Like, Huh?
I replied, “What? I AM biracial! I’m just a racial mix of two darker people...Indians and African Americans are NOT the same...” My friend looked confused, laughed uncomfortably and continued putting on her makeup. My stomach lurched, as I remembered why I never felt like I “fit-in” during high school.
Freshman year, in my small catholic high school, we only had about 15 black students (fifteen out of 1,000). No one seemed to understand MY racial or ethnic mixture. I accepted that voicing my “mix” and interests in cultural diversity would have to wait until college where I would find an environment conducive to ME and my ideas. During my time in high school, I figured everyone saw me as “black or African American.” However, in my senior year the other two black young women in my class skipped me when, “Speaking for the black students!” I was confused why they looked me right in the eye and failed to mention my name! One of the black females sat next to me and turned to my OTHER Caucasian friend whispering, “Is Shamime black?” I answered, “Yes I am...” and my Caucasian friend sneered, “They don't think your black!” I replied, “Well, when you want to break it down I am half. The other half is Indian.”
So, what is biracial? To me, it is a term loosely used to describe any one of mixed race, ethnicity, heritage and is not only applied to people of two (bi) races.
To my friend, I am NOT biracial...BUT biracial is NOT simply being mixed with white (Caucasian) or East Asian. Biracial is NOT only having light eyes or straight “good” hair. Biracial is NOT being lighter than a brown paper bag. Biracial IS, when you have a combination of races or ethnicities and it SHOULDN’T matter how dark or light they are.
AND beautiful “interracial” relationships make this biracial blog post possible.
For information on the brown paper bag test, The Root and Urban Dictionary give a breakdown.
