lady elle: beige in america

a friend of mine shared an article recently that I was super interested in posting on here, but it occured to me that it might not make as much of an impact without a little background on little ol' me. I figured it was a good enough opportunity as any to introduce myself a little more formally considering that I haven't yet, outside of the blurb in the sidebar. perhaps an introduction was never a thought before now because this started as more of a personal challenge/experiment of sorts to see if I was really invested in and committed to keeping up with blogging. after a bit of a rocky start (i.e. the two month gap between my first 2 entries and this now steadying stream of posts) I appear to be hooked, so allow me to share a little something with you.

much to the utter confusion of many people I encounter in life, I do in fact identify as a multiracial woman. being the third (and quite probably 4th and maybe 5th) generation of a line of thoroughly ethnically 'mixed' women, how could it be any other way? both my mother and grandmother are of black, native american, hispanic (mexican, as far as I can gather so far) and german descent among other things I'm quite sure. yet because my complexion and some features reflect at most my geman and latin roots, the rest of what lies within my ancestry is often conveniently disregarded by skeptics. it never ceases to boggle my mind that even after their initial, expectedly puzzled reactions to the 'what are you?' answer, many would rather cling to the comfort of their own pre-conceived notions.

I don't want this to turn into a full-on rant about me and the mixed 'identity', as I understand it. suffice it to say that I have strong opinions on the subject, and believe that in a nation of a diverse people working, well, somewhat steadily towards a peaceful coexistence, it is important for people to be allowed to own and embrace who they are without boundaries, ethnically and otherwise. that being said, I loved the viewpoint, allbeit satirical, of this article: Beige in America
preposterously as it's proposed, it makes me wonder how different our nation and world could be if we stopped trying to shove such complex and wonderful people into such teeny tiny boxes.

and for the record, when forced to check a box, it's always 'other.'