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Race relations

Barack Obama's historic run for the presidency has helped to spotlight both the progress and day-to-day challenges faced by biracial and multiracial Coloradans.

By Bill Gallo, Special to the Rocky

Published August 16, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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When Cleo Parker Robinson was growing up in Denver's Five Points neighborhood in the 1950s, she was blessed with what she calls "the yin and yang."

She had a white mother from quiet La Jolla, Calif., who had played French horn with the San Diego Symphony. Her father, who is black and from Texarkana, Ark., played trumpet and was steeped in jazz.

"They both loved to sing," the renowned dancer and choreographer said, "and they went together to hear music at the Rossonian and other places. Some things that went on in Five Points were quite courageous and rare, but they always felt natural to us."

In the time of Ozzie and Harriet and segregated lunch counters, however, the rest of the world outside Five Points wasn't always tuned to yin and yang. Martha Parker's stepfather, a land developer, ostracized her when she married Jonathan Robinson.

The Robinsons often lost jobs when employers discovered that they were in an interracial marriage. When they moved to East Denver, bigots burned a cross on their lawn.

"In our family," Cleo Parker Robinson said, "making decisions about anything was never simple."

Nor were the choices that a young artist-in-waiting had to make about who she was and where she belonged. "Oh, yes," the dancer said. "Growing up, I had identity conflicts."

Seeking identity

Half a century later, the finest golfer on the planet speaks proudly of his biracial heritage, and the presumptive Democratic nominee for president weaves the tales of his white, Kansas-born mother and his black, Kenyan father into the narrative of a ground-breaking candidacy.

But Tiger Woods and Barack Obama are not people in the street. Where do ordinary biracial and multiracial Americans stand these days in terms of self-definition, and how do the attitudes and preconceptions of others determine their fate in a society that remains profoundly race-conscious?

For Dr. Francis Wardle, these are the questions that drive his work at the Center for the Study of Biracial Children in Denver.

"In this country, multiracial identity does not officially exist," he said flatly. "It's too much for most people to deal with."

In the 2000 U.S. Census, 6.8 million Americans identified themselves as multiracial, including about 122,187 of Colorado's 4.3 million residents. But most school and college applications, and state and federal job forms, still do not provide multiracial identity choices.

"Many entities hide behind the state and federal regs and say, 'We're not going to address this; it's too complicated,' " Wardle said. "They're still putting people into outmoded boxes. They're still adhering to the old One Drop Rule: One drop of blood defines you in terms of race."

A notable exception: Colorado State University. Its forms encourage detailed self-identification.

Educator Wardle, a white Englishman whose wife, Ruth, is black and from Kansas City, Mo., founded CSBC in 1991. There was nothing out there to help the Wardles' four multiracial children cope with pressure to conform in school and on the playground.

"Kids can be very cruel," Francis Wardle said. "And a child who is insecure about his or her total heritage will accept the (stereotypes). 'You play tennis: Black kids don't play tennis.' 'You're in the band: Black kids don't play in the band.' Kids tend to accept that. They say, yeah, I'm partly white, so I have to work overtime at being black."

Quandary for parents

Lisa Hulac, the white mother of a biracial child, said she believes that her 5-year-old daughter, Mia, already is facing identity issues. A kindergartener at Timberline Elementary School in Centennial, Mia has come home from school with stories about other kids calling her "a sandwich," and she is starting to understand well-meaning but insensitive comments that her mother's friends sometimes make.

"I was surprised when a friend said to me, 'Oh, your daughter could pass for white,' " Hulac said. "When people say things like that, I'm going to have to find the courage to step forward and say I'm not comfortable with that."

Mia and her mother read children's books with titles such as Black is Brown is Tan and Why Am I Different? and they visit Omaha to see relatives of the girl's father, who is black. Married for seven years, Mia's parents divorced when she was an infant.

"She will have some emotional problems along the way," Hulac said, "so it's my job as a parent to educate her about the black side of her family, on black history and present positive black role models to her. In the best-case scenario, as she grows up she will feel positive and secure and have high self-esteem."

For now, though, Hulac is concerned that school enrollment forms forced her to pick a box - black or white - to identify her daughter. And she can find no support group in Colorado like the New Jersey-based GIFT - Getting Interracial Families Together.

"Still, I'll do everything I can to help Mia feel good about who she is on both sides."

Wardle said that his own children, all college graduates now with successful careers, have cleared that hurdle.

