Did you ever walk by someone and overheard them say something about you, your spouse/ significant other or your child that was just derogatory or downright mean? Did you just want to go up to that person and yell at them?
Well, being in an interracial relationship (now marriage) for 10 years of course I've heard my share of those comments..by people of all races. You know who you are! Now that I have a child maybe I am even more sensitive to those comments.
My child is multicultural, her father is of asian /hispanic/black/european/native carib indian heritage and I am of european heritage/ native american heritage. She really doesn't look like a particular ethnicity or race and is truely "multicultural".
A few weeks ago my husband and I are in the store and he is pushing our daughter in the shopping cart. A man walks by with his wife and child and when my husband was out of earshot says to his wife, "Thats his child? You would never know". I thought about not telling my husband what the man said. Then a few minutes later I told him. He of course was angry, I didn't think it was a big putdown on him but he was livid that someone would say that.
I live in a very mixed community (51 % white, 34% black, 8 % hispanic, 4 % asian, 3 % other according to census data) but pikesville, md which is the next town over from owings mills is known as being a largely jewish neighborhood and the man was an orthadox jew. I am not sure if this had any bearing on why he made the comment he did. I think that there are many cultures that live in neighborhoods that are not mixed and when they are not as tolerant or informed of other cultures as those who have more exposure to other cultures. The point is maybe he wasn't used to seeing mixed race children.
This incident must happen alot though with mixed children, someone is always opening their mouths and making an ignorant comment about how the child appears. I say, Grow up and face the fact that no matter how "white" or "black" someone appears if we did a DNA test there would probally be a few cultural suprises in your background.
I just don't understand why a label has to be put on people. I mean its not like I can even say shes bi-racial and explain it away with that. She is multi racial. I'm not going to label her as "black" either as I am sorry but I don't believe in the one drop rule. She can decide for herself if she wants to label herself into a specific racial box. My husband is trinidadian and we will teach her about being American and Trinidadian, not bein classified into a particular race.
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