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Biracial Identity In Watts's Not Black, Not White

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Being biracial can give an individual a unique perspective on race. Some biracial individuals view race as a sort of an illusion or costume. Claudine O’Hearn voices this idea in her introduction to her work, Half + Half: Writers on Growing up Biracial + Bicultural, when she states that, “because most people didn’t know where to place [her], [she] made up stories about [herself]. […] It amazed [her] what [she] could get away with. Being mixed inspired and gave [her] license to test new characters” (O’Hearn ix). It is astounding how simply the author was able to slip between races and that other people were convinced by her façades. Her ability to do this shows how “[s]kin color and place of birth aren’t accurate signifiers of identity” (O’Hearn xiv) and that racial identity is largely based on personal and social beliefs. O’Hearn is not the only author to speak on the issue of not precisely falling into racial categories. Robert Watts’ work Not Black, Not White, But Biracial looks at the experiences of people …show more content…

This gives rise to the idea that only people who identify as black should participate in equal rights protests, read books on African American history, and be in relationships with African Americans. Exemplifying in this paragraph, how there is still a belief that certain behaviors are attributed to different races, the author also shows that people try to confirm their identity by participating in these behaviors. However, this is a misconception because many races, and mixtures of, all take part in similar practices to Ms. LaSonde. Her actions could very likely be influenced by her race, but it is not possible to say that it is the only determinant for her acts. What Ms. LaSonde did in her past does hold meaning, but the idea that it proves her “blackness” is untrue. There is not any behavior that belongs solely to one

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