I've just spend the a great deal of time reading the many posts in this thread. I had to skip some of the last few pages...b/c it got a bit tough to read it all but i'll be back to read the rest later.
I don't think there is anything wrong w. bumbing the thread if people still have someting to say. There are new people on the site who may want to contribute.
despite some of our distaste for the topic, initally the thread was v. productive, remained civil dispite the provocativeness and potiential polarization the topic so i'm really excited to see that. Also i think the OP (does that mean the one who began the thread- hope so) has been very attentive to the thread and maintained a good 'tone' overall. I've seen some threads where people open up a really weighty topic then disapear.
Me, i'm a black woman who has not been allowed to identify with which ever side of her mixed heritage b.c. i'm dark skinned. My dad was Geechie/Gullah (orgins in the senegambia region of Africa transplanted thru transatlantic slavery to the S Carolina Sea Islands, where my ancerstors lived in slavery but with a great deal of autonomy until the 1980s when the christians 'discovered' the gullah/geechie culture. The gullah geechie people came late in the slave trade, were hand picked for their ability to grow rice and transplanted by force to work in the rice fields of the Sea Islands. My mom is NDN from the Setaucket and Shinnecock tribes of NY, black american and Irish/Scottish American. I am phenotypically black, with mixed facial features and I speak fluent Spanish so i am asked all the time where i am from. Usually by contential blacks (African) and sometimes from latinos too. They usually suggest Cuba, Senegal, Ethiopia, someimes even the West Indies/Caribbean due to my features.
So i politely disagree with the pervious asseratoin that multi-racial people can choose to identify with which ever part of our culture that the choose. I cannot be native b/c i'm not native looking, i was told by a friend (who has Irish heritage) that i'm not Irish becaue she had an Irish grandmother. "I said i have an irish great grandmother, so, what?, You're more Irish cause what you ate bangers and hash growing up?" > She didn't reply. She was phenotypcally white.
Never has a black person told me i'm not Irish or that i'm not Native... i have had NDN people who have their tribal recogntion say that i'm not Native... just b/c i didn't grow up on the rez, i'm not light skinned (rarely do they ever point out that i'm also not acultrated to native ways).
It's true, American Blacks, we are a product of years of miscegenation and so I too think that calling Obama black is inadequate b/c there is this asumbption that when one is black one can't be white and vice versa. As my niece says about herself "i'm both".
One can only choose to identify with one heritage or another when one can pass in that culture. Otherwise society will constantly challenge your ethnic identity and attempt to place you in the box they deem appropriate according to the way you look.
My features say 'she's multi ethnic' my skin tone and hair texture says 'she's mostly african'. While my mom is light skinned, she was not light enough to be allowed to be considered NDN dispite her father's full blodded ndn status because he married my grandma, a southern black american woman. My dad was dark skinned and I favor him.
So in a nutshell i've been forced to accept the term black as a catch all for all of my heritage That was never a problem b/c my family identifies as black american primarily b/c the world deems us as such (one drop rule and race concousness is so prevlant). So i am happy to be what my momma is and what my daddy is. However i realized later in life that i was strongarmed into this view in many ways.
When i was single i dated all men, including black men. I just love people. I've dated women and men of all ethnic orgins as long as we're both American, we share the same cultural context and nationality. i love black men very much, i certinally dont discriminate by the basis of color or creed. Meeting and marrying my husband was about him and me and our compatiblity. It was love at first sight and that's what compelled us to be together not any any internalized stereotypes related to our sexuality. Inter-racial couples like us are in abundance where i live as I also live in city that is more ediverse than even the entire national demographics. But those are just statistics...
I consider myself multi-cultural (b/c i live in the US and its really a blend of black, white and increaslinly latino culture) and multi-ethnic because of my heritage and familiar experience. So dating out side my color has never been an issue with my family or with me. We are black, ndn, and white (as a family) these days and have been for decades and i belive wholeheartedly in equality for all men/women that's been forsterd in me very deeply by my cross cultural experience. I also speak fluent Spanish and am somewhat aculturated to latin culture. So when I started dating there was never any idea in my mind of using color, orgin, gender or even language as a reason to restrict someone's access to me as a potiential mate. For my older sisters who they grew up in a time when race relations were more polarized and therfore their of dif. opinion. Perhhaps b/c they suffered more racism than i have since i'm much younger and came age in a more diverse city and progressive time. They do not date anyone but black (multi ethnic) men so i understand this issue very well from both sides. While i'm not calling any racist outright, i too I believe that the idea of not dating someone because you think their behavior is predicated by/on race is inherently racist. i'm sorry for the long a$$ post, i really took a while 5 hours to write this carefully because everyone's comments were so well thought out and i want to be respectful that mine is too. I hope you understand my position and thanks for lettin me add my truth.