thank you to @the.mixed.identity for putting this together, and so well, for me! racial invalidation has been going on for too long and some may think they're just innocently expressing their opinion but its a highkey micro aggression and aids in erasure. it's very sad and i've noticed that mixed race people do this to each other. unfortunately this is something we also picked up from the society around us and we need to unlearn this! i think some of us think we're helping bc we are mixed as well and have gone through the same experiences. however the same experiences don't always result in the same perspectives. the identity of a person is only left up to that person and that person alone. i see these comments on some of my shoutout posts, mostly from trolls, but sometimes from followers as well. remember, some of us are opening up about our #mixedgirlproblems maybe for the first time because they don't have anyone else to talk to. there's a lot of vulnerability in doing this, especially on a huge platform like this. when someone shares their story, especially on their identity and their struggles with it, the last thing they need is for someone to echo the confusing comments they're venting about. thanks again to @the.mixed.identity, make sure to check out their other informative posts like this one. lets learn more about our identities this 2021! 🙌🏾🌼 #racialidentity #invalidation #mixedrace https://www.instagram.com/p/CJwfgOrF-vF/?igshid=128r8qzre0zrz
In the professional context, you would assume that what you do matters the most. While in reality, sometimes, I found that racial(national) categories go before other qualities and become the adjective that defines me and my profession. The fact that I’m Chinese tends to make people put me into a box where I’m proposed only with projects associated with the Chinese market. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing these projects and I consider knowing Chinese culture and society an advantage, but still, I hope that my racial identity does not limit people’s imagination of the variety of work that I can do. #professionalworld #racialidentity #limitations #chineseculture #sliceoflife #webcomic #tinyeyescomics https://www.instagram.com/p/B2HD6hViCo0/?igshid=16r5qi83iwfyu
Collage art by Dave McClinton @mcclinton ✨ Soul, internal voice, subconscious, ancestral echoes? What is that thing that alters our thinking? Check out his solo show at The Dougherty Arts Center, up through February 9th. . . #supportblackart #davemcclinton #digitalcollage #inventedfaces #racialidentity #blacklivesmatter #blackmen #afropunk #blackart #austinartist #txart #doughertyartscenter https://www.instagram.com/p/BtJBiXujOvW/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1unusplllikvk
Hi.I have a bit of a sensitive question. I'm a white girl who was adopted by a black family when I was a baby, my mom said she saw me and instantly knew I was meant to be hers. I grew up with rootwork in the house, my grandmother taught me all that I know about rootwork and life in general. However since coming onto Tumblr, I feel like I can't carry on with the traditions I was brought up with because of my skin colour. Any advice? I understand if it's too much of a sensitive question. Thanks❤️
Hey there! I’m sorry that you’re in this situation because it’s definitely a difficult one, and I think it’s good that you reached out about it. I’ve spent my morning thinking on this and asking friends and researching transracial adoption… and to be honest I’ve realized that I don’t think I have enough intimate knowledge of the complexities of transracial adoptions to answer this adequately. I have four different members of my family who were adopted, but I was not adopted and don’t have a deep understanding of that experience.
I’m gonna share some of my honest thoughts about hoodoo, ancestry, and race, but I don’t think I have a definitive answer for you on exactly what to do.
I’ve included my thoughts below the keep reading line, but I ask other black rootworkers - especially anyone with an understanding of transracial adoption to also join in on the conversation and share some insight.
I was always taught across Africana traditions and hoodoo that having black ancestry is a fundamental part of the practice. It’s in your blood and bones, it’s in your DNA, it’s how you channel and tap into your wisdom and the juju of an unbroken lineage of ancestors going back through slavery and back across the waters to West Africa where these traditions have their origins. Beyond just cultural appropriation (which matters too on a different level), there’s also that blood ancestry aspect that to me is a tradition-level inherent reason why non-black folks (people without any African descent) simply can’t practice hoodoo no matter how hard they may try to.
