At the ages of three and two respectively, Maya and Emri are still oblivious to the curiosity and judgment-filled stares they receive when in public with their mothers. What is the reason for such scrutiny? The answer is simple: Maya and Emri are the offspring of Caucasian mothers and black fathers. And even in 2010 with a president who shares a similar background, many Americans continue to struggle with the question of race, especially when it comes to those who are biracial.
“Emri was asleep in my arms while I was [in the mall] shopping for a pair of jeans. A young black girl came up to me and asked if Emri was mine,” shared Sarah Grace. “I said she was my daughter. Then the girl asked if I adopted her. I said, ‘No … she came out of my [stomach]!’ At that point, the girl’s mother instructed her to shut up.”
The aforementioned incident is just one of many that Sarah realizes she’ll encounter as it pertains to the question of Emri and race.
“I want Emri to know she’s white. People will pressure her to ‘act’ black or be ‘just’ Black, but she isn’t. She’s white and she’s black. She can be Emri and allow the beauty of both cultures to define who she is instead of feeling she has to choose one or the other,” Sarah added. “As she gets older, if she decides to identify herself as simply black, that’s ok. As long as Emri knows who she is as a person, I will be comfortable with whatever she decides.”
Historically, being able to choose one’s racial identification wasn’t something many white Americans wanted to leave up to individuals, more specifically individuals such as Emri. Beginning with such laws as the “one drop” rule, racists went to extreme measures to make sure every citizen was placed into his or her correct racial category; therefore, it was decided that just one drop of black blood in one’s lineage made the individual black.
“There is no biological basis for ‘race’ as we know it in our society. Skin color has been arbitrarily selected as the trait by which people are divided. You could just as easily divide people by whether or not their earlobes are detached or attached,” states Pam Santoyo, a biology teacher with a degree in evolutionary biology from Harvard University.
Racial identification has always been a social construct. For many centuries, there was a definite advantage in being considered Caucasian, and Caucasians didn’t want to share those advantages with anyone who wasn’t 100 percent Caucasian. During that time, many individuals who were considered black but were closer in appearance to Caucasians would move to a place where no one knew them and re-enter society as a member of the Caucasian race; the practice was called passing, and it availed biracial citizens to the social advantages of Caucasians.
Since the biracial category doesn’t appear on most government forms, including the Census, and it’s safe to say that mixed, mulatto, or passing will never be options from which to choose, how is a person of Caucasian and black lineage to identify him or herself?
“Whenever I am identifying Maya’s race, I check the box for Caucasian and the box for African American,” said Jaclyn, who refuses to allow her daughter to be pigeonholed into being racially identified by her appearance. If anyone attempts to identify Maya, they must acknowledge all aspects of Maya’s heritage or Jaclyn will immediately intervene.
“I want Maya to embrace her Sicilian heritage, her African heritage, and grow up to be comfortable with who she is, all of who she is, not just a few select parts,” she said.
Because Jaclyn is Maya’s sole caretaker, she’s very concerned that Maya’s black cultural experience isn’t being nurtured.
“I don’t want Maya to lose touch with her ‘blackness’ by living in a white-washed world. I don’t want the black side of her to become something strange or foreign,“ she shared. “I want her to have authentic black experiences. It’s very important for her to have positive black role models. My goal is to raise her in a multicultural setting, so that she can make positive associations with people of all races.”
While neither mother wants to be overly protective, Jaclyn and Sarah know that they must equip Maya and Emri with the tools to combat society’s attempt to impose a myopic view of race on their daughters, so they can make decisions regarding race for themselves. Unfortunately, there are centuries of written & unwritten rules about race and racial identity they will have to deal with. The written rules are difficult enough, but it’s those unwritten rules that still play mind games on society.
The topic of race is always volatile, but the topic of racial identity in reference to the offspring of Caucasians and blacks touches an even more sensitive nerve. When people see Maya and Emri, they are forced to confront plantation era sexual taboos and 21rst century social fears, which linger beneath society’s façade of political correctness.
Maya and Emri are the embodiment of “race mixing” — to use the vernacular. The minds of individuals with such limited thinking cannot cope with the act of intimacy that created the Mayas and Emris of the world. While some are preoccupied with the sexual nature of the situation, others live with a fear that their racial group is dwindling. Thus, they are losing the numbers battle in their perceived race war.
This is the racial baggage that Maya and Emri had no part in creating, but will be forced to carry. Jaclyn and Sarah will do their part as quality mothers to educate, love, and protect the girls from the pitfalls race causes, but society’s racial preoccupation is inescapable. At some point, Maya and Emri will be asked to choose sides: black, Caucasian, or biracial. It seems as if the option just to be Maya and Emri, the beautiful daughters of Jaclyn and Sarah, will never be an option. —samuel adams
