Is the Definition of 'Race' in Need of Revision?

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary the three traditional primary divisions of race is Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid, which divides the races into three basic groups: white, black, and yellow. (Where do biracial and multiracial fit into this definition?)

Live Oak, FL (PRWEB) July 10, 2006 -- Jeanette Cooper, author of Wall of Color, (ISBN: 1-4241-2441-7) which is a novel characterizing the isolation and loneness of a young biracial woman as she searches for a sense of identity, believes that the definition of ‘race’ needs revising. In her opinion, the standard definition has become a misnomer and is archaic, with the exception of being a sort of geographical bookmark to depict the regions where the distinction of races originated. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary the three traditional primary divisions of race is Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid, which divides the races into three basic groups: white, black, and yellow.
   
The definition (from Webster’s New World Dictionary) includes any of the different varieties or populations of human beings distinguished by
a) physical traits such as hair, eyes, skin color, body shape, etc., although many subdivisions of these are also called races
b) blood types
c) genetic code patterns
d) all their inherited characteristics which are unique to their isolated breeding population.
   
From the perception of this extended definition, one gathers there is no longer any clear or distinct description for the word ‘race.’

The time was, before travel and human migration became so commonplace, geographical groups of people were more easily classified by a specific race under the three primary divisions. However, with the fast pace of travel between countries throughout the world, and especially here in America where inter-marriages have become commonplace, the racial classifications of Caucasian and Negro are no longer all encompassing as a classification system. There is a new race of people in America -- the unrecognized race -- the biracial/multiracial group.

For the sake of racial clarity, many believe that an additional race distinction is necessary to classify the biracial/multiracial group. There is much argument now among biracial persons and groups in favor of such an additional distinction, or an elimination of race distinctions altogether. Imagine the confusion of a biracial person when trying to select a race status, and the choice is either white or black. An example where this has occurred in the past is the U.S. Census (the next one is scheduled for 2010).

Society has generally linked biracial persons (white and black) with their darker kin. This of course, might be considered discrimination under today’s lawful standards of equality. Thus, by the same token, it seems also discriminatory to ask biracial/multiracial persons to choose a race description between the white or black race when they are a mixture of both?

Yellow implies the Mongoloid race; yet, a biracial person’s skin often has strong undertones of yellow. While the racial distinction may be obvious in the genetic characteristics of a bi-multi-racial person, the implications underlying a race classification system is not to stereotype biracial/multiracial persons, but rather, to create a race distinction through which they can identity.

Jeanette Cooper recently wrote a book, Wall of Color, about a young biracial woman who shelters numerous emotional storms, all through her young life, dealing with her color. Rosemarie Delrio’s story teaches us all an important lesson -- the term ‘race’ is in transition in America. Bi-multi-racialism is multiplying at such a rapid rate that in another few years a large majority of Americans will no longer be black or white; but rather, belong to a middle group who adds another race distinction to the three traditional races.
   
Moreover, bi-multi-racialism further implies ethnicity. While the group lives within the cultural heritage of our nation, they nevertheless fall into an ethnic subgroup all their own since they are a mixture of black and white. Thus, merged into two ethnic worlds, the group gives birth to a completely new race description, as well as a set of identity problems which parents are not trained, or prepared to deal with. From this perspective, attention is specifically directed to young children.

Jeanette’s book, Wall of Color (www.bestpublishedbooks.com) was inspired by a young fifth-grade biracial girl who shared her sense of isolation, loneness, her absence of identity, and the deep feelings of not belonging to either parental race. She presented a first-hand look into the agonies of a biracial child’s life. While Jeanette’s book addresses the issue indirectly through fiction, the implication of a distinct ‘other’ race and ethnicity is found throughout her book. The differing feelings on the subject of biracialism by the book’s characters are reflected through a controversial backwash of emotions that affect all their lives.

As a teacher who worked with several biracial children over the years, Jeanette Cooper learned that one of the commonalities among them is an apparent sense of loneness characterized by alienation from their peers, both at school and in the neighborhood and community. Her years of teaching taught her that such feelings of emotional deprivation breeds emotional disease that can affect a child’s life to such a negative degree as to subordinate all their finer qualities. The very human analysis of that concept is that little children suffer dire pain of which there are no pills or prescriptions for a cure. From that point of view, biracial children, and biracial society as a whole, are in much need of group situations that bring them together among themselves, as well as with both black and white children in peaceful and cooperative settings.

Research indicates that educators are now far more aware of the problems existing among biracial children and are putting forth much effort to create programs, activities, and learning strategies, methods and situations that address some of the problems of isolation and identity. As an educator herself, Jeanette congratulates all other educators for the enormous responsibility entrusted into their loving care, and for the hard work and wonderful results they generate. Jeanette still subscribes to the quote, “teaching children is not a job, it is a joy.” The real test comes in providing for all children in such a way, as to open up positive outlooks that promote the greatest goals and accomplishments in their lives.

In conclusion, Jeanette invites you to read her book, Wall of Color, and put yourself in the place of the beautiful young protagonist, Rosemarie Delrio, and form your own opinion about biracialism and the sense of being suspended between two races with no common ground to bridge the two. Jeanette Cooper can be contacted via her website: http://www.bestpublishedbooks.com

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