Her wavy, shoulder-length hair was the colour of polished mahogany.

~ William Hjortsberg

William Hjortsberg Afro Hair Beauty Biracial Brunette Darkhair Hair Mixedrace Mulatto Romance Romantic

I was examining the perfumed, coloured candles guaranteed to bring good fortune with continued use when a lovely mocha-skinned girl came in from the back room and stood behind the counter. She wore a white smock over her dress and looked about nineteen or twenty. Her wavy, shoulder-length hair was the colour of polished mahogany. A number of thin, silver hoops jingled on her fine-boned wrist. May I help you? she asked. Just beneath her carefully modulated diction lingered the melodic calypso lilt of the Caribbean.

~ William Hjortsberg

William Hjortsberg Afro Hair Beauty Biracial Brown Skin Mixedrace Mulatto Romance Romantic Description

Do I have to admit that I'm half Cuban and half American,or should I go even further, and explainthat Dad's parents were born in the Ukraine,part of Soviet Russia?Or am I just entirely American,all the fractions left behindby immigration from faraway nations?

~ Margarita Engle

Margarita Engle Biracial Biracial Protagonist Culture

When there is a gap—between your face and your race, between the baby and the mother, between your body and yourself—you are expected, everywhere you go, to explain the gap.

~ Danzy Senna

Danzy Senna Biracial Identity Multiracial Race

I saw her note the way I hovered over the various ethnicities on the form. First the 'white' box, then to the airspace over the 'black' box, a kind of momentary hesitation, a protest of stillness, a staring into the abyss of everything I did not know about myself. She, like me, was made of halves.

~ Olivia Sudjic

Olivia Sudjic Biracial Biracial Protagonist Ethnicity Identity Olivia Sudjic Race Sympathy

You can't always choose which. Sometimes you have to BE which.

~ Jonathan R. Miller

Jonathan R. Miller Ambiguity Biracial Identity Mixed Race Multiracial

The city of Paris, France, became a place of refuge for biracial Americans during slavery and at the time of the Harlem Renaissance for black musicians, fine artists, writers and others seeking opportunities to practice their craft free from American racism.

~ Sandra L. West

Sandra L. West Antiracism Biracial Day To End Racism Diversity France Harlem Renaissance Human Migrations Human Rights Day Humanism Migrants Multiculturalism Multiculturalismo Paris Paris Attacks Racism Refugees Slavery

Okay. I’m not a white male. At least, not predominantly so. And as I mentioned before, I’m in an environment right now where race is really important. See, Chinese men are not that physically intimidating. We’re not that tall. We’re not that built. We have exactly one thing going for us in a fight — that our opponent recognizes that there’s a possibility, no matter how remote, that we might know kung-fu.

~ Phillip Andrew Bennett Low

Phillip Andrew Bennett Low Biracial Chinese Chinese American Humor Kung Fu Libertarian Political Racism

I fucking hate it, the idea that something like that would be trivialized down to a fucking hashtag. I mean, there's a ton of biphobia — people refuse to accept bisexuality as an actual sexuality. And I'm biracial, but also white-passing, which is a unique perspective. So these kids say, like, Oh, fucking tri-bi Halsey! She'll never miss an opportunity to talk about it! I want to sit them down like a mom and go, Six months ago you were begging for an artist that would talk about this shit! But then I do, and you say, 'Oh, not her. Someone else.

~ Ashley Frangipane

Ashley Frangipane Bipolar Biracial Bisexuality Halsey Sexuality

Is Obama Anything but Black?So lots of folk—mostly non-black—say Obama’s not black, he’s biracial, multiracial, black-and-white, anything but just black. Because his mother was white. But race is not biology; race is sociology. Race is not genotype; race is phenotype. Race matters because of racism. And racism is absurd because it’s about how you look. Not about the blood you have. It’s about the shade of your skin and the shape of your nose and the kink of your hair. Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass had white fathers. Imagine them saying they were not black.Imagine Obama, skin the color of a toasted almond, hair kinky, saying to a census worker—I’m kind of white. Sure you are, she’ll say. Many American Blacks have a white person in their ancestry, because white slave owners liked to go a-raping in the slave quarters at night. But if you come out looking dark, that’s it. (So if you are that blond, blue-eyed woman who says “My grandfather was Native American and I get discrimination too” when black folk are talking about shit, please stop it already.) In America, you don’t get to decide what race you are. It is decided for you. Barack Obama, looking as he does, would have had to sit in the back of the bus fifty years ago. If a random black guy commits a crime today, Barack Obama could be stopped and questioned for fitting the profile. And what would that profile be? “Black Man.

~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Biracial Black Mixed Race Multiracial Obama Race