I hope the brief history of the census has given you an insight on why I am so passionate about my voice being heard and why I am so eager to hear your voices! I want to know everything, nothing is too mundane to me. Well, maybe an over explanation of logarithms but even that can have an interesting twist. I’m here to listen and share. I am going to open up my life and experiences to you to see how we relate and how we differ. Have you ever been asked, “What are you?”
I have been asked “What are you?” so many times in my life that I went through stages with my answer. First, indignant, “I’m American…you?”, then sarcastic, “I’m human”, then resigned because the other answers were followed by a look and the person saying, “you know what I mean”. So resigned answer, ” I’m half Irish, half African- American…that’s what I am. ” I have had numerous people ask to touch my hair, it just happened again last Christmas while I was on a line buying gifts for my kids.
People will walk up to me and start speaking to me in Spanish and are surprised when I explain that I am not Spanish. I have been asked if I am sure about my race. That is always a strange question. This was a pre-23 and me time where now it might be more acceptable? Not sure, but I think that is more of a question of ethnicity than race. I have been told (a lot) that there is no way my father was all black, meaning that both of his parents weren’t black. I took one of the DNA tests, please sit down before you keep reading…sitting? Guess what I am biracial- almost 50/50 split.
I came across an article about Zoe Kravitz responding online to a follower who commented on her possibly whitening her skin. She is in quarantine like the rest of us and pointed out she is just a mixed girl who hasn’t been in the sun in a while. I totally related to that. A stranger judging your appearance in respect to skin color or hair texture etc.
The world is much different from when I was growing up but I still haven’t found a place for a multiracial perspective on any damn thing we feel like talking about. Let’s be unapologetically us. Join me in forming an online community inclusive of all and show our commonality by highlighting our uniqueness. How do we do that you might ask? Well, I have head full of ideas and questions that I would like to throw out daily and where the topic takes us, we can find out together. We can create togetherness together.
We are on the Census 