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Thinking Like a Hybrid

By smelf

This morning a friend e-mailed me a link to this essay, written shortly after the election but recirculating on this bi-racial inauguration day. It made me realize that if I were as much black as I am Hawaiian, I'd have experienced many of the things she writes about.  
     Most of the time I don't even remember my ethnic cocktail, and I guess the point she's making is no one should be obliged to have it pointed out or assumed with lots of attendant baggage.
    When my parents applied for a marriage license in San Francisco at the onset of WW II, they were denied one by a knee-jerk clerk who told them the state didn't allow mixed marriages. I guess my dad looked black enough to trigger the response, or maybe the woman thought Hawaiians were ineligible for other stereotypical reasons. After all, she must have reasoned, they walk barefoot and eat weird food. Their language and music are disturbing. The women sway their hips and wear flowers. These cultural differences were threatening.
    As an aside, I wonder if the trend in "mixed" marriages is for the husband to be the non-white half, or is it the other way around?
    My parents sorted out the license problem, got married, and had kids, one of whom is remembering her heritage this morning.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).