here's a #tbt post via @hdurrow for @huffpost : #Obama and the Future of #MixedRace & #Multiracial America
"It is fitting that #PresidentObama would bookend his official press conferences with an unscripted comment & nod to his mixed-race heritage.
Obama had originally campaigned for the presidency, in part, on the complexity of his racial background. As the brown-skinned son of a #White woman from Kansas & a #Black man from #Kenya, he offered his candidacy as the symbol of hope & harmony for our country.
I was elated by his message as a woman who is also mixed-race & who grew up lonely in my silence about my own racially & culturally complicated background.
We live in a country that subscribes to the #onedroprule which insists that one drop of "black" blood defines you as black.
So, there wasn't room in America's imagination in the 1980s for a young woman with brown skin & blue eyes to be both black & #Danish, fully #AfroViking. I was black. I was light-skinned-ed, yes. But that was simply another variety of being black.
When Obama ran for the presidency, the word #biracial lost its scientific ring & became part of the country's lexicon. I felt like suddenly people could see me for all of my complexity: I wasn't excited that people could now recognize that I had "white" blood, but that people could recognize I had an experience of growing up betwixt & between 2 cultures & 2 languages & that those experiences mattered.
I laughed with delight listening to Obama speak at his first press conference after he won the 2008 election. When a reporter asked what kind of dog the family planned to get for the White House (an election promise to his daughters) Obama said: "There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me."
Many people expressed outrage about his remark. I thought it was funny: an insider's joke. It was a wink & a nod to #mixed folks of our generation who had grown up having to prove our racial authenticity & wrestle with what term we should use to describe our multiracial identities.." Read the rest at the link in my bio! 🇺🇸
Obama And The Future Of Mixed-Race And Multiracial America