My Strategies

In the essay My Strategies, by Eric Jackson (p. 243-244), the author provides a personal account of being biracial in a race-conscious society.  Jackson describes some recurring experiences and the strategies he has developed to deal with different situations.  He states as a disclaimer that he is generalizing, and that there are always exceptions to generalizations, but emphasizes that he repeatedly puts up with a lot of the same thing.  The short essay is well worth reading, as Jackson shares valuable perspective and insight, I think relatable to some readers and educative to others.

I am a person of multiple ethnicity.  In my own family, various family members embrace, accept, or deny various parts of our ancestry, and for different reasons.  I generalize, but it is a bit of a leap of faith to reveal my ancestry to strangers, especially to people who identify themselves as white.  Some people simply don't want to process  the whole complex truth, and, similar to Jackson's experiences,  want to tell me that "I look white".  Ironically, some of those people simultaneously say that "race (or ethnicity) doesn't matter".  If they truly believe that, than why say that I look white?  Other people look at me differently (depending on which ethnicity I reveal), or look to me when a particular ethnicity is mentioned after learning of my ancestry.  In my experience, in a white environment, mentioning anything other than European ancestry can be a risk to the person who otherwise could be "passing", and diverse ancestry is usually dismissed; in Latino or Black environments, ethnic ancestry is usually treated with interest and respect.

Some of the essays we have been reading portray racism as solely an American issue, but this is not the case.  The following video shows just a little of the absurd racism that Kim Kardashian has been exposed to recently when in Europe.  There's a short ad, but the clip is worth seeing:

https://tv.yahoo.com/video/kim-k-encounters-racism-vienna-073754240.html