"The arrival of...Asians and Latinos thus complicates the black/white portrait of America. If a black/white color line no longer characterizes the nature of racial/ethnic relations in the United States...where will the line be redrawn?" (Rosenblum and Travis p. 95).
My first reaction to the above quote is: Let There Be No Line!!
By saying this, I am not trying to ignore the fact that the people of the U.S. have diverse backgrounds. It isn't about ignoring differences; however, why do we need a color line? This line would only be a spectrum of color, and I don't need to know where I am on that spectrum. My placement on that spectrum shouldn't change how I live my life or how others treat me or how I treat others. Is this idealism? Perhaps, but it shouldn't be.
As this portion of the book points out, as people increasingly marry others from various backgrounds and/or as people have children together, babies with multiracial backgrounds are born. This is occurring at an increasing rate in the U.S. and in reality it has been happening in the U.S. since people from Europe first arrived.
The authors discussed that people who are white Americans are also possibly multiracial (unless everyone in your background is from the same country/region). Since race is a social construct that evolves over time, it seems naive that white Americans are simply considered white but not necessarily of multiracial backgrounds. If I am English, Czechoslovakian, German, Native American and probably much more, wouldn't one think that I was multiracial and not just white?
When in time did we begin noting people as being multicultural? Doesn't it seem very probable that people have conceived children with others from other backgrounds forever? Are we not all multiracial because of this?
Rosenblum, K. E., & Travis, T. C. (2012). The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability (ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
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