Racial Radicalism: Color Division within the Mixed Community
by Patrice Farmer
I recently wrote an article warning the Mixed community against prejudice against white skinned members of our mixed race, like my daughter a quadroon who very often isn’t recognized as being mixed by the mixed community. I hadn’t yet experienced Racial Radicalism from our own people, who look like my daughter are white skinned quadroons.
I’ve experienced discrimination from both whites and blacks and never would’ve dreamed that my own community would discriminate against me based upon skin color until recently. I learned that there are a few Racial Radicals who are dropping mixed raced people (without a white appearance) into the category of black, as not being ‘mixed enough’ or ‘light enough’ to be considered mixed race!!! I was in shock to find that there are amongst us those who viewed a person of biracial appearance as black because their skin color is not white or very light, as if that were the only color we come in.
Since when did white appearance become the typical characteristics of what a mixed race person is SUPPOSED to look like? Why would a group of Racial Radicals try to belittle their own people based upon the color of their skin? Why can’t we appreciate the beauty of our people with our various hues?
My daughter is white skinned, blond haired, blue eyed and proud of her mixed race heritage but there are people who think that her appearance puts her on top of the Mixed Racial Chain and that my mixed appearance does not ‘qualify’ as ‘mixedness’. WRONG!!!! Also amongst these Racial Radicals, I discovered that because I tan and change from light to brown, I wasn’t ‘mixed enough’ according to their standards, because for them a true mixed person, does not tan at all. Well my Quadroon daughter tans, does that now mean that she must be kicked out of the Quadroon hierarchy when she tans in the summer to a golden brown on her arms and legs???
So now I have seen it all and have had the distinct pleasure of not only being discriminated against for being too white for blacks, too black for whites and now not mixed enough in appearance for these Racial Radicals. And so the question is, what is a person of Mixed Appearance???
Well, we do have phenotypes, don’t we? The basic “mixed appearance’,(mostly) is a person of black and white features from light to medium brown skin with (mostly) straight to curly hair who are the ‘Noticeable’ mixed people. The other two groups of Mixed People are those of white or black appearance. Those of white appearance are those who have more noticeable white features, hair and skin color. Those of black appearance are those who have more noticeable black features, hair and skin color. These are obviously very broad categories.
We as Mixed people come in every hue created but there is a serious problem when we are divided based upon color and blood quantum. I do not want my daughter raised to believe that she is better than her darker skinned mixed brother. And as a proud non-white skinned MIXED person, I think we need to be aware of this dangerous racial division that is creeping into our own community.
Historically, many mixed people created their own communities either in isolation of other groups or within larger cities in which they became the societal elites, but in this day and age there is no reason for our people to be isolated or to have an elitist attitude against each other. A Quadroon/Octoroon is no more ‘mixed’ than a light to brown to black skinned multiracial. We are all the same people and we must unite and stand against racialism within our own people.
We need to celebrate the uniqueness and diversity of our own people and not to separate even further into sub-categories based upon skin tone.
Racial Radicalism article
Who are these “radicals” Patrice Farmer is talking about? Does she have any names, web sites, etc. I don’t know of any acknowledged activist in the multiracial movement who does not see “mixed race” as a continuum with no clear dividing line between “white,” “black,” or other “races.”‘
2005-07-26 20:06:00
A.D. there are certain people’, ‘who recently within this past year set up mixed race websites and attacked any mixed person who isn’t a quadroon, and have banned them, insulting them, and even cyber-stalked them in other websites. These people have been banned from numerous sites but continue to direct their strange views to non-white skinned mixed people basically equating a non-white skinned mixed person to being a mixie-wannabe.
These people feel that they are able to determine who is mixed and who isn’t solely based on the lightness of skin. These people are trying to divide us as mixed people based upon skin color as if the only color mixed people come in is white skinned and as the mixed mother of a quadroon daughter, I cannot stand for that, esp. when I myself was attacked and had others within the internet attacked as well. It was so bad that there is groups formed based upon the fact that these people AREN’T able to join and it’s based upon invitation only. I feel very sorry for them but they are trying to divide. That’s why I wrote a warning.
2005-10-15 14:29:21
Response to Farmer’s Article
If what you say is true, I am actually not surprised that people in the “mixed-raced” community are now engaging in racial radicalism as you termed it. From the way I see it, the entire mixed-raced agenda, as it pertains to persons who are of African and European ancestry, appears to be based on exclusionary aims. Though, on the surface, memebers belonging to the mixed-raced community promote inclusion because of their “mixed” heritage, the very fact that they aim to creat a new racial hiearchy/category evidences their need to present themselves to the world as something different and dare I say “special” or “better” in comparison to African-Americans who are not of mixed-heritage. (Though given the history of the country and the history of the human race in general, all people are essentially bi/multi racial.) As a person of “mixed-heritage” I just find it amazing and somewhat disappointing that there are still amongst us humans a need to categorize ourselves, and to perpetuate racial categories such as Quadroon and Octogon. It all seems so mindless and primitive…No wonder lighter skinned “mixies” are hostile to more tan/dark skinned mixed persons? Some of us are still hung up on the issue of race and the racial categories european colonists created to keep the “races” seperate. We have been conditioned to “stick with our own kind,” to define ourselves in the hopes of obtaining a better social status, and to show hostility, even if its only veiled hostility, to any people, group, or “”race” that is “different.” There was a time in the African -American community (which I belive applies to all of us no matter how “mixed” you are) when middle-class blacks employed the paper bag rule. Anyone whose skin was darker than a brown paper bag was deemed unworthy of admitance in social clubs and social events attended by middle-class blacks. The paper bag rule governed marital relations in these communities and served to divide the African-American commmunity in general. In light of Ms. Farmers comments on the new tensions in the mixed-raced community, it appears true when they say “the apple does not fall far from the tree.” The “mixed-raced” community is only repeating what African-Americans did in the past and in some cases continue to do. When will we ever learn.
2005-10-15 15:51:20
I am a proponent of a separate category, We do have a long history and it’s important for us to know our history and teach our children that they are important and that they have a separate identity to that of their parents. I don’t like that we are trying to separate ourselves into lighter or darker skinned mixed people instead of standing together united as one people.
Our wanting to be a separate community is nothing new, we used to exist in Africa, Europe, and the America’s as a people. I do not see us as an extension of the black race but as our race. What I am saying is that its dangerous though to have our own people trying to divide one another into light and dark, which was/is done to us.
2005-10-17 09:46:20
mixed raced
there is no extension of either black nor white race instead it is the creation of a new race
2005-10-24 09:01:57