[RainStorm]

The questions in the title. I just like to get some opinions on what some adopted /prospective adoptive parents think is a bi-racial child, what makes a child bi-racial(or mixed raced) in your opinion.

[arkansas parent]

In my opinion any child that has parents of two different races. My son is bi-racial. He is AA/CC.

[lishop]

For our homestudy our social worker put that we are open to an AA infant or a biracial infant. In professional terms (at least at the two agencies we are being sent to) biracial means AA and any other race. She said that she had a family receive a baby that was 1/2 AA and 1/2 Haitian and a family that had a baby 3/4 AA and 1/4 Phillipino (sp?) and she had to amend their homestudies to say they would accept a biracial baby.

Melissa in Oregon
(Cade, 6 bio; Maya, 5 Liberia; currently adopting from the US -- AA infant)

[musemoon]

My agency states that it is a child of a mixed ethnicity. My kiddo is AA/CC/Latino and considered bi-racial. Technically she's mixed race...but whatever.... she's mine :-) YUMM!

[DianeS]

Where I live, a child of "mixed race" usually has a large percentage of Hispanic ancestors. While a "bi-racial" child is one with an African-American near relative. Weird how those two words have the same technical definition, but are used to mean such different things in real life here.

I suppose to me, personally, either would simply mean a child who grew up knowing they did not fit neatly into one of the ever-present "which defines your race" checkboxes.

[Wisdom]

"Bi" means two so bi-racial would mean two races. (It can be CC & Asian, CC & Hispanic, AA & Hispanic, AA & CC, AA & Asian, or any two races.).

[Linny]

I had this discussion with a friend of mine who's also a caseworker. I don't like the term, 'mixed' as I think it sounds like a mixed drink, you know? And heaven knows, we're ALL 'mixed'. There's no pure race of human beings, period.

That said, I don't really care for the term, 'bi-racial' either. Her comments to me were, 'We use the term multi-racial."
That term then, can describe any/all colors of anyone. After all, when an agency has to start giving fractional descriptions of babies: 1/2 this, combined with 1/4th that and possibly 1/6 of something else....it seems ridiculous in my mind!
I'd like to see all of us try to put all of our 'races' into fractional amounts!!!!!! (Whew!)
And certainly, I really don't think there are any bi-racial people anywhere!

Jumping off the soapbox now..... (sorry)

Linny

Sincerely,

Linny

[srusse24]

Originally Posted by Linny

I had this discussion with a friend of mine who's also a caseworker. I don't like the term, 'mixed' as I think it sounds like a mixed drink, you know? And heaven knows, we're ALL 'mixed'. There's no pure race of human beings, period.

That said, I don't really care for the term, 'bi-racial' either. Her comments to me were, 'We use the term multi-racial."

I agree that the term "mixed" gives me a bad feeling. I think I read in Does Anybody Else Look Like Me, or maybe another book... don't remember, that the word "mixed" has a negative connotation. "Multi-racial" is a more accepted term.

That being said, in my opinion, multi-racial or biracial means a child of more than one race. Most agencies I have found though seem to only use the term to describe a child with some AA heritage.

[bromanchik]

Originally Posted by Linny

That said, I don't really care for the term, 'bi-racial' either. Her comments to me were, 'We use the term multi-racial."
That term then, can describe any/all colors of anyone.

I like multi-racial. Actually I think we are all "multi-racial" to some degree. I found out recently that some of my "Slovak" ancestors were actually Roma. (Which explains our coloring and facial features - the Roma migrated to europe from India) Being Roma, especially in late 1800's Europe, was to be in the lowest minority. When my family came here, they vowed not to reveal their true background to avoid the persecution they faced in Slovakia.

How many AA are fully of African ancestors? You were considered "colored" in most states if you had 1/16th AA blood. Some states still have that on the books. Hispanics may or may not have a mix of African, Spanish or indigenous ancestors. There are CC with European, Indian (in my case), Native American, and hispanic ancestors. I won't even get into the diversity present in "Asian" people.

When people try and guess my heritage I get Spanish or Italian. Multi-racial, bi-racial, mixed race are all social contructs that have little to do with anyone's real ethnic heritage, but more in how people are socially identified.

[mommmmy]

I agree here.

It's interesting...when we got into the adoption world we learned that "bi-racial" was typically aa/cc only. I have always found that to be very odd.

[DebCsMom]

I agree, the term "Bi-Racial" means any 2 races together. In adoption terms, it GENERALLY means AA and any other race.

Our DD#1 is Bi-Racial, she is 1/2 CC, 1/2 AA & Am. Indian. I wasn't given a percentage of Am. Indian.

DD#2 is also considered Bi-Racial, although we mostly say she is AA. She is 7/8 AA & 1/8 Japanese.

Deb

[HansenFamAZ]

I have never thought much about it until we found out this week our DD who is 7 weeks old is not "1/2" German, but is "1/2" Armenian. (We are currently working with a 2nd presumed BFather.) When her first "BFather" was 100% German she was not anything other than CC. ("Low German" we hear it's called when they have dark hair, eyes, etc.) But now the hopefully "real" BFather is 100% Armenian and the comments we get is that she is "bi-racial." Is there a term for children that are CC and of middle eastern decent?

[makarios79]

Originally Posted by RainStorm

The questions in the title. I just like to get some opinions on what some adopted /prospective adoptive parents think is a bi-racial child, what makes a child bi-racial(or mixed raced) in your opinion.

A biracial child in my opinion is a child whose mother is one race (or biracial or multiracial) and his father is another (or biracial or multiracial)...but in the adoption world the kids who are most commonly referred to as biracial are kids with one CC parent and one AA parent.

My 2 oldest boys are biracial....one CC parent and one AA parent.

[rredhead]

It's not actually a matter of opinion. The word biracial means: "consisting of, representing, or combining members of two separate races: a biracial committee on neighborhood problems."

Before a few months ago, no one had ever said to me that biracial meant AA/CC. I always assumed that biracial meant what the dictionary says it means: being of 2 races. So Hispanic/AA, CC/Hispanic, Korean/CC, all of those are biracial.

However, "mixed" does seem to be used more with black & white babies than with, say, Hispanic & white babies. But that may just be particular to where I live. The people who say "mixed" tend to be black. I've never experienced it as a negative. Indeed, I tend to like the term "mixed" more than the politically correct African-American/Caucasian. For starters, my son isn't African-American. His birthgrandmother was adopted - she's probably half-black (or "mixed with black" as her daughters say) and was born in Germany. So, does that make Jack 1/4 African-German? I'll just go with black & white thanks.

Multiracial is "of, pertaining to, or representing more than one race." More of us are that. It's all very annoying, because people aren't really Caucasian either. It's all a vast tapestry.

[Linny]

It's all a vast tapestry --rredhead

And you'll hear an 'AMEN' from me on that one! BTW.....I'm with you as well on the AA child who's never been TO Africa, let alone BORN in Africa, KWIM?
I've read and heard the term, 'Black American'....which I tend to think more aptly describes----if it's really necessary to try to pin-point someone at all---Because, as you said------ It's all a vast tapestry

Sincerely,

Linny