Biracial Perspectives

Wright et al. (2003) has explosively dealt with the issue of biracial perspectives in the United States. From the work, one finds that the biracial person faces the challenge of misplacement of identity. This is due to the fact that, most people are classified to a particular race but it becomes a challenge when one is biologically biracial. The biracial individuals also face the challenge of color stereotype. For quite sometime, whites were associated with good things such as power and economic prosperity. This becomes a challenge to biracial individuals as to which side they belong.

Identity has been a major problem to biracial individuals. As such, there is need to put down strategies that will help deal with this problem. One of the best ways of dealing with this is to allow for a biracial identification system. This way, a biracial individual is able to identify with both races that he or she is affiliated. This would be a retreat from the previous standing where one had only to identify with a single race. Working requirements need to abolish the requirement for identification based on ethnicity. This would help in doing away with the racial stereotypes.

Biracial individuals are similar to people with single race backgrounds in various perspectives. Biracial individuals would want to have a sense of belonging just as are people with a one-race background. This can be viewed in terms of appreciation of different races and casting away of the negative racial-based stereotypes (Sycamore, 2004). Biracial individuals tend to be different from people with single race background by the fact that they have the knowledge and the experience of what it feels like to be a person from the ‘other’ race. Such persons are likely to appreciate other people’s cultures and way of doing things.

Researchers have found out that no single rule governs the choice of an individual’s race. This is because race can be looked at from a genealogical point of view or from a household view. Mixed race is not just about the color of one’s skin, it also has to do with where the person lives. The language also plays a big role in determination of a person’s race. Continued emergence of mixed families is slowly bringing down the racial classification based on color. Researchers have found that the white superiority stereotype tends to fade away with the increased number of biracial individuals (Sycamore, 2004).

Understanding of one another in the work place helps in ensuring smooth coordination of duties. This would not have been so with racial stereotypes being manifested. Mixed races provide a platform through which different contributions can be brought together for an organization’s success. Different people from different races are talented in various ways. This helps in ensuring that the duties in the work places are done in the shortest time possible and that high quality is assured. Mixed races help in learning of the various cultures may it be African, Whites or Hispanics. This helps in understanding one another hence avoiding conflicts in the work place. It also helps in doing away with past misconceptions about particular races (Wright et al., 2003).

A biracial individual is now capable of getting an avenue through which his or her identity can be well brought out. A biracial individual will have an objective view towards various races and that they will be treated to be normal beings. As such, the preferential treatment to the color white will not hold. Such will ensure that the individual gets economic, social and political opportunities that will enable them to succeed in life {Kilson, 2001). This is the greatest benefit of mixing of the races.

References

Kilson, M. (2001). Biracial young adults of the post-civil rights era. New York City, NY: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Sycamore, M.B., (2004).That’s revolting!: queer strategies for resisting assimilation. Michigan: Soft Skull Press.

Wright, R., Houston, S., Ellis, M., Holloway, S., & Hudson, M. (2003, August). Crossing racial lines: geographies of mixed-race partnering and multiraciality in the United States. Progress in Human Geography, 27: 457-474