Um. . . no

I mentioned not liking the term "mixed" when it's used in reference to people. 'course, I'd meant groups of people, rather than individuals. Don't really care for it there, either, but this:

Project RACE: From The Director: The Problem With The "Mixed" Label - biracial mixed race multiracial interracial

I especially dislike the term "mixed." First, it lends itself to references in Spike Lee movies, where he calls "mixed" people "mixed up" and "mixed nuts." It also makes for not so cute newspaper and magazine headlines. One day I really thought about why "mixed" annoys me so much. I realized that if a person isn't "mixed," what is he or she -- pure? Wow. It sounds pretty neo-Nazi-Hitler-like to me. Do we really want to separate Americans into those who are pure and those who are mixed? Personally, I don't want to even go there. When my young son testified in Washington, he told the lawmakers, "Puppies are mixed, people are multiracial." Another good reason not to use it.

[. . .] Tiger Woods refers to himself as "Cablinasian," which is a word he made up for the combination of all of his heritage. I think it's creative and meaningful for him. For the rest of us, let's stick with the term preferred by our community -- "multiracial."

This seems just a wee bit strident. And this is me saying that.

Don't make no nevermind to me, anyway. I might be multiracial, but I'm not "multiracial" as far as these mother fuckers are concerned.

It's like an inverse one-drop rule. Only stupider.

Ended up at Project RACE (which congratulates "Erika Harold, the first multiracial Miss America" -- despite the blue eyes, Vanessa Williams is in the same boat as me, not "multiracial" enough [well, yes, and there was that scandal, but shut up, I'm riffing]) following a link from Interracial Voice, who are equally fucking useless.

Multiracials today are pioneers -- blurring race-lines, penetrating, expanding the envelope of "whiteness" -- making inroads more people of color will soon follow.

Because the way to destroy bullshit hierarchies is by creating additional categories within those bullshit hierarchies.

The title of the Guest Editorial is "On Rejecting Identity Politics." Which is odd, as embracing the multiracial identity seems to be the only reason they exist.

Whatever.

Over in the sane part of the universe, George links to the New York Times piece on the play "Yellowman," titled "Light Skin, Dark Skin and the Wounds Below."

In "Yellowman," directed by Blanka Zizka, there are two performers, Howard W. Overshown and myself. We play many characters. Howard's main character is Eugene, who is light-skinned. I play Alma, who is darker. She is the narrator for the audience as well. I also play Alma's mother. Eugene and Alma are childhood friends who fall in love. But they are surrounded by a society that doesn't accept it.

[. . .] Certainly "Yellowman" and the subject of internal racism can make many black people squirm. But internal racism is not exclusive to us; on a very human level every group of people does this. It's the kind of thing that makes Italian and Jewish girls go out and get nose jobs.

[. . .T]here was a family, a particular family, that was extremely fair skinned. For generations, the family had interbred to keep the light-skinned color line going. And they would condemn people who were darker. So you had people who hated this family and whom this family hated.

Ok, maybe "sane" isn't the right word. . .