{"id":8077,"date":"2000-06-26T23:54:00","date_gmt":"2000-06-26T23:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=8077"},"modified":"2021-07-01T22:41:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T22:41:13","slug":"lte-fervor-around-self-classification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2000\/06\/26\/lte-fervor-around-self-classification\/","title":{"rendered":"LTE: Fervor Around Self-Classification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 23:54:42 -0700 (PDT)<br>From: Lowsarr<br>Subject: Letter to the Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like several people who have responded, I\u2019m not sure if I understand the fervor around self-classification\u2013a lot of this is about culture, having turned a negative into a positive. Of course the one-drop rule is ridiculous and oppressive. My family and most so-called black people I know are of mixed African\/European\/Native American descent. These mixtures are very recent. Most people I know have a parent or grandparent(s) or great-grandparent(s) who are not black. We\u2019ve taken the negative race classifications and turned them into markers of culture. I grew up surrounded by the loveliness of African-American culture and confused by race. In the community where I grew up\u2013Cleveland, OH\u2013\u201cblack\u201d people looked liked Africans, Asians, Polynesians, Latinos, Italians, Greeks, Spanish\u2013Those with the lightest skin, lightest hair or most straight hair were more likely to have 2 \u201cblack\u201d parents than one. I know I\u2019m a \u201cmulti-racial\u201d because of my family\u2019s history and a! ppearance but I don\u2019t identify with the concept of race at all\u2013it\u2019s too oppressive. I enjoy and celebrate African American culture\u2013the beauty therein is real, tangible, tactile, aural, oral and spiritual. I oppose racism by the way I live my life but I refuse to define myself by racism. I found the 2000 Census offensive. The emphasis on race still gets down to determining whose black\u2013and therefore who is viewed as negative in this society. I guess I could look at my high yellow, redbone and creamy brown, sandy-haired, curly-topped, black coffee family and friends and see multiracial people. Instead, I just see the people I know and love living and enjoying life beyond categories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 23:54:42 -0700 (PDT)From: LowsarrSubject: Letter to the Editor Like several people who have responded, I\u2019m not sure if I understand the fervor around self-classification\u2013a lot of this is about&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":7987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-8077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reader-forum","tag-racial-classifications"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Letters-to-the-Editor.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-26h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8078,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077\/revisions\/8078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}