"They are 'third-culture' kids who can thrive in any environment," he said. "That's the ideal. But the multiracial movement remains largely underground. Political people don't want to address this issue, which concerns the fastest-growing group of children in the country, and academics don't want to address it."

Susan Graham, director of California-based Project Race, worries that multiracial Americans face increased health risks because disease statistics and trend-tracking are based on single-race models. In countries such as Brazil, where multiracial identity is commonplace and accepted, warning signs are easier to spot.

Wardle said he encounters resistance from some black civil rights leaders who, he said, believe multiracial identity dilutes race-based political power, and from some social scientists.

"The myth has long been that multiracial people are biologically, culturally and intellectually weak. Well, the most important thing about Tiger Woods and Barack Obama is that they are blowing away that mythology," Wardle said. "They are challenging the status quo, and there's certainly nothing weak about either one of them."

Looking toward future

Lisa Hulac said she wonders what effect an Obama presidency might have on the future of her child.

"That remains to be seen," she said. "Obama has my vote, and one of the reasons is that I believe he'll be more sensitive to biracial issues. But everything won't change all at once."

For Cleo Parker Robinson, Woods' success on the golf course and Obama's candidacy seem to be good signs for biracial pride.

"It wasn't always something I wanted to talk about," she said. "But this is a new day. At the same time, though, I still think we have a long way to go about the perception of black people in America. But I've been lucky. As an artist I have the freedom to move through the world in many cultures. It gives you a passport to humanity. And I love being able to do that for others. It's my Freedom Dance."

Next month, Parker Robinson will present a new performance of the dance piece. She created it to honor her white mother, who died three years ago, and her black father, now 80 and recently retired.

She said the work is highly personal and particularly apt for this moment. It is called Breakin' the Rules.

Defining ourselves

1.8 percent, or 85,000, is the number of Coloradans who consider themselves to be of two or more races.

1.6 percent, or 4.79 million, is the number of Americans who do. The concept of race, as used by the U.S. Census Bureau, reflects how those responding to the census identify themselves under the following categories:

* White: Having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa.

* Black or African-American: Having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.

* American Indian and Alaska Native: Having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.

* Asian: Having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including.

* Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: Having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa or other Pacific Islands.

* Other: Includes responses not included above.

* Two or more races: People may choose to provide two or more races, either by checking two or more race-response check boxes, by providing multiple write-in responses or by some combination of check boxes and write-in responses.

Help for parents with multiracial kids

Here are some tips for parents raising children of more than one race:

* Teach your children about multiracial heroes and role models.

* Celebrate both sides of the family, and do not allow any conflicts to arise based on race.

* Expose kids to human diversity, through travel, museums, activities, schools and child care.

* Show that since Colonial times in America, we have had multiracial people in our history.

* Study how people throughout history have traveled across geographical and cultural borders, married and had children.

Obama's ancestry

Barack Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii, where his parents met in college. Here's a look at his family history:

* Father: Barack Hussein Obama Sr. - born and raised in a small village in Kenya, herded goats with his father when he was young. After he and Barack Obama's mother divorced, he returned to Kenya and became an economist in that country's finance ministry. He died in a car accident in 1982.

* Mother: S. Ann Dunham Soetoro - grew up in Kansas. Second marriage to Indonesian Lolo Soetoro. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.

* Grandparents: Grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama - worked as a farmer, died in 1979. Grandfather Stanley Armour Dunham - served in the Army during World War II, worked as a furniture salesman, died in 1992. Grandmother Madelyn Lee (Payne) Dunham - worked as a bank vice president in Peru, Kan. Lives in Hawaii.

* Great-uncle: Charles T. Payne - helped liberate Ohrdruf, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, at the end of World War II. During a meeting with veterans, Obama mistakenly said the camp was Auschwitz, correcting the error the next day.

Comments

  • August 16, 2008

    6:08 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    samsmargolis writes:

    Not that I'd ever expect the RMN to actually put research behind any of their articles, but there needs to be some conversation about this whole "BHO will be the first black president" claim that Hulac and others seem to view as substantive voting criteria.
    http://www.diversityinc.com/public/14...

    BHO's claim to African-American heritage is also questionable, but not challenged.
    http://kennethelamb.blogspot.com/2008...

    In the end, as with all things related to BHO's campaign, it's about the packaging and not about the substance. Lame attempt at a substantive article, Gallo.

