Would This Make Me Biracial

What does it mean to be biracial?

Simple answer: Mix of two races. Mom and Dad bring something different to the table.What it means to me: Being biracial is not knowing where you should stand. It is the awkwardness that comes with explaining where your family has its roots. It’s not looking like any of your family members because you're a combination of two different looks. I've never felt comfortable in my own skin and don't know how to identify. I'm not white enough to be white and have a “white experience.” But I'm not Asian enough to have the “Asian experience.” It sucks being the diverse kid, I feel like my school values my ancestry more than me. I can't make self-deprecating racist jokes about myself because to someone who does not know me, I just like a super bigot. For me, one of the only benefits of being biracial is that family gatherings have an awesome variety of delicious food.Note: I don't reflect the views of all biracial people, there are certainly many upsides to being biracial. However, as a teenager, I'm not great with seeing the bright side.

Why is it tough being biracial?

Identity.For me at least this is a huge problem. I always have questions about myself and have very little answers. You see, society expects me to be black, my family expects me to be African, yet I don't know where I fit in. This is why it's so hard to be biracial. Everyone expects you to be a certain thing. If you don't conform to their predetermined ideas then you're being delusional. I've been told multiple times that “I'm not black enough” and “Nathan you're very black”, as if the amount of melanin in my skin determines my culture. Society expects me to act stereotypically African-American yet my dad is an immigrant from Burkina Faso (not “Africa”). While this shit is going on, my family expects me to be Burkinabe and feel proud of my Burkinabe culture. Yet I have zero relation to that side of me. I don't know my cousins, I don't know the culture, I can't even speak the language! How am I supposed to be Burkinabe if the only thing relating me to it is my skin? My father had a conversation in front of my face with one of his friends and he said that “A child without culture is nothing”. Ironic, eh? See a common theme? No one asks me who I am. They just tell me who I am. I identify mostly with my “white” side. When I say this people say “But you're not really white!”. These are the same people who tell me I'm not really black. It took me time, but I realized that all of this was bullshit. All of this identity shit only makes things horrible. The hardest part of being biracial is knowing who you are.All the best,:-p

How do I look biracial as a black person?

I don't understand the question.Are you asking why people think you appear to be bi-racial, when you are 100% black, or are you asking how you might look more bi-racial, even though you're 100% black?If it’s the first, that’s not a question that anyone can answer without knowing what you look like. Perhaps it’s lighter skin tone, perhaps it’s a feature of your face, who knows.If it’s the second… you shouldn't. You should embrace who you are. Embrace your heritage and your roots, and be proud that you're a black man/woman. Black people in America have a lot to be proud of, as they've had to overcome massive oppression from those who thought less of them.By trying to appear less black, you are kind of telling other members of the black community that you're ashamed to be black; that you wish you had white/Latin/etc genetics as well.Everyone should be proud of who they are. Every race has done great things, and horrible things. But we are who we are. And by embracing that with pride, we declare our right to exist as we are in this world. It’s a powerful thing.

What race do biracial people fall under?

None. That’s why they’re called biracial. See, the so-called “races”, even if we consider them to really exist, are never strictly separate categories which you can identify with unequivocal certainty. They’re a fluid continuum of different genetic and phenotypical features, with some extreme forms on each side and a whole lot of people somewhere in between. Whether someone fits into one or another label is often just a matter of convenience or choice.After all, there is no boundary between one race and the other, just several intermediary shades that gradually change from one into the other population structure. In the case of people who descend from a previously uncommon mix of ancestral groups, they’re called “biracial” simply because there aren’t still enough of those people to warrant them their own racial category, their own definite name. It’s anyone’s guess how they “should” be called.What’s really relevant is that they are human beings, because, let’s remind it again, those racial categories are just an ambiguous continuum of many ever so slightly different populations, in the melting pot of the human species.If those biracial people eventually form a huge number of people whose ancestry is formed by an identical or very similar mix of genetic components, then we may see the beginning of a new “race”, broadly speaking: a “race” that, just like all the others that we know nowadays, is the outcome of the admixture among two or more different ancient components. And that process will surely happen once again in the distant future, starting that formation of “new races” once again.Ultimately, all races existing on earth are the result of that milennia-old process of such extensive and overwhelming mixing between some ancestral groups that they ended up forming a new distinct group, still maintaining some links to other groups and forming new branches on the tree of humankind. The so-called “races” aren’t these permanent, delimited, immutable categories that many people still think they are.

What's it like to be biracial in the United States?

My mother is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Minnesotan; my father is from Morocco. Apparently when you put the two together, this is what happens:(I'm on the left - picked this one because I look the most stoic. Also my friend looks hilarious.)I have what I like to call “seasonal biracialness,” a term I coined myself. In the winter, I turn much paler than I normally am, just as I look above. During this time, 99% of people whom I meet assume I am completely white. It is during this time that I hear a lot of revealing things, like people’s often negative opinions of Muslims/Arabs, that the perpetrators say because they don't realize my Father is Muslim and I am very much Arabic (and proud).In the summer, it becomes a whole different story. I can become very tan, and this is when I look the least “white.” This is when it gets funny, as most people will try to guess my origins, and all but one have guessed incorrectly the first time. Here is the list of places people most often think I'm from:-Mexico (most common)-Colombia-Hawaii (personal favorite)-The Phillipines-the Middle East (close, but no cigar)Only one man has ever guessed correctly that I was Moroccan. He was an Egyptian guy working at a gas station in Nashville, and as I was checking out, he hit the nail right on the head: “Are you Moroccan?”Being biracial in America is a blessing. It has immediately given me valuable perspective on religion (Christianity and Islam) as well as the world (visiting Europe/Morocco). I am very proud of my parents for coming together from two very different cultures and making the strong marriage that they have.Edit: some have pointed out that being Moroccan does not technically make me biracial, and I apologize if I implied something about myself that apparently wasn't true; depends on whether or not one classifies being Arabic as a race, because my grandmother is Berber (of Caucasian descent) and my grandfather is Arabic. I will keep this answer up, however, because I believe it still answers the question correctly in terms of the disparity between the respective cultures of my parents, and how that has shaped my experience growing up in the US.

Why is it so uncommon to be biracial with a black mother?

The truth is that we live in a society where men are supposed to find the hottest girl that they can to have sex with or the purest prettiest girl they can to marry. Virtually no white males apply those definitions to a black woman. Unless they find degrading porn or are themselves okay with being an outcast. Most men don’t want to be outcasts. Rarely you will find a man who doesn't care about society’s judgment of them. Where as I can only assume in black society they don’t judge marrying a white girl as “marrying down.” I am aware that the black community doesn’t necessarily like it , but essentially in a white owned and operated country how blacks judge other blacks doesn’t really mean much to the majority of people.White men will look down on a white women with a black man. Either she is innocent and being held captive, she's trash, or she is a freak they’d like to steal from her black captor. The black man will most likely only face hostility from other white men not other black men.A white man will be looked at by other white men as a sex freak. Some white men may tease them for picking a black girl when so many better white woman exist.He clearly picked the black woman for sexual purposes , no other reason could exist.White women will look at the white man as a confused man. They are unsure why the white man would choose someone who is considered ugly compared to them in society. They assume the man just hasn't been with enough white women that he must have trouble getting a white woman. Clearly he is with the black girl for some kinky sexual purpose that the white woman can’t figure out or see.