posted December 2, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama, made the remark when he was responding about the kind of dog he was considering for the girls that it might be, "a mutt, like me."
I like mutts. That description fits me as well with all the Irish and German and Cherokee blood and who knows what else coursing through my veins.
I like it so well that I've decided from now on when I am asked my background I will tell them I am like Mr. Obama, another "Mutt American."
K.K. Fink
Chattanooga
* * *
That's my point, Mr. Fink. In a sense, we're all "mutts." And the older your family tree dates back in America the "muttier" we all are; mixed with not just one but several bloodlines.
Take it all as a lesson we can all benefit from listening to someone like me who lived it and also lived the consequences when America tries to introduce yet another racial group into an already racially obsessed society that will only serve to further the divide between black and white in the long run. Will we have to go back to the brown paper bag test, or the pencil stuck in the hair test at some point again to decide who is what and where they belong?
Someone once said, "History repeats itself because no one every listens." It isn't as if America hasn't been down this road before in the not-so-distant past, and all it did was divide people even within families. Here's how it worked then when the terms such as mulatto, octoroon, quadroon were in vogue and popular, which those terms too are demeaning, derogatory and racist when you look at the true original meanings.
Mulatto can mean a person with a white parents and a black parent. It can also mean a hybrid mix of a mule and a horse. Quadroon means a person that is 1/4 black and 3/4 white. They were the product of a mulatto and a white person. But quadroon can also mean a four-legged creature that's a hybrid. Octoroon can mean a person who is the product of a quadroon and a white person. It can also mean an eight-legged creature that's a hybrid.
Now, when those terms went out of vogue and became unpopular, even siblings divided within families (brothers and sister, etc.). Those light enough to "pass" gravitated more towards their white heritage (who could blame them) and the darker, or light brown-skinned ones had no choice but to remain with the black side of their heritage. I know, I have white family who have no idea they have black relatives - although I know about them. Over the years I've kept up with one who was a rising star in the athletics field. We once tried to make contact, but were rejected. So we cheer from a distance.
There are many families out there like that. We who weren't light enough to "pass" know of our lighter kin. They just don't know about us.
The term "biracial" is a term that really only sprang up within the last couple of decades - gaining popularity overtime. However, just like those racially divisive terms from the bygone days, the term "biracial" will fall by the wayside too at some point. People think the world moves forward on past injustices or divisive matters. It doesn't. The foundation has already been laid out and cemented. The best anyone can do is not ignore that fact. Societies, like the planet earth rotates around the sun, move in circles - always coming back and returning to that original foundation that was established so very long ago.
I've personally already witnessed how the term "biracial" is and can be divisive. Just like those terms mulatto, quadroon and octoroon came to divide even families not so long ago.
Now, people may say that's racist and bigoted. That's their choice. It's America, and I of all people would never trample upon anyone's right to free speech. However, I and others who know history for what it is and now what we'd like it to be, just call it like it is.
Last but not least. By the end of the 19th Century over 80% to 85% of the black population was mixed with either European, Native-American/Indian bloodline or a mixture of both and then some. This is not some new phenomenon that suggests America is moving farther. It's a road we've all traveled before. Hopefully, this time it won't be a road used to divide as was done in the past.
Brenda Manghane-Washington
* * *
Ms. Manghane-Washington, not all biracial people are of black and white parents. Nor does the loosely regarded term "mutt" mean the same. There are other races in this world that "mix" and they too are biracial and/or "mutt."
I get upset by the fact that you assume that others cannot or should not "mix" because they will just cause more problems for the world. Blacks and whites are not the only races who have had for years differences shown between them.
I have a child who is mixed, she is half Caucasian and half Puerto Rican and she gets asked a lot if she is mixed because her features show the Spanish side but her skin is as light as mine. She has to tell people what she is mixed with because most people (especially here in the South) think that in order to be mixed you must be black and white.
Get with the program ma'am, this is not 1950 something or before and the world doesn't revolve solely around the black and white issue.
Marlene Smith
Chattanooga
Jms116326@yahoo.com
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |