Question:

I don't know if this blog is ongoing or if you even respond to comments anymore, but I am going to speak my piece in any case. I was born into a very fair-skinned family in Louisiana (plainly speaking, we are Creole) and everywhere I go I must explain to people that not only am I really, truly Black but also that my whole family is Black and we are not mixed with anything more than your average American.

Of my entire family, I am the lightest, and upon seeing me for the first time, most people think I am either white or Latina but never guess otherwise. It humors me to no end when people ask "What are you?" and upon receiving an answer they vehemently argue otherwise, as if they could in some possible way know more about my heritage than I do myself. I guess to some extent you could say that I am "mixed" (but honestly, if every American would look into their ancestry, who wouldn't be mixed?) but why on earth are people so stuck on wanting to know just HOW mixed you are, and WHAT you are mixed with?

Another small issue I have come to face and ultimately accept is the lack of socialization I am able to obtain with people from my own culture (most particularly when I am outside the state of Louisiana, because, of course, people there are used to Blacks being a slew of different shades).

Unfortunately, it is something that my parents have been telling me my whole life, and when I went away to college, they tried their best to let me know that my hardships were not mine alone and that there were many others like me who would experience the same solitude … just because of their color.

Although now I am perfectly content to walk through my life without being so concerned with other people's thoughts and comments, the whole subject still puzzles me. At the end of the day, I just resolve myself to the notion that some people are ignorant and may never know the joy of realizing just how colorful--and beautiful--we as the race of MAN truly are.

Answer:
Yes, this blog is ongoing and I do respond to comments--not all of them, but the ones I think are particularly interesting.

I think people are obsessed with race for two reasons: We're tribal animals and our dominant sense is vision.

The easiest way to create ad-hoc tribes is to separate people by how they look. Ironically, science has proven that the concept of race is invalid. We're all human beings and the entire human race originated in Africa. The differences you see in skin color, hair texture and eyes are less than 4 percent of the total human genome--and have nothing at all to do with intelligence. Here are some links to previous blog answers that document the facts:

How Much Is Race Determined by Genetics?

Most White People Think Blacks Are Intellectually Inferior

Tribal behavior is a survival technique dating back to our human experience before civilization (which includes far more years than the current "civilized" era). Humans are predisposed to create tribes: platoons, fraternities/sororities, congregations, clubs, alumni associations, etc. It's interesting to see how historically similar the number of members tends to be in certain groupings. This does not mean that the tribal experiences based on race are invalid--quite the contrary. Race and culture, especially in this country, are closely intertwined.

Properly implemented, diversity management leverages individual strengths that tribes have to benefit the greater goals of the organization. Innovation is a byproduct of providing a mutually respectful connection between different tribes and is a key benefit of diversity management.

Since tribal behavior is innate and race defines a dominant tribal affiliation for most people, employee-resource groups are a good way for a company to create a communications path by allowing people to recharge their tribal batteries in a productive and beneficial way for the company. People are going to group by tribe anyway, so why not make it an asset by facilitating the process and asking the "tribes" for things like business ideas and recruits?

A good book to read to learn more about this is Dr. Beverly Tatum's Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Dr. Tatum, currently president of Spelman College, talks about all races and the psychological implications of isolation.

Although some people welcome unsolicited questions about their race (or orientation, age, gender or disability), most people find it a burden. In my opinion, many inquiries are made to establish "place" to "put you in it."

Some inquiries, however, are innocent curiosity. For example, my wife and I have two adopted daughters from China. One day, a 5-year-old guest asked my wife if "she knew" that her friend/our daughter "had Chinese eyes." My wife answered kindly, "Yes, that's because she's from China." Our little guest said "Oh!" and went back to play.

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