Having mixed raced children will not end racism and result in a racial utopia﻿, as questions and experiences of race cannot be bred away, but often appear with greater force when mixed bodies appear.

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

Mulattoes like Sally Hemings have been both weaponized and victimized in a complicated racial structure designed to protect white supremacy while satisfying the sexual fetishes of white, slave-owning rapists. Light skinned slaves were often given better positions on plantations, treated better. Sometimes they became enforcers over other, darker people. Sometimes they were freed upon the death of their masters/fathers. But, the success of the Haitian Revolution was predicated in part on the ability of mulattoes, quadroons and octaroons to overlook these light skinned privileges and see the white supremacy behind them so they could join in arms with darker Black people to throw off their French masters and become the first free, European-style democracy in the western hemisphere. Around the same time, laws defining whiteness and the rights of white people in the United States were being more clearly and cleverly delineated, to prevent indentured Irish from joining with Black slaves in a similar fashion.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, “Hold Fast to Blackness,” Medium, July 29, 2015. https://medium.com/@chanda/hold-fast-to-blackness-3e4fa529917d.

Having mixed raced children will not end racism and result in a racial utopia, as questions and experiences of race cannot be bred away, but often appear with greater force when mixed bodies appear.

Race is deeply entrenched in our lives and communities. Whether we agree with it and accept its logic, or challenge its history, factual basis and presence in our realities, it is an organising principle of societies that determines much of our experiences of ourselves. Having mixed raced children will not end racism and result in a racial utopia, as questions and experiences of race cannot be bred away, but often appear with greater force when mixed bodies appear.

Danielle Bowler, “OPINION: Mixed raced children will not fix racism,” Eyewitness News, December 2, 2015. http://ewn.co.za/2015/12/02/OPINION-Danielle-Bowler-Mixed-raced-children-will-not-fix-racism.

Tags: Danielle Bowler, Eyewitness News

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Mixed Race Studies

Having mixed raced children will not end racism and result in a racial utopia, as questions and experiences of race cannot be bred away, but often appear with greater force when mixed bodies appear.

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Mixed Race Studies

Having mixed raced children will not end racism and result in a racial utopia﻿, as questions and experiences of race cannot be bred away, but often appear with greater force when mixed bodies appear.

Pages

Categories

Calendar of Posts

Links

Meta

Having mixed raced children will not end racism and result in a racial utopia, as questions and experiences of race cannot be bred away, but often appear with greater force when mixed bodies appear.