Are you mixed?

“So where you from?”
“I live in D.C. In southeast.”
“No. I mean, where are you originally from? Are you Dominican?”
“Nope.”
“Pamanian?”
“Still no.”
And so on and so forth as we play Name That Nationality through a few more countries and implied ethnicities until at last I reveal that I’m just Black. Plain ol’, regular ol’, everyday ol’, grade A basic African-American. No frills, no spices, no extra ingredients added.

Interesting concept this article talked about...read more over at Clutch Magazine.

[source]

How many of you have had a conversations along those line?  I know I have before.  Especially in college.  It was in college that I first experienced the weird questions, like"Are you mixed with Chinese?" "Are you mixed with Japanese?" Like, who asks that when you first meet someone?  I always reply "No", and then...


I'm intrigued, like why did you you think that?  I always got the same response, "It's your eyes"...now granted I've always know that I've had slanted eyes, well somewhat...but it was really nothing out of the ordinary to me, my sister has them also. Second thing that occurred to me, is I had a Black and Japanese friend, and I never questioned him--I'd known him for months before I realized he was multiracial. [read, I seen a picture of his mom]  He was darker than me, and just looked like a regular 'black' boy--didn't make him less interesting to hang around because I thought he was plain ol' black.


It's funny, do you have to be 'mixed' with something in order to stand out?  Are more African-Americans feeling pressed, because everyone is trying to cling to some 'roots' they have?  My big question is, why does it ever matter...doesn't change the type of person you are, right?

Thoughts?