  • August 16, 2008

    8:26 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Barron writes:

    It is an interesting conversation and one worth having. As one who works with bi-racial children frequently, I see the conflict they face from society. They are forced to identify with what's visible on the outside and basically ignore half of their culture. It doesn't matter if they appear "white," once they are known as bi-racial or multi-cultural then they are "black." We are never going to get beyond our racial issues until and unless we grow up and recognize something as trivial as skin color for what it is - a physical feature and nothing more. As a country we are Americans first and need to focus on how to make this a better place for us and our children instead of taking sides based on skin color.

  • August 16, 2008

    8:26 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    RS writes:

    I encourage people to refuse to be put in racial "boxes" by our government or anyone else. Refuse to fill out the race forms - for employment or any other reason. Resist the entire concept of separating people based on non-factors such as skin color. These are ancient concepts with tribal beginnings and need to be viewed as such - an artifact of history, nothing more. Focus on "race" is for racists and should, properly, be left to them and history.

  • August 16, 2008

    10:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    disenchanted1 writes:

    When I married my husband a Mexican National(for those whom it matters to he is legal) I never thought about problems with having interracial kids. Only once when our son was 2 did I ever think about it. We were living in Indpls. and walking down a street and had some skin heads throw a coke at me and call me a race traitor. Being blonde, blue eyed I had never encountered racisim. One day a few years back my daughter came home from school and was crying I asked her what was wrong she told me a kid in her class told her he was not going to play with her because she was one of the brown people. Needless to say I was crushed and angry, I called the school and spoke to the principal the next day she had them both in the office and spoke to them. They never became friends but there were no more comments made to her. My son who has never been in trouble has been stopped by the police (we live in a suburb of Denver, almost all white) 5 times this past summer, after the 5th time he told me that he had been stopped and his backpack searched backpack with his cleats for football by the way. I called the chief of police and told him if it doesnt stop I will file charges against his dept. for harrassment, he gave me a number to call if it happens again. I dont know if it stopped or my son is just not telling me that it happened. But either way these things opened my eyes, I grew up just thinking people were people not black or white or hispanic but I see there is much racisim in the world. My son is old enough to work now and when he brought home an application he asked what box he should check I told him to check white, hispanic, other or none at all. My children are proud to be Mexican even in a time when all you hear is people talking crap about them. They are proud of who they are both white and hispanic. People need to get over the color, race issue.

  • August 16, 2008

    11:48 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    HopiMedicineMan writes:

    There are no pure Indians, all are a mix of several different tribes thanks to genocide, the automobile, alcohol and Rock 'N Roll.

    There exist few religions of peace. Most, especially tribal, possessing a warrior element if not the most important aspect of the hero.

    Christianity is a peace religion having a peace hero. That made Christians unique in an aggressive world and quite justified, in it's mind, to overtake cultures living by the spear.

    Now where it gets tricky, the cultures previous to Christianity bleeding through. Christianity has not yet displaced the ancient mentalities of the European. It take thousands of years. There's little bleed through memory for Jews, Taoists or Hindus whose religions have been their religions for a couple thousand years longer.

    If you enviros want the Indian religion, it comes with the warrior, an inextricable part of the package. It's pagan, bloody, capitalist and frighteningly similar to Islam. The earth demands blood. To resist seems unnatural, ritualistic, almost kosher.

    Most prayer wasn't directed at thanking brother buffalo for tongue sandwiches, but at defeating another tribe. In ancient days, the tribes of the Atlantic region (Cherokee, Pima, etc.) would travel west to capture the laid back West Coast surfer dude Indians to sell into slavery in the East. This history is even more repressed than the history of blacks who fought for the South.

    The blood lines of these West Coast slaves are intermixed in Southern whites. My great-grand-mother is a prime example. So what would she put on a government form, Welsh-Confederate-Miwok? I'm afraid that wouldn't buy her much sympathy, the ostensible purpose of this racial exercise. So, where's my reparations check?

  • August 17, 2008

    9:01 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Billy writes:

    As the father of bi-racial children,white and hispanic, and the grandfather of multi-racial children, I feel we need to put these issues to rest. As HopiMedicineMan states, there are very few full blooded people of any race here anymore. We need to focus on the man not the color of the man. Our United States has been in severe trouble since Bush took office. If anything at al, he has helped the race problems escalate since he took office. This country needs change. McCain isn't change, he is another Bush puppet just like everyone in the Republican party the past eight years. Mr. Obama is and can be change. But get past his color, this si the right man for the job.