Mission of TMA

“Multiracial ” category
Written by playscoverings, on 30-03-2007 14:54

This is a form of discrimination from the U.S government not to allow a category for individuals( such as my self ) of bi/multiracial backgrounds. I just learned of TMA and think that it is a great tool, I pray that others will come accross it, and that it will create such ” Awareness “. In doing so that we will all rally and make ” Multiracial ” a category, to have the option to fill out on forms, to be recognized as individuals of mixed races. I have posted forums trying in the past on this subject matter in my ethnis community and to my suprise not one vote on the poll that I started. See I was born in the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago( I am Trinidad ). Like myself many Trinidadians are what we call ” Callaloo ” meaning a mixture of races ( this ideally is a dish but the term applies to multiracial individuals ) I am of African, Carib Indian ( Amerindians from South America ), Spanish ( Venezuelan ), East Indian ( from India= Asia )and French descent. In my country I am considered ” Dougla ” a very degrading word when translated in english. It holds its roots in Hindi (one of many Indian languages ), it means bastard. None the less gthe term is used widely in the West Indies as a whole. Now in the U.S. I am faced with race. On some forms there used to be an ” other ” category, however this is seen less and lesser as I fill out forms. Case and point, I attended a N.J. State seminar on ” Stearting Your Own Business ” . At the end of the class to my suprise, all attendees were asked to give our feed back on thr presenters , information presented and so forth. It was completely optional off course, by no means mandatory, I was suprised to find at the end a few questions asking about race. I thought about it in the end and realized that the state probably was doing this for statistic purposes. Nonetheless the only options given are the ones available today, ” other ” is no longer an option. Or you see now, when I became a U.S. citizen , I was given the limited option of choosing one or as many as applied for race, this still reflect who I am as an individual of many races. Again being boxed in and forced to chose categories which do not truly speak to who I am as an individual. I know this seems like a long post , but please take the time to read it in its entirety. Again I stress it, if all multiracial individuals would stop being complacent ( and stop accepting what is being told they should be )then we will eventually have our ” Rightfull Category “. I believe alot of healing and good will come out from this, it is a sad when I read in history that many well re-knowned ” African American ” men and women were in fact of mixed races. W.E.B Dubois, Prince Hall and others were mixed. Yet ” Race ” was the DETERMINANT for/of OPPORTUNITY during the days where if you had one drop , automatucally you were black, not fair at all. Ltes rally together and make it a REALITY. I would love to be an activist for this cause , come on join Tma and lets do this ! Keston J.J. Wells-Bravo

Keep me posted. Thank you.