# Black Or Bi-Racial? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 26, 2002, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-bi-racial/100150 "2002-03-26T06:36:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-bi-racial/100150/61 "2002-03-31T07:57:22Z")
While some of you may not think of Halle as black, I’m guessing she might have had a bit of trouble attempting to use a white-only water fountain back in the _not so good ol’ days_. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-bi-racial/100150/62 "2002-03-31T16:09:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jibby7 \* > \*\*And as an aside, being a mixed blood of any type does come with its own unique challenges, from experience. At the right time and place, you can have both the races that you consist of seeing you as the enemy. Being a minority can be bad, but at least you have your community. At times, mixed bloods have no community but their family. At the same times, mixed bloods can find acceptance at times when the minority cannot, to be fair. \*\* The worse–I think–is being privy to racist/prejudiced arguments coming from one or both sides of the color line. Especially if you look like one “race” more than the other. My father was a teacher back in the 70s. Picture the teacher guy on “Welcome Back Kotter” except with a puffier 'fro. He was in the teacher’s lounge one day and overheard some of the worse racist comments that he’d ever heard in his whole life coming from a group of colleagues and the principal. They were speaking so loudly, so openly, that he realized they didn’t know he was black. A few weeks later, after this relevation came to othe surface, the principal came up to him and said “You know we were just kidding that time in the lounge, right?” My father could only shake his head and walk away. I can’t even imagine the type of rage he felt. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-bi-racial/100150/63 "2002-03-31T17:27:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by celestina \* > \*\ ***Number Six** said: “It is a usage developed by racists to further the goal of denying “undesirable” people their rights.” > > I would amend your statement to say: “It is a usage developed by racists to further the goal of denying people they deemed “undesirable” their rights.” Do you see the difference? There was not nor is there now anything inherently “undesirable” about black folks. That is a value judgement that has been traditionally placed on black folks, and unfortunately there are still folks in the 21st Century who view black folks as “undesirable.” \*\* Actually, no I don’t see any difference. I placed the word “undesirable” in quotes. This indicates my intent to be ironic, ie, that I would _not_ consider such people undesirable, especially since I happen to be one of them. To clarify my position: I do not object to saying that all black people, as the word is used in the US, have a mixed heritage. This is demostrably true. It does not then follow that all people of mixed heritage, no matter what their degree of sub-saharan African descent, are black (basic logic: if p then q does not equal if q then p). Such people are [whatever they choose to call themselves](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_049.html). It is the attempt to apply a single convenient label, in this case black, to all people who fit into this category that I find offensive. Note that it is not the term itself that I find offensive, it is the usage of this term when applied to all people of mixed heritage, regardless of their actual degree of African descent and how they choose to identify themselves. ---
**Author:** ![kiffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/d78d45/32.png) [@kiffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiffa)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-bi-racial/100150/64 "2002-03-31T21:47:51Z")
We called our kids finnafros [my husband is african american and my ethnic/cultural background is finnish a la finland but i’m sure that there’s a sneaky swede or ribald russian or two in there as well…]. most folks just looked a bit cockeyed… what’s a finnafro? then we decided to let the kids define themselves. the boys called themselves brown and their sister white while we lived in africa. after arriving in ne florida, the boys decided black because that is what everyone else said they were. their sister has been labeled puerto rican a la j lo… personally, i give up. i hate mulatto and, while i can take metisse, most folks don’t know what that means. i’ve learned that i can only insist that my kids define themselves as honest, caring, involved citizens of the world. they can add on all the other “definitions” be they muslim, democrat, hip, environmentalist, feminist whatever… defining yourself is what life is all about. how others pigeonhole you depends upon their own hangups and not yours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-or-bi-racial/100150.md?page=3)