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oberliner

(58,724 posts)
Sat May 19, 2018, 09:13 AM May 2018

I study biracial identity in America. Here's why Meghan Markle is a big deal.

Growing up in the late ’80s as a biracial girl, I never had a mixed-race princess whose image I could sport on my backpack or my lunchbox. There was little to no representation of my identity — almost no characters in movies or television shows, no musicians or celebrities who identified as mixed-race.

For today’s biracial youth, Meghan Markle, the actress who is marrying into the British royal family — and who has defined herself publicly as “a strong, confident mixed-race woman” — represents the biracial role model I didn’t have growing up.

My mother is white and my father is black, and as a social psychologist, I research mixed-race identity and perceptions of biracial people for a living. The history of biracial couplings and children in our country is fraught: The “one drop” rule that categorized people with any African ancestry as “colored” was legally codified in a couple of states in the early 1900s. Interracial marriage was illegal in some states starting in 1664 until 1967 with the famous Loving v. Virginia case, and it wasn’t until the year 2000 when the option to “check all that may apply” for race appeared on the census.

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/5/14/17345162/meghan-markle-royal-wedding-2018-race


Great piece from Sarah E. Gaither.
20 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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I study biracial identity in America. Here's why Meghan Markle is a big deal. (Original Post) oberliner May 2018 OP
Of course our previous President is a case in point regarding "mixed race" imagery. BumRushDaShow May 2018 #1
The current pResident is bi-racial, too. KY_EnviroGuy May 2018 #12
!!!! BumRushDaShow May 2018 #16
Who is this and what have you done with oberliner?...nt SidDithers May 2018 #2
LOL! betsuni May 2018 #3
Good one. n/t rzemanfl May 2018 #5
lol nt PunkinPi May 2018 #6
What did you think of the piece? oberliner May 2018 #7
Puzzling 🤔 lunatica May 2018 #10
lmfao bigtree May 2018 #11
Nice piece. It's a big deal on a planetary scale also, and Hortensis May 2018 #4
Yes, indeed oberliner May 2018 #8
Meghan Markle is a big deal .... kwassa May 2018 #9
A sibling's boyfriend is from Mexico MissB May 2018 #13
I never thought in my lifetime I'd see someone who looks like me marry a prince kimbutgar May 2018 #14
... BumRushDaShow May 2018 #17
This is a nice story Cary May 2018 #15
Very good article. mountain grammy May 2018 #18
All I see is a lovely couple. Me, Irish-German married to the most beautiful woman on the planet, c-rational May 2018 #19
"Americans find it cognitively demanding to interact with mixed-race people" OnyxSharpie May 2018 #20

BumRushDaShow

(127,300 posts)
1. Of course our previous President is a case in point regarding "mixed race" imagery.
Sat May 19, 2018, 09:17 AM
May 2018


(although Americans tend to look at "phenotype" - what you "look like" vs "genotype" - the genes, unless they want to establish a hierarchy, and then "1-drop" would come into play no matter what you "look like&quot

KY_EnviroGuy

(14,483 posts)
12. The current pResident is bi-racial, too.
Sat May 19, 2018, 10:51 AM
May 2018

On-half orangutan and on-half rattle snake.

........ ..........

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
4. Nice piece. It's a big deal on a planetary scale also, and
Sat May 19, 2018, 09:24 AM
May 2018

I'm guessing there'll be a lot of talk about how different people and groups experienced it.

 

oberliner

(58,724 posts)
8. Yes, indeed
Sat May 19, 2018, 10:08 AM
May 2018

It is fascinating to reflect on the impact this event is having on a variety of people.

kwassa

(23,340 posts)
9. Meghan Markle is a big deal ....
Sat May 19, 2018, 10:40 AM
May 2018

because it show admission to a club that black people have been excluded from.

It is a visible and tangible very public sign of progress to black people, most of whom identify her as black.

On a larger scale, as America gets more diverse, multi-racial children are increasingly common. They are quite common around here.

What the author does not discuss that many black Americans have white ancestry, only generations earlier, and not of choice. Many biracial children can't be visibly identified as such because they fit within the framework of how black Americans already look. Those that are "light, bright, and damn near white" are more confusing, like this author says, but there is an additional problem; there are many people that are ethnically ambiguous, and none of the ambiguity started in African. There are many brown-skinned people in the world, and some from very opposite places can look a great deal like each other. A Pakastani can look like a Mexican, a Native American can look Asian. And, there are many mixed marriages among immigrant groups, too. We are in an era of blending in much of America.

My prediction is that much of the process will shake itself out in the next couple of decades. Our media should reflect how our country already looks.

MissB

(15,800 posts)
13. A sibling's boyfriend is from Mexico
Sat May 19, 2018, 11:04 AM
May 2018

And one of the boyfriend’s parents immigrated there from Iran. So he talks like he was born in Mexico and cooks (amazingly well!) many Mexican dishes, but he looks quite like an Iranian. I had never idea about any of that when I first met him- he didn’t look like he was from Mexico (we have a fair population of folks from Mexico around here). Apparently there is quite a population of Iranians that emigrated to Mexico.

One of my red headed pale cousins married a woman from Venezuela. Their children are simply breathtakingly gorgeous- dark skin and flaming red hair. A niece of mine is marrying a young man whose parents immigrated from Sri Lanka and I can’t wait until that couple has children!

Our nation needs to become less white. It’ll happen, but for now the racism is painful to watch.

kimbutgar

(20,876 posts)
14. I never thought in my lifetime I'd see someone who looks like me marry a prince
Sat May 19, 2018, 11:09 AM
May 2018

Growing up I used to hate not being one race. I thought it was something that kept me down. I wasn’t accepted by the white or black girls who I went to high school. But as I grew older I accepted and embraced that I was ahead of my time. Seeing this wedding today is like beautiful icing on a cake.

Congrats Harry and Meghan.

Cary

(11,746 posts)
15. This is a nice story
Sat May 19, 2018, 11:28 AM
May 2018

We do seem to have made some progress on this particular issue. I remember going to Toronto about 20 years or so ago and noticing how seamlessly biracial couples seemed to be in their society, and now Chicago seems to me to be more like Toronto in that regard.

c-rational

(2,581 posts)
19. All I see is a lovely couple. Me, Irish-German married to the most beautiful woman on the planet,
Sat May 19, 2018, 12:14 PM
May 2018

a girl born in Jamaica, half West Indian mix and half Chinese. When we were married almost 30 years ago there were some looks. Glad I genuinely do not care what others think. Yesterday I read a quote by Alfred Adler, Austrian medical doctor and psychotherapist (1870-1937) that did not give me a feeling of well being..."There is a law that man should love his neighbor as himself. In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind as breathing or the upright gait, but if he does not learn it he must perish."

Ancient Sanskrit saying

May all be happy
May all be free from disease
May all creatures have well being
and may none be in misery of any kind.

 

OnyxSharpie

(33 posts)
20. "Americans find it cognitively demanding to interact with mixed-race people"
Sat May 19, 2018, 01:42 PM
May 2018

Anyone else see anything wrong with that statement / mini-headline from the article?

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