THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By LEIGH WILKINS
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
It's a cool May morning. I have just arrived at Princess Anne High School for my SATs; I'm slightly stressed, but I am feeling good about the exam. Along with other students, I am escorted into the cafeteria and told to find a seat. After everyone has found a seat and roll is called, we are given a form to fill out. It is a normal form asking my name, birthdate, Social Security number and my race. The only problem is that the race column says ``choose only one.'' My only options are ``black'' and ``white.'' What am I, black or white? I identify with both groups, not just one. My eyes drift down the page past Hispanic and Asian and focus on ``other.'' I checked ``other.'' I, along with hundreds of other mixed children, want to know what caused someone to be an ``other.''
Society doesn't need to use these classification tools, so why does it? A 17-year-old student of mixed race is confused when asked to put down black or white on an application form. She feels that since the category ``other '' robs her of any racial identity, she tends to put down whatever race is most likely to be to her advantage.
It is ironic that a choice of racial identity can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, but in a society where there is both affirmative action and discrimination, it is extremely possible. Wanting simply to fit in society is hard enough without being constantly reminded that you have to be categorized. As a teenager you try to find out who you are, but this loss of racial identity causes you to ask what you are.
A 15-year-old girl with a white mother and black father believes that biracial people don't grow up hating black or white people; they usually grow up liking them and all people. She has also stated that she would never marry a white man because she does not want her children to go through what she has gone through. Obviously, biracial people exist in the ``real world,'' but statistically they do not.
The U.S. Census does not offer a box labeled ``mixed race.'' For all who are from biracial marriages: How does it feel to know that in the government's eyes you do not exist? Given that biracial marriages increased about 20 percent between 1970 and 1983, why are biracial children still not acknowledged? Once a person makes a distinction between his non-Caucasian background and his Caucasian background, he usually throws aside his customs and ``if his skin is white enough, tries to pass for white.''
Where you are born and what kind of environment you live in have a lot to do with your character. Obviously, if someone is raised in an environment with people who have a majority of one type of social characteristic, he or she is more likely to take on that social characteristic. There is no such thing as ``acting black'' or ``acting white.'' Those sayings simply magnify the stereotype that blacks are usually poor and undereducated while whites are usually wealthy and highly educated. That is not necessarily true. In most circumstances, a poor white child will act in the same manner as a poor black child, if raised in similar environments, and vice versa. Environment molds a person's personality, not his skin pigmentation.
Given the choice, how does a person choose a race with which to identify? Many people have many different ethnic backgrounds in their ancestry. The adoption of one background over another based on color, or any characteristic, would be degrading to one's heritage.
Basing racial identity simply on skin tone can cause tension between eocieties, friends and even siblings. One of the biracial girls mentioned earlier says that she now lives with her black father and not her white mother. She barely knows what to say to her brother when she visits him in another city. She says they have different tastes in clothes and music. The move put more than just miles between them.
Cases of mistaken identity among some people are not uncommon. Some people are offended while others are quite amused. This is a normal occurrence with an 18-year-old girl who is half-Japanese and half-white. Because she has long blond hair, many people assume she is white and do not recognize her Japanese characteristics. She says that ``most people are very surprised when I tell them I am half Japanese. Then people say, `Oh, yea, I can see it in your eyes.' ''
I have been told that either I look like a person with Hispanic ancestry or that I simply have the look of a person ``with a great tan.'' Although sometimes it is funny, other times it is offensive. When someone asks you what you are, the only logical answer is, ``human,'' but the most-looked-for answer is ``mixed.'' Mixed is not a race; there is no racial identity there. It makes you feel like less of a person when you have to separate yourself into two different categories. Why should people have to choose between two heritages that are both equally theirs, just to make it easier for people to classify them?
Society's separating people into racial groups is damaging to the self-esteem of children. It causes children of biracial families to believe that they are simply two halves instead of a whole person. If society claims to acknowledge biracial relationships, then it should also acknowledge biracial children. We are not ``others''; we are ``someones'' and should be treated like everyone else.
A white woman with a black husband was asking her son questions in order to fill out a form for baseball. They were all normal questions, asking his age (8), his name (Brock). But when she got to the question asking about his race, he said, ``human.''
If a child can see that we are all the same under this sheath of skin, why can't the rest of society? MEMO: Miss Wilkins is a senior at Cape Henry Collegiate School.
by CNB