Accordingly, the demand for statistical recognition of mixed-race persons—and acknowledgement of all aspects of an individual’s racial identity—is occurring within a sociopolitical context that values White ancestry and denigrates non-White ancestry. In such a racial caste system, it is impossible to acknowledge mixed-race persons officially without actually elevating the status of those who can claim to be other than “pure” Black, no matter how egalitarian the intent of the MCM [Multiracial Category Movement]. This same elevation of mixed-race classes is evident in various Latin American countries and in apartheid South Africa in ways that powerfully illuminate the implications of furthering multiracial discourse in the United States.
Tanya Katerí Hernández, “‘Multiracial’ Discourse: Racial Classifications in an Era of Color-blind Jurisprudence,” Maryland Law Review, Volume 57, Issue 1 (1998): 121. http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr/vol57/iss1/5/.
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