Reconciling Contradictions: A Biracial Perspective on Racism
[Sarah] One of the most important things my father ever taught me about race came when I was choosing a college. I am mixed. My mother is white and my father is black. I have lived most of my life in mostly white communities and suffered sometimes for being too white and sometimes too black and I was tired. I felt so out of place and was concerned mostly with this issue as I was looking at the colleges around me. When I asked him, in tears, why he chose to live and work in a non-diverse community, he shared this: He told me that when he made decisions or even thought about himself as a person, it was first as a child of God. He was indeed a black man, but that was only a piece of his identity. He was first a Christian, and this was the prominent place from which all his decisions were made. He was next a husband, and a father, and a black man; but being black was not the primary or singular way that he defined himself or made his decisions. That piece of advice allowed m...