- Hey, did you know in the year 2030
everybody is going to be beige with green eyes
and racism will finally be over?
Still no hover boards though.
Today we're gonna talk about that weird MEME
that claims interracial relationships
and pretty mixed babies are the cure for racism.
You may have seen this photo from National Geographic
floating around the internet suggesting
that in several decades, the majority of people
in America will be of mixed race.
There's this idea that if everyone
in the future is coffee colored and racially ambiguous,
institutionalized racism in America will be
a thing of the past.
Right?
Oh sweetie, if it were only that simple.
Not all mixed race people look
racially ambiguous like Rashida Jones or Haulsey.
For example, President Obama is mixed race
but most people just code him as black.
Not to mention that mixed people come in all
different combinations not just x-race person
plus white person.
Ooh, that just turned into a math equation.
No matter how you look at it, it's kind of icky
to fetishize mixed race people,
distilling what makes them valuable down
to the way they look or more frequently,
what makes them look more white.
And while some people talk at mixed babies
as a patriracial harmony may mean well,
here are three reasons why multiracial
people won't end racism.
First, and this is a big one, being mixed does not
shield you from racism.
In fact, research published in 2015
by the Pew Research Institute shows
that a majority of mixed-race people have faced
discrimination in the form of racial slurs and jokes,
poor customer service, and racial profiling by police.
But we don't need studies to know
that being mixed doesn't mean being immune to racism.
Just take a look at this country's history.
Think of the millions of mixed people who came
out of the institution of slavery
as a result of sexual violence.
Many slave owners were still very much willing to enslave
and sell off their own mixed kids.
And if you need an extremely recent example,
Chloe Bennet, a half white half Chinese actress,
who stars on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD laid down
some serious truth on how being biracial doesn't
exempt you from discrimination
when someone called her out for changing
her last name from Wang to Bennet.
She said, "Changing my last name doesn't change
"the fact that my blood is half Chinese,
"that I lived in China, speak Mandarin,
"or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese.
"It means I had to pay my rent and Hollywood is racist
"and wouldn't cast me with a last name
"that made them uncomfortable."
Which brings us to our next point.
There are actually already a lot of mixed people
and that hasn't solved racism.
According to a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center,
the number of mixed-race Americans is
actually growing three times as fast
as the American population as a whole
which is why some people think
we're automatically headed for that racial utopia.
But here's the thing, approximately nine million
people in the United States are already mixed race
and that hasn't made racism go away
nor has it made talking about race any easier.
Some people think that with millions
of multi-racial people walking around,
everyone should have a deep and nuance understanding
of race and racism.
But that's like assuming having daughters will end sexism
and sexual violence or that gay children
will end homophobia.
Which considering people have been having daughters
and gay children since the beginning of time,
babies clearly aren't the solution to structural oppression.
And on top of that, having a mixed kid
might not actually affect how you feel
about people who aren't your kid
thanks to confirmation bias.
Confirmation bias is the tendency for people to interpret
and recall information in a way that confirms
their pre-existing beliefs.
Sometimes people see their biracial family members
as existing outside of the negative cultural stereotypes
they hold against minorities in general.
What can happen is the mixed kid becomes
an exception to the rule.
They're the good kind of minority.
So please let's not turn mixed children
into the new, "But I have a black friend!"
You don't automatically understand racism
or the experiences of all people of color
simply because of your friends or family.
And finally and perhaps most importantly,
racism is an institutional problem.
Let's pretend that more mixed race people means
everybody is suddenly super nice to each other
and harbors no personal biases or prejudice.
Great!
But being nice to each other won't solve
housing inequality or the fact
that white Americans still hold up to 88%
of the nation's wealth despite being 64%
of the population or force the US government to honor
its treaties with Native Americans.
Racism is a complex problem that has existed
for hundreds of years.
And complex problems almost always require
complex multifaceted solutions.
As we've spoken about before, during the Great Depression
in the 1930s, the US government used
racially motivated assessments as part
of a huge mortgage refinancing initiative.
The goal was to keep people of color
out of certain neighborhoods and because it was effective,
it prevented huge amounts of black home ownership.
And its effects are still a problem today.
A 2010 study by the Federal Reserve Bank
of Chicago found that the practice
of redlining in Chicago had a persistent
adverse impact on local neighborhoods.
They found redlining affected home ownership rates,
home value, and credit scores in 2010.
2010 which is 70 plus years after the problem even started!
Racism isn't just about individuals,
it's about institutions, and those aren't going to change
just because of the racial makeup of your parents.
Look, having friends and romantic partners
of different races is definitely not a bad thing.
I can personally vouch for that.
Having mixed children is not a bad thing.
It's great!
After all, couples like Mildred and Richard Loving
fought valiantly so people of all races have
the right to love and marry whoever they want.
At the end of a day, coveting mixed children
because of how cute they look or because they represent
some idea of racial equality that doesn't quite exist yet is
super unfair to them.
It fetishizes them and also erases the very
complex reality of what it means to be mixed race.
So if we're going to truly end racism
and white supremacy, we're going to have to think
of more concrete ways to fight racist laws,
policies, and ideas.
Unfortunately, settling down and having a bunch
of cafe-olay babies is probs not going to be
the nail in the racism coffin.
Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time
right here on Decoded.
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