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I’ve gotten the same question many times … at school, work, getting off the streetcar (seriously), etc. Honestly, some days I just feel like being more specific than others.</p>
<p>What’s even stranger is when your entire, extended family, for the most part, has that ambiguous look, and you unequivocally identify with being black, but it’s just too confusing for some people. Never mind about me, but yes, I’d say that you can identify as being black if you feel black (I know that sounds kind of strange).</p>
<p>Here’s my sort-of-cynical answer: white people won’t ever consider you white unless they’re somehow [fooled</a> into thinking you don’t have black ancestry](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_(racial_identity)]fooled”>Passing (racial identity) - Wikipedia). I don’t think [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_drop_rule]one-dropping[/url”>One-drop rule - Wikipedia]one-dropping[/url</a>] is right, but it already influences how a lot of people interact with each other, so if you had to choose one racial description, you could only really “get away” with putting black.</p>
<p>I know that I certainly can’t say that I’m white. But that’s probably because if I went to where my family has come from historically (Louisiana), I’d be called on that pretty quickly. That being said, the whole culture within my family is more black than anything, so how I choose to identify isn’t really up for much debate in my mind (though, hypocritically, it has been). If I had one black parent and one white parent, it’d certainly be different, as I wouldn’t want to - in my opinion - effectively disown either.</p>
<p>Man, I could probably write a really long essay on this kind of stuff if I had to.</p>
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