Pass/Fail

Wentworth Miller, of Prison Break and The Flash, half black/half white.

Since I learned about it in middle school, I've lived my life according to the One Drop rule: if you have even one drop of black, hispanic, asian, or native american blood, you aren't white; you're part of the struggle. However, I caught myself being hypocritical. I wasn't extending the rule to people who passed as white.

For some, passing as white may seem to have unlimited benefits - and there are benefits - but there are drawbacks as well. Consider it the ethnic equivalent of being bi: you exist as a legitimate person but catch flack from both sides.

Imagine you're a girl from an upper-middle class upbringing with a vaguely Hispanic last name but with a - for lack of a better term - fair complexion, so people think nothing of it. You hardly bring up your Puerto Rican heritage, let alone speak Spanish. There's hardly any need to. Until you repeatedly hear everyone call you white. Until being white becomes being basic, a default. And sure, you may have started playing up your love for Qdoba, but you've become generally interested in your family's history and background. You meet up with your cousins who don't pass and spend time in Puerto Rico any opportunity you get. Still, people still scoff at you, as if the 1/4-Irish-Dutch-Greek-French is all you are and will ever be in their eyes. The jokes they make about your UGG boots start to hurt and you wonder if people will ever respect all of you.

Or perhaps you're a guy who can pass for anything: asian, black, hispanic, native american, white, and everything in between. In honesty, you have a little bit of everything. You are the American mixing pot that the future will be, but you're stuck in the present and people are ignorant. Your hispanic friends call you mixed, black friends call you mulatto, and your white friends call you "other." You can never be sure if they're just being safe or making fun of you to your face (except your black friends; you're aware they have no chill). You live your life explaining that you aren't defined by your background but you are proud of it, and for some reason this is confusing to more people than it should be. You wonder if you will ever be able to stop fighting.

Ultimately, I think part of the ridicule comes from jealousy. To be able to code-switch your ethnicity in a society that looks down upon anyone that isn't white is a gift. But it can also be seen as a person not being appreciative of who they are, as if they aren't being true to themselves. The best way I knew how to cope with this was by making jokes at their expense.

It wasn't until I saw the tired expressions in my friends' eyes that I realized what I was doing to them. Joking around like that was something I learned from an all boys school in the hood, but not everyone plays the same way. By now, I've nearly trained myself to recognize my friends for all they are comprised of, especially if they wish for it to be acknowledged.

Obviously I'm not trying to blacksplain*, simply wishing to be an advocate for others. I heard teamwork makes the dream work. I like to think we're working towards MLK's more and more each day.


Word


*blacksplain - like mansplaining or whitesplaing but when a black person tries to explain something for a different race or ethnic group.