Monday, February 28, 2011

Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage

I
HAVE THE RIGHT...
Not to justify my existence in this world.
Not to keep the races separate within me.
Not to justify my ethnic legitimacy.
Not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with
my physical or ethnic ambiguity.
I
HAVE THE RIGHT...
To identify myself differently than strangers
expect me to identify.
To identify myself differently than how my parents
identify me.
To identify myself differently than my brothers and
sisters.
To identify myself differently in different
situations.
I
HAVE THE RIGHT...
To create a vocabulary to communicate about
being multiracial or multiethnic.
To change my identity over my lifetime--and more
than once.
To have loyalties and identification with more
than one group of people.
To freely choose whom I befriend and love.

© Maria P. P. Root, PhD, 1993, 1994

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