When Skin Privilege and Racial Belonging Collide

Posted in Articles, Media Archive, United States on 2016-01-25 17:20Z by Steven

When Skin Privilege and Racial Belonging Collide

(not) Mixed (up): A Biracial Swirl in a Black and White World
2016-01-25

Shannon Luders-Manuel

I’ve been thinking a lot about color / race privilege and why it’s such a hot button issue for the biracial community. In a Facebook group that I moderate, for mixed race women of African-American or African descent, members have been arguing about issues related to color privilege and mulitiracial privilege: a) whether these are separate privileges, b) whether monoracial people also have privilege, c) whether the biracial / mixed race community should shoulder privileges even though we didn’t ask for them, d) whether the black community uses color privilege and multiracial privilege as a way to silence multiracial voices.

For anyone not familiar with the recent discussion around privileges, most noticeably white privilege, this vlog is an excellent place to start

…So why is it so hard for us in the multiracial community, and those with light-skinned privilege, to accept these realities without feeling defensive? Are we just reacting the same way some people do when confronted with white privilege, or does it go deeper?…

Read the entire article here.

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