Mixed-Race Americans Must Identify as Black

Interracial marriages may be on the rise in America, but with racial problems still so prevalent, mixed-race black people have an "ethical obligation" to identify as black, writes Thomas Chatterton Williams in the New York Times. Williams says he is grateful to live in modern America, where he has married a blue-eyed, blond-haired French woman, but the reality is that "a new multiracial community could flourish and evolve at black America’s expense. Indeed, the cost of mixed-race blacks deciding to turn away could be huge."

As federal forms allow students to identify as being multiracial for the first time, Williams worries about the smaller core of black students who are competing with “other minorities and immigrants for limited resources and influence.” On a more personal note, if his children turn out to be light-skinned, they may not identify with their black grandfather or with the struggles of their ancestors. "And so I will teach my children that they, too, are black—regardless of what anyone else may say—so long as they remember and wish to be." Click for the full article. (More race stories.)