i have this pinned to the top of my twitter page for all my followers to see because a lot of us haven’t seen it before or knew it existed. I don’t post it enough here so I wanna share it & what it means to me. Dr Maria Root's "Bill of Rights for Racially Mixed People" is the first time some of these thoughts have been put on paper. It’s fairly new itself, she didn’t make this list until 1993. "Children of #mixedmarriages never had anything like this," she says. "We have had feelings all along but not put into any kind of structure. It gives people something to talk about and feel recognized." So let’s talk. The first right is not having to justify our existence in the world & I wrote a post previously about this. Now for the second, I have the right to not keep the races separate within me. This can have several meanings I feel, we have the right to simply be who we say we are. This should be common sense but unfortunately we don’t live in that type of world. The whole concept & system of racism was created by oppressors, separating us due to the color of our skin, cultures, beliefs, etc. To THEM, there are ONLY 5 kinds of people: White, Asian, Black, Hispanic and Indigenous. This leaves #multiracials out of the picture. In 2000, the multiracial/two or more options started to appear but best believe we’ve been around longer than that. A lot of us had to grow up confused & anxious because we had to separate ourselves when applying for pretty much anything or it was a question on tests & surveys. Some have felt more anxiety about which “side” of themselves to choose more than the damn test itself. “But I’m both!” “Why do I only get to choose one?” A lot of us have had to cut off a part of ourselves on paper. “Fine I guess I’ll just say....” Then that weird feeling comes over us, like we don’t feel like a whole person. It sounds ridiculous but basically I just took an SAT test as a Hispanic female, for example, instead of adding Asian as well. I am 100% this race & 100% this race too. Why is that so hard to grasp? Some say they are half & half this or a quarter that, etc but we also have the right to say Im 100% multiracial too. What right speaks to you? https://www.instagram.com/p/CQhEZe1l6Qx/?utm_medium=tumblr
