I Respectfully Disagree

A New York Times Op-Ed pleas for mix raced parents to insist their children identify as black.

Mixed-race blacks have an ethical obligation to identify as black — and interracial couples share a similar moral imperative to inculcate certain ideas of black heritage and racial identity in their mixed-race children, regardless of how they look.

The reason is simple. Despite the tremendous societal progress these recent changes in attitude reveal in a country that enslaved its black inhabitants until 1865, and kept them formally segregated and denied them basic civil rights until 1964, we do not yet live in an America that fully embodies its founding ideals of social and political justice.

There doesn't seem to me any compelling moral argument here. And if there were, the argument seems to only apply to blacks, since the foundation of the argument rests on the issue of slavery and special injustices faced by black folks in America. I suppose I bring a different perspective being of mixed race Asian descent, but it strikes me that the continued emphasis on racial difference only slows the rate at which we can become a post-racial society -- which seems to me the end goal.

The dissidents in the old Soviet Union would often act "as if" they lived in a free society. That was their way of rebellion. I've always liked this attitude. Why not act "as if" we are in the post-racial society we all want and therefore make it a reality without getting permission from all who benefit from racial discord?