I’m watching the emergence of Kamala Harris and the dust it’s kicking up around race and racism with keen interest.
I notice how (like with Barack Obama) we are taking her identity apart, instead of talking about where she stands on issues. And the intriguing thing is that it seems to work. We are SO unclear and unaware about identity and its impact on our experiences, who we are, how we move through the world, and how we are seen – particularly around issues of race.
The Question
As a mixed race person I have had a lifetime of people wondering and wanting to know “what I am”. Sometimes I have made it a game and asked people to guess. Sometimes I have answered the question. Sometimes I have left folx to think on it.
But for me, that question hits a deep chord of not having a place to land, to belong, or a sense of place. It has suggested to me, my whole life, that I certainly didn’t belong HERE (here being Canada) and that I must be from elsewhere. I write about this in my book – Being Brown in a Black and White World – conversations for leaders on race, racism and belonging.
The Blessing of Being Mixed
Personally, being mixed race is something that I have only recently come to see as a blessing – as an acknowledgement of the fullness of who I am, rather than a failure to be one thing. In my book I reference the Proclaimers song lyrics: “thought that I was whole instead of being half of something” (song: Then I Met You). I have a lifetime of feeling less than, half of both sides, and not enough of either. I have only recently stepped into embracing being both, exploring the fullness of what that means, and engaging with the gifts of my mixed heritage and identity.
When I heard Donald Trump say Kamala Harris “all of a sudden became Black” I wanted to scream.
Who are you (anyone) to determine someone else’s identity?
Polarization
I have been told my whole life that I’m not Black enough. So, there is obviously a line somewhere that someone thinks is the measurement. Maybe it started with the One Drop Rule – but that was to identify someone as Black, not deny them entry into Blackness.
Why do we do this – in either direction?
The fact that Donald Trump saw Kamala Harris as Indian until she “suddenly turned Black” illustrates to me how narrowly we see and understand the complexities of the human experience, particularly around skin colour and racial identity. It also highlights what a mess we have made using the socially constructed concept of race.
I loved the way Ramesh Ponnuru expressed it – he said “the way that she (Kamal Harris) lives out her race.” Wow.
Mixed as an Identity
Being mixed race is a thing.
Being multiracial is also a thing.
But we seem to continue to want and expect people to live in defined boxes – usually of OUR design, not theirs. One thing OR another. One identity OR another (usually the one that is more evident to US, not to the person in question).
I don’t think we are interested in the nuances.
We want simple.
We want labels we can understand.
We want to be able to put people in those boxes – so we know how to treat them.
Multiracial?
Biracial?
What do we do with those? You mean I have to hold more than one idea of you?
Inconceivable!
I am holding my breath….
Could it be that we are ready to see more?
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