You said you feel like you can’t practice because of your skin color, but I have white skin too. The difference is that I’m white passing, not white. We may both appear white to most people, but when I take a DNA test, my African ancestry sure does show up next to my European ancestry. I am biracial. We both have black family - and they are your family as much as mine is my family - but you are still white because that doesn’t change your race. Just like a black kid adopted into a white family would still be black - not white.
To me where this gets extra confusing is that since they are your family and they chose to teach you… I mean those are your family traditions too, and while you’re still white, having a black family means that black culture may be a part of your culture too. This is where this question gets into the transracial adoption territory beyond my experience and knowledge. You probably have a special and unique relationship to black culture that other white people don’t have because of your transracial adoption, and that’s an amazing thing. I respect that and it was your grandma’s choice to teach you hoodoo.
No one can take those experiences or that bond away from you with your family and with your upbringing. I just urge you to understand the privileges you have as a white person. Many of those privileges overlap with the ones I have as a white passing person. Our white skin and appearance mean we are favored by society over our families in soooooo many ways more than we can fathom or imagine even when we try to grasp it. We don’t have to be afraid of cops in the same way as our family members do. I don’t know what it’s like to actually be adopted, but people have assumed that I am more often than not.
We have many of the same privileges and possibly even some of the same challenges as white-looking people in black families, but racially we are not the same. You also have different challenges than me a person who was transracially adopted, but you have different privileges as a white person too. I think these differences are extremely important for you to understand when looking at how you engage with black culture. It’s a part of your family and your cultural upbringing, but it’s not your race, which is something that goes beyond skin color when it comes to being black in the US.
From a young age, my mom made sure I knew that I was biracial black, and that has been a part of my heritage and life experience in terms of who I am knowing that my white passing privileges can be stripped away any time because I’m not actually white. I proudly choose to identify as biracial even when it means people laughing at me not believing it because it’s not something I can change - it’s who I was born as.
You were born the way you are too, and like I’ve said you also have your own and unique experiences because of that. And unfortunately, you’re in very very difficult to navigate waters as a result of it all. I wish I could tell you the best way to navigate that and where are the “lines” are, but truthfully I don’t know because I don’t know exactly what or how your grandma taught you or what her thoughts are on the whole ancestry aspect. I don’t fully know how cultural appropriation applies in the complex situation of transracial adoption. That’s why I put so much emphasis just now on the race piece - the one thing I do know, is that regardless of everything else, you are white.
So while I may not be able to give exact advice about what to do or what not to do, I strongly urge you to remember that and understand that your identity and life experience, as well as your connection to these traditions and culture, is fundamentally different than it is for us black folks. You don’t have a birthright to it in the way that we do, yet it is a part of your family traditions and culture. I don’t know what that means for you, but I do think that it’s essential for you to try to understand as much as possible as you figure out what to do going forward.
I hope this helps, and I also urge you to listen to what other black folks have to say if anyone else weighs in on it. Please do NOT listen to the opinions of anyone who isn’t black about this matter… they really don’t get a say about it.
A work in progress. — Legacy as fuel. — #selfexplanatory #history #racialidentity #blacklivesmatteralso #blackman #afropunk #afrofuturism (at Austin, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwDd4jRFDZS/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1mdduo9wo402p
I’ve been seeing the phrase “white passing” being used in some strange ways lately... it does have a specific meaning, it doesn’t just mean someone who is perceived as white because white people can’t be white passing.
A white passing person is inherently a person of color, they just are a person of color who is generally perceived by most people as “white” based on their appearance and/or other factors. There’s also conditionally white passing people, who are sometimes perceived as “white” and sometimes not. Either way, both white passing and conditionally white passing people are not actually white.
White passing literally means that they pass as white but aren’t. If they were actually white, they wouldn’t be white passing because they wouldn’t have to pass at all. They’d just be white.
That’s what the term has always meant, but I’ve seen people calling people with mixed ancestry and ambguous racial identities as both white and white passing. People are either one or the other. If you consider someone to be racially white for whatever reason, then they are just white not white passing. Calling them both is a complete misunderstanding of what passing means on a fundamental level.
So please remember that whenever you call someone white passing, you are inherently implying that they are also a person of color not actually white despite how others may perceive them on a regular basis.
