Multiracial passing as white

[asterroc]

One of the PostSecrets this week was from a multiracial person who is embarrassed when she(?) passes as white. This of course resonated with me greatly due to that being my own life story (well, I wouldn't say "embarrassed", but there definitely are non-positive emotions associated with it when I stop to reflect).

This led to two very interesting threads in the PostSecret LJ syndicate: this one starts with the post card itself, and this one also. I admit I speak a lot in those threads; what people have to say there is really interesting to me, from the POC, the (assumed) whites, and the other multiracial people.

ETA: If you haven't seen it, here's a post I wrote a while ago listing things that monoracial people take for granted. Some of them are more applicable to white monoracial people than monoracial POC.

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

Comments

[cosmicwonder.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to even pretend that I'm anyway qualified to make a contribution to those LJ discussions of being bi- (or multi-) racial. I'm white, and I know that no matter what, I'll never completely understand what it's like to be non-white.

I did, however, find the discussion extremely interesting. Yeah, I never considered the embarrassment of being identified as white before. I'm also sorry that you've had to struggle to be accepted into the two races of which you are part. There's still a long road to racial acceptance, but I hope that the more that these kinds of stories are shared, the more we'll progress.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

The responses by vodkabeforenoon are especially fascinating to me. Ze identifies as being Puerto Rican in those threads, and ze has a lot of anger against multiracial people who can pass as white. It's interesting b/c when I pass as white, I feel this invalidates my experiences as a multiracial person, and vodkabeforenoon is also invalidating my experiences by saying that since I pass as white I have it easy and shouldn't be complaining.

The only particular incident I've experienced that was actually embarrassing, was when at a meeting of my CC's Diversity Caucus, the college present (a white woman a generation older than me) replied to something I said by referring to me as a successful young white woman. I didn't know how to react to this at the moment, so I let it slide, and later sent her an email "correcting" her. Though looking back on it now, in many ways she's right: since I look like I'm white, people react to me like I'm white, so I have (nearly) all the privileges that go along with being white in the US.

Edit: See also

[ayashi.livejournal.com]

I'm using Ze because it is easier than him/her s/he over and over :P

I think the thing that bugs me about that person's responses is no one who identifies with that image is denying that they are getting privileges for looking white (at least not that I could see), but ze is so stuck on that, ze can't even begin discussing anything else about it.

You acknowledged how ze had good points multiple times in the comments, but each time ze either had another hostile-sounding response or just ignored it. It could just be me being defensive at seeing someone reply in a hostile manner to you, and the responses were definitely interesting and offered some food for thought, but... :(

[cosmicwonder.livejournal.com]

IA. There's no reason to engage with vodkabeforenoonbecause ze is simply not open to a rational discussion.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

True, but I also don't want to be too judgemental of zim because we don't know what ze's been through and ze probably has a very good reason for being angry with anyone who looks white, and envious of people who can pass as white.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wish ze would acknowledge that ze's never walked in my shoes and experienced what I experienced, but I've also never walked in hirs and do know what ze's gone through that brings up this much hostility in zim. I'm taking it as a sad commentary on the horribleness of things that even people who should be allies are fighting like this.