Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide
Sarah Ratliff
Race is a topic I think about constantly. I have to assume it’s because I was raised by parents who, because of their racial and ethnic differences, didn’t shy away from subjects many families have the luxury of glossing over.
As my brothers and I grew up, our parents ensured we saw things from every angle. So much so that now, as an adult, when a discussion gets going, I am incapable of taking a myopic view and of keeping my thoughts to myself.
This is an excerpt from the forthcoming anthology, Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide that I collaborated with Bryony Sutherland to write.
Says our publisher Hanne Moon, owner of Heritage Press Publications of the book, “…It’s edgy, it’s gritty, and it’s definitely not a read for the timid-hearted. My involvement in this project was an eye-opener on so very many levels. Sarah Ratliff and Bryony Sutherland... you ladies are to be commended for starting the discourse we so desperately need. Coming soon…”
What Does it Mean to Be Biracial?
I ponder this frequently. As long as people have had the ability to be mobile, curiosity about other ethnicities, customs, languages, food and culture have led to mixing things up. Most people in the world are raised to believe their culture, their customs, their country, food and language are the best. Call it patriotism, pride or simply a sense of belonging and identifying, it’s perfectly natural to see ourselves as being the best, the smartest, the nicest, the—fill in the blank with the superlative of your choice.
So what happens when a person from race/ethnicity A mixes things up with a person from race/ethnicity B? Where does the patriotism, love for food, culture, language and customs fall? Is it 50/50? Is it 25/75? Is it one ratio one day and another the next? And what happens with looks? If you took basic biology in school, you learned that brown eyes are dominant over blue, that red hair is the least common of all shades and that it’s truly a crapshoot how your kids will look.
Race is a topic I think about constantly. I have to assume it’s because I was raised by parents who, because of their racial and ethnic differences, didn’t shy away from subjects many families have the luxury of glossing over.
As my brothers and I grew up, our parents ensured we saw things from every angle. So much so that now, as an adult, when a discussion gets going, I am incapable of taking a myopic view and of keeping my thoughts to myself.
This is an excerpt from the forthcoming anthology, Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide that I collaborated with Bryony Sutherland to write.
Says our publisher Hanne Moon, owner of Heritage Press Publications of the book, “…It’s edgy, it’s gritty, and it’s definitely not a read for the timid-hearted. My involvement in this project was an eye-opener on so very many levels. Sarah Ratliff and Bryony Sutherland... you ladies are to be commended for starting the discourse we so desperately need. Coming soon…”
What Does it Mean to Be Biracial?
I ponder this frequently. As long as people have had the ability to be mobile, curiosity about other ethnicities, customs, languages, food and culture have led to mixing things up. Most people in the world are raised to believe their culture, their customs, their country, food and language are the best. Call it patriotism, pride or simply a sense of belonging and identifying, it’s perfectly natural to see ourselves as being the best, the smartest, the nicest, the—fill in the blank with the superlative of your choice.
So what happens when a person from race/ethnicity A mixes things up with a person from race/ethnicity B? Where does the patriotism, love for food, culture, language and customs fall? Is it 50/50? Is it 25/75? Is it one ratio one day and another the next? And what happens with looks? If you took basic biology in school, you learned that brown eyes are dominant over blue, that red hair is the least common of all shades and that it’s truly a crapshoot how your kids will look.
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