Monday, September 25, 2006
Race Post #2...Race v. Ethnicity
Apologies to those who actually thought I would post every other day. I decided to let the other post sit for a while to see what comments I received.
In New York, and most places in the Northeast I am Puerto Rican. It gets left at that. Once I had to explain to the attorney I worked for that Puerto Rican is not a race it is an ethnicity. We had a client and, for purposes of his case, I needed to know if he identified as a black Puerto Rican. He didn't, we moved on. Then the question becomes, what do I identify as.
Simple. I don't. Or maybe I do. It's not simple. In my head, and it seems only in my head I have no race. I am a wonderful mixture of (in alphabetical order)--Irish, Portuguese, Spanish, Taino, Yoruba and I am pretty sure that my grandmother's family were Sephardic Jews who converted (my grandmother looked very very Jewish). That being said, I enjoy African dance, Spanish food, Celtic music and I practice a syncretic religion. In New York, I never felt black or white but now I live in Florida
AND NOW my race seems to get pondered by everyone. It's not enough to be Puerto Rican, I have to decide in I am black or white. Interesting, my first taste of this was when I visited Tennessee and my college boyfriend's mother informed me that she didn't like when I referred to myself as "a woman of color". So, confession one, I do not think I am white. I am definitely of color. For those of you who don't know me I have a cafe con leche complexion with more cafe than leche. I THOUGHT anyone with eyes could see that.
However, I have had not one but two separate bosses tell me that they thought I was white. My thought, is that I don't understand why they even gave thought to it. And the reason I found out that they thought I was white was because I had a conversation with both of them, separately, about how some people don't think I am black enough to be with John.
Which brings me to the other end of the spectrum. Confession two, I don't consider myself black either. However, I have been told countless times that I am black now since I married a black man (let's just ignore the fact that John is black and Asian and that the black part is a bit muddled as well). And I find the level of comfort people (young black people in particular) have with informing me that I am now black strange. Like the "make you black" fairy came in the middle of the night and I was too dumb to see it. If I have suddently become blacker someone should tell the older black women in Tallahassee who give me nasty looks to stop because "I'm black now".
Truth- I'm not black and I'm not white and that is how it is. I don't get treated like a white woman. Klansman still hate me. And a good chunk of black people hate me.
Aye bobo, I know who I am. I love who I am but Dear Lord people should stop putting so much thought into "what I am".
If God blesses John and I with kids peoples heads could damn near explode trying to figure out what they are.
Apologies to those who actually thought I would post every other day. I decided to let the other post sit for a while to see what comments I received.
In New York, and most places in the Northeast I am Puerto Rican. It gets left at that. Once I had to explain to the attorney I worked for that Puerto Rican is not a race it is an ethnicity. We had a client and, for purposes of his case, I needed to know if he identified as a black Puerto Rican. He didn't, we moved on. Then the question becomes, what do I identify as.
Simple. I don't. Or maybe I do. It's not simple. In my head, and it seems only in my head I have no race. I am a wonderful mixture of (in alphabetical order)--Irish, Portuguese, Spanish, Taino, Yoruba and I am pretty sure that my grandmother's family were Sephardic Jews who converted (my grandmother looked very very Jewish). That being said, I enjoy African dance, Spanish food, Celtic music and I practice a syncretic religion. In New York, I never felt black or white but now I live in Florida
AND NOW my race seems to get pondered by everyone. It's not enough to be Puerto Rican, I have to decide in I am black or white. Interesting, my first taste of this was when I visited Tennessee and my college boyfriend's mother informed me that she didn't like when I referred to myself as "a woman of color". So, confession one, I do not think I am white. I am definitely of color. For those of you who don't know me I have a cafe con leche complexion with more cafe than leche. I THOUGHT anyone with eyes could see that.
However, I have had not one but two separate bosses tell me that they thought I was white. My thought, is that I don't understand why they even gave thought to it. And the reason I found out that they thought I was white was because I had a conversation with both of them, separately, about how some people don't think I am black enough to be with John.
Which brings me to the other end of the spectrum. Confession two, I don't consider myself black either. However, I have been told countless times that I am black now since I married a black man (let's just ignore the fact that John is black and Asian and that the black part is a bit muddled as well). And I find the level of comfort people (young black people in particular) have with informing me that I am now black strange. Like the "make you black" fairy came in the middle of the night and I was too dumb to see it. If I have suddently become blacker someone should tell the older black women in Tallahassee who give me nasty looks to stop because "I'm black now".
Truth- I'm not black and I'm not white and that is how it is. I don't get treated like a white woman. Klansman still hate me. And a good chunk of black people hate me.
Aye bobo, I know who I am. I love who I am but Dear Lord people should stop putting so much thought into "what I am".
If God blesses John and I with kids peoples heads could damn near explode trying to figure out what they are.
Comments:
And THIS is why I am so adamant about me being Puerto Rican. Being Black seems to be okay with people here, but when I clarify that I am a Black Puerto Rican mainly because my mother is Black, they don't accept it. My mother is not really Black, but it's so hard to try to explain it, that I leave it at that. The concept of black or white is amazingly important here and not being from here, I don't understand why either. I have to fight constantly to be accepted as even "half Hispanic" here and it has caused me to be almost militant about it. As much as I would like to not discuss it, having kids does make the questioning and ignorant comments worse.
If God blesses John and I with kids peoples heads could damn near explode trying to figure out what they are.
Beautiful is what they'll be. Nothing else matters.
Beautiful is what they'll be. Nothing else matters.
Intersting post. I have similar experiences because my dad is half black/indian and my mom is south american with no "black" in her. The concent of race is am amazing thing... and so important to others and not usually the individual in question. I
Sean
Sean
# posted by 
: 3:46 PM
: 3:46 PM
I find that unfortunately this kind of behavior is only in the US I have traveled abroad and its never questioned. Also I myself find as being biracial (mom is Nuyorican and Dad is an American Jew, we have no idea where his family comes from) that I am also asked to pick. Sad to believe that this is the melting pot and it shouldn't matter, the way I see it maybe one day in the future with all the mixing we will all just be grey and it won't matter anymore. Funny thing is that my daughter recently was asked by a schoolmate "where she is from" she answered "brooklyn" Good answer I told her
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# posted by : 3:58 PM
: 3:58 PM