will biracial children and racially mixed couples have an impact on the blatant racism in this country?

Question

i didn't know what kind of answers that i would get, but the first four are beautiful. i have four bi racial grandsons, and i really think that gorgeous kids like them could be the salvation for this polarized country.

Answer 1

Hopefully, I know my kids are going to at least have compassion for humans of all kinds. They already know how ignorant people can be so they have a step up on that issue. It's a blessing to be bi-racial: you never see the world with blinders on!

Answer 2

This could be a possibility and a positive one too. In America you see more and more ethnic groups crossing over these ethnic barriers and marrying other races besides their own. The increase starts to dissolve the bloodline by generation when they cross over, now this is truly a good thing. This can eventually force people to look at each other with commonality other then with racism.

Answer 3

We can only hope that they will have a positive impact in regard to racism. We can all learn from them how to accept people for who they are not what they are. I think it has changed some people's outlooks on race.

Answer 4

As blatant as you say it is, it was much, much worse not all that long ago. Personallythough, I don't think racial marriages and offspring will change opinions all that much for a few reasons:

Unofficially, the one drop law, which dates back to slavery, is still observed. It states that even if you're only 1/8 black, you're black...not bi-racial, not part white...just black. That alone doesn't acknowledge people of multiple races. Look at most surveys you take...there is usually no "multiracial" category unless you're black and hispanic or white and hispanic. That leaves a LOT of people out.

Historically, fairer skinned black and mixed race people have been held in higher regard than darker skinned people...by caucasians and by other african americans. Ever see Spike Lee's School Daze? It depicts a rivalry between fair and dark skinned students at an all-black college and it's greatly based in fact. If African Americans can't abolish racism, or more appropriately, colourism, amongst themselves, what hope do we have of abolishing it anywhere else?

Fair skinned slaves got to work in the "big" house while darker ones worked in the fields. A lot of that has made it's way into today's society and it's not just here in the US.

Today, you still find interracial couples being harrassed...Taye Diggs' wife, who was starring on Broadway at the time, received multiple threats because she is a white woman married to a black man, the recent threats received by football player Ian Johnson pending his nuptials with a white cheerleader... the list goes on and on.

Though I don't often hear about black women being threatened when they marry white men, personally I've been accosted on the street by black men when they saw me in the company of a white man and often I wasn't even dating the man in question.

I think the reasons for racism in this and other countries go much deeper than skin colour. Normally racism and/or genocide arise when one group is feeling threatened by another and they need a reason to persecute or cubbyhole them. Skin colour is just one (easy) way they do that. Religion is another.

The Ku Klux Klan came into being because a few white men felt they were losing their imagined "superiority", an idea that their dwindling numbers still cling to today. (Note, many of those Klan members have black relatives because of the dalliances of their ancestors..I understand I have a sheet wearer or two in my own family down in Mississippi - a source of endless amusement to me).

Hitler came into power for much the same reason. Imagine, he was able to convince an entire country that blonde, blue eyed Germans (Aryans) were superior to all others and those others should be exterminated and he wasn't even blonde/blue or German himself. And today, the "Neo-Nazis" mainly continue their racism because they need someone else to blame for their own socio-economic problems. Same with the Rwandan genocide with the majority Hutus who are poor and the minority Tutsis who are wealthy and in power. Cells of skinheads have been popping up in Russia as well, mainly in Moscow where African students attend university. The students aren't doing anything to them, they just feel Russia should "stay white". Yet they took my tourist dollars just as fast as anyone else's.

There have been countless cases like these throughout history and many still exist today all over the world. As long as you have people who are feeling threatened or frustrated over their personal situations and are willing to make someone else a scapegoat for it, racism will continue to exist.

Answer 5

It'd be nice, wouldn't it? I think that it'll just cause a new type of prejudice though, against biracial people (I already see it about biracial couples and their babies...) Our society is overrated as far as ethics go anyway, so what can you expect?