Choosing

Often times in the life of a Biracial American you will  be asked to choose. Mcdonalds or Burger King? Treadmill or exercise bike? Coffee or Redbull?

But what do you do when someone asks you to choose your ethnicity? For many this question is simple, for those of us who are mixed or have parents of different descent the question can cause inner turmoil.

R&B Singer Keyshia Cole received some backlash last year for allegedly "neglecting" or "denying" her African American descent. Ms. Cole was skeptical about participating an event called Blackgirls Rock! for BET. Her reasoning being that she was unfamiliar with the event and she felt uneasy representing them being biracial.

Sounds reasonable, however fans to twitter and started an uproar as they so love to do. In this society often times biracial citizens are forced to choose or even at times temporarily ignore half of their heritage. Deny half of who and what they are for a myriad of reasons, ranging from personal gain to social acceptance.

I was once stopped by one of those lovely solicitors on the Santa Monica College quad to take a survey. I happened to be with a friend of mine who was also half black and half white. The surveyor started with my friend Daryl.

She she had a few simple questions to ask us before we started. Eventually she asked Daryl his race, and he said he was mixed. The young black girl asked him to pick which one he related to more. Daryl told her simply he embraces both sides of who he is and that he cant pick what he wants to be to better suit him at times.

 Until the rest of society realizes or accepts that being biracial is more than filling in more than one bubble on exams and scantrons there will always be Americans forced to choose.

Erasing Race

Race has been an issue in America ever since 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The color of your skin, and your ethnicity directly affected your social status, one's ability to progress and even your quality of life.

Fortunately for those of us who aren't white property owning males, times have changed dramatically since the days of the colonies. Minorities and women have gained the right to vote and stories of racial inequality and the civil rights movement seem like ancient history to younger generations.

The United States has been colloquially referred to as the "melting pot" due to its history of diverse residents, however Americans weren't always free to be as diverse as possible until 1967.

In the landmark case of Loving v. Virginia the supreme court ruled that interracial marriage was no longer illegal.

According to the 2010 census 9 million Americans identify themselves as multiracial accounting for 2% of the total population but 5.6% of the population under 18 years old.

With multiracial Americans becoming more prominent we now have a biracial President and even a biracial Spiderman. In the coming weeks I will explore how multiracial citizens are depicted in media and social issues relating to them.