identifying race. It seems he takes offense to biracial people not boldly proclaiming themselves as Black and thus denying their other parentage. If an individual has parents that are both black and white, or black and other, and is asked to select what race they belong to, there is no way he or she can choose only one race. Socially, he or she might identify with one more than the other, but in terms of documentation, there is no justification for only claiming black as their identity.
Read the rest here.
While Scottie Lowe is correct about the rights of a multiracial identity for people from interracial couples, he is completely speculative and pre-assuming in his amateur psycho-analysis, unsubstantiated opinions and double-standards of African Americans embracing all parts of their genealogy.
Even if a person is slightly “mixed”, don’t they have the right and freedom to acknowledge it as long as it’s true. People have the freedom in America to call themselves any identity, even if there wrong, and can even reject “race” all together, If they please.
I personally hate “race” and only identify as American. I don’t want anyone dictating to me how to identify, regardless of my quantum’s. So I live life my way and respect others right to do the same.