“Multiracialness”

This excerpt, written by eleventh-grader LaMer Steptoe, from National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, is about how LaMer decided to redefine herself. While filling out a form she was required to check a box labeling her racial identity. Like most multiracial Americans, LaMer did not want to check just one box. She thought only checking one would seem like she was denying the other half of her family. She explains that she’s not white or African-American or Native American. She is just American. In the end she decides to pick the box marked D for none of the above because her race is just plain human. What LaMer did was completely reasonable and acceptable and people should follow her example of not caring so much about skin color.

This may sound bad but I have always wondered what multiracial people mark when they have to define their race. After reading this story though I have realized it really doesn’t matter. People spend so much time worrying about skin color when in reality it doesn’t matter at all. We have been pretty much trained to pay attention to skin color but times have changed and people need to change too. Skin color really doesn’t matter. Saying that it matters is like saying the color of your toothbrush matters and you can’t use it if it isn’t a certain color. It’s just ridiculous and truly makes no sense.

Race is just a color. Every person has the same exact thing on the inside so why does the outside matter so much? I know it’s cliché but it’s the truth. If we were made so we all were the same color would people still find something to dwell on? People of every race are good, bad, and everything in between. There is no reason someone should not like another because of his or her skin color. Just like LaMer said, our race is not a color; it’s human.