Racially Mixed People

Bill of Rights for Racially Mixed PeopleBy Maria P.P. Root

I HAVE THE RIGHT...
-Not to justify my existence in this world. -Not to keep the races separate within me. -Not to be responsible for people's discomfort with my physical ambiguity. -Not to justify my ethnic legitimacy.
I HAVE THE RIGHT...
-To identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify.-To identify myself differently from how my parents identify me.-To identify myself differently from my brothers and sisters.-To identify myself differently in different situations.
I HAVE THE RIGHT...
-To create a vocabulary to communicate about being multiracial.-To change my identity over my lifetime -- and more than once.-To have loyalties and identification with more than one group of people.-To freely choose whom I befriend and love

Maria P. P. Root, PhD, is author of"The Multiracial Experience: Racial Borders as the New Frontier"