"Despite the fact that the children of interracial parents may emerge looking indistinguishable from children born to parents of the same race and many people born to parents of the same race possess traits associated with mixed-race children, the shades of tan and curl patterns associated with multiracialness conflate a political ideal with an aesthetic one. The hope for a future where racial ambiguity outpaces racism, already on shaky ground, also seems like a future where everyone is beautiful for being “exotic” (according to a white standard) yet not “dangerous” (aka nonwhite)...
While terms like “octoroon” and “mulatto” seem rather archaic (or maybe not), “biracial” and other fractional means of quantifying race (“half white,” “part black,” “31% Eastern European”) are present-day evolutions of a system developed from the need to maintain whiteness amidst miscegenation. This crisis, that white men would fuck themselves into obsolescence, became the creative fodder for liberation in American fiction. In novels such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The House Behind the Cedars, and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, characters use their fractional blackness to escape, survive, and advance undetected. That legacy is still entrenched today in film and TV casting, as such actors as Viola Davis among others, have noted. Mixed-appearing characters get to succeed in fictional America; darker-skinned characters don’t...
Like the National Geographic photos, like North West, like this State Farm ad and those Cheerios commercials, multiracial optics succeed because they differ from a white standard, but not too much. These optics animate that warm, feel-good liberal confidence of being on the right side of history. They allow viewers to safely feel antiracist without necessarily venturing into pro-POC territory. The images that surround us in train cars, on television, in film are more multiracial than ever. America is more multiracial than ever. And yet, as demonstrated by the election, the country is far from that dream of eradicating racism forever."
Also, like, "interracial marriage" isn't some modern invention. I'm descended from many generations of multiracial people, much of it coming about because of colonialism and slavery. So, it's not something that makes me feel hopeful or proud or like a shining beacon of the future. I'm sure there are some stories of people falling in love across cultural divides in there somewhere, but it's definitely not the dominant narrative, and it definitely didn't solve prejudice.
Related: Your Love Won't Trump Hate
FB: I looovvveee how blunt this line is "If we could fuck away white supremacy, wouldn’t it be gone by now?"
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