So maybe do a perspective of when the black parent is not from America. Were I’m at it’s actually a frequent occurance.

Anyway, I wasn’t trying to stereotype, although it’s hard to show that when using phrases like “raised as Black”. I was thinking about what many families do when the parents are from two very different cultures, which is try to take some elements from each culture to use within the family. The parents of some of the biracial children I know are both minorities, however, and that might be skewing my perceptions.

Crystal, I strongly agree with your first paragraph.

Jasai, “This is certainly a worthy discussion and one that black mother’s and black families very rarely get to be heard on.” I agree with you. I think this is converstaion that needs to include all voices.

Keep talking.

Maybe we shouldn’t allow short people to reproduce, because short people earn less and short men have more trouble getting dates! Or how about not letting really nearsighted people have kids because their kids will wear Coke-bottle glasses and be teased!

Most kids turn out just fine. I know a lot of biracial people and not one has been damaged for life due to being biracial. Kids need people who love them, and enough money so that they don’t have to go hungry or live in a roach motel. All else is gravy.

Meantime, anyone who asks me “what about the chiiillldrunnn” will get George “F*ck The Children” Carlin quoted right back at them. I’m childfree anyway so the whole point is moot.

Eduardo V. Genao A magnet school in Hartford, CT has been stirring up a ton of controversy after its principal Eduardo V. Genao allegedly coerced several mixed students to change their racial identity to white so that the school would qualify for more funding. Genao claims he asked for every student’s permission, but most deny this, and say that he guilted them into identifying as white for the good of the school:

Genao conceded that he asked teachers to help him identify biracial students and that he called the students to his office. In the course of discussing their racial classifications, he acknowledged, he spoke with them about the school’s funding. “I did indicate to the students and the parents how the formula works,” he said.

In fact, state guidelines tie the funding of magnet schools that opened before this year to residency, not race… to qualify for magnet school funding, schools must draw at least 30 percent of their students from the suburbs - a standard Sport & Medical Sciences Academy meets.

Race becomes a factor, for schools established before this year, in regard to compliance with the Sheff vs. O’Neill school desegregation settlement. It says 28 percent of a magnet school’s students must be white in order to count toward reducing racial isolation. With just 89 white students in a population of 400, or 22 percent, Sport & Medical Sciences falls far short.

Genao, who is in his first year at the magnet school and is new to Hartford, said he did not realize the state law linking funding to racial quotas applies only to new schools and not to established schools such as his. He denied, though, that the change in the students’ racial classifications was linked to money.

I’ve started a new feminist blog entitled, “My Mother is White — For White Feminist Mothers of Children of Color and Our Allies.” I think there is a need for a blog like this and I hope many of you will visit

……

For instance, in Mexico, few people can really be identified as very Native American or very European. There really is a huge number of people with very mixed ancestry. There’s even a word for it: mestizo, which is used as a unifying racial category for rhetorical political purposes. Now, it’s still true that there is discrimination there based on racial appearance. Those with more European blood tend to be better off than those with less. The upper class, for instance, is very white, and the lower class often very brown. But the separation between the two groups is remarkably blurry compared to that between American blacks and whites.

Heart

From my own experience, I would agree that grandchildren make a huge difference in acceptance of interracial marriages, and that the children of Black/White marriages tend to be raised as Black. But I also think class plays a significant role in this, as most of the biracial children I know who are from wealthy families are more likely to be raised with attempts at evenhanded exposures, while the blue-collar children are more likely to be raised as Black, especially if the mother is black.

Just my two cents. I think you’re doing some important research here.

Many, if not most, white people have at least some African ancestry as well. If the “one-drop” rule were applied in a world with perfect genealogical knowledge, America would be a majority black nation.

I think that the reason this is so significant for the constructionist perspective is that biracial children can pose a real categorizing dilemma for most Americans. It really seems to threatne the notion of distinct races. I think that there are other factors, but that is a big one.

But perhaps Rachel only wanted to discuss Black/ euro-white (to coin a phrase) and that’s cool.