Sticks and Stones…
by James A. Landrith, Jr.
June 1998
in The Multiracial Activist
Since my start in the multiracial movement almost 2 years ago, many things have been said about me personally and about multiracial activists as a community in the media, public hearings, internet discussion groups, etc.
This movement is not for the weak of heart. Your patience will be challenged and your motives held suspect. The more you talk about interracial/multiracial issues and the more exposure you get, the more likely you’re going to be called or described in one of the following ways:
- racist
- Uncle Tom
- sellout
- ashamed of being black/running from your blackness
- feels superior to blacks
- traitor to the “cause”
- naive
Once the namecalling has started, it is important to not dwell on it. Don’t let narrow minds influence your mental health and by all means don’t spend your precious time, energy and emotion trying to dispute with or change their minds. It’s not likely to happen. The guilty parties in the campaign of degradation are bigots whose narrow views have been challenged in some way by our words and actions. Namecalling is a self-defense mechanism they employ in an attempt to shut us up.
Bigots aren’t born, they’re manufactured over a period of years by a combination of society and environment. They come in all shapes and shades, even brown. Some in the black community, primarily black elites and their brain-washed drones, will tell you that blacks can’t be bigoted. They go on to say that Whitey just doesn’t understand the difference between black anger and white bigotry. Do not be deceived. Bigotry is bigotry regardless of the shade of the bigot.
Famous Bigots and Bigoted Organizations with a slant against Interracial Marriage and/or Multiracial Identity
- Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO of the NAACP (for racist remarks regarding multiracial identity)
- Dr. Harold McDougall, Professor of Law at Catholic University, Washington, DC and former Director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP (for racist remarks in hearings, discussion panels, etc. related to interracial marriage and multiracial identity)
- National Association of Black Social Workers (hatred of transracial adoption and national campaign of disinformation regarding transracial adoption)
- Rep Danny K. Davis (D-IL) (for his racist remarks regarding self-identitying multiracials)
- National Alliance (white supremacist organization who favors a ban on interracial marriage)
- Matt Hale, Rev. Pontifex Maximus of The World Church of the Creator (for his racist remarks regarding interracial marriage)
The list goes on and on. A bigot with white skin and a bigot with brown skin are just two different symptoms of the same virus – hatred.
Again, if you’ve been called one the terms mentioned above for the reasons mentioned above – congratulations. You’re doing something right.
James Landrith is the notorious editor and publisher of The Multiracial Activist and The Abolitionist Examiner, two cyber-rags dedicated to freedom from oppressive racial categorization. Landrith can be reached by email at: editor@multiracial.com or at his personal website/blog.
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