Straddling the color line

Calling my mother Chinese is by no means a bad thing -- besides the fact she's not Chinese. \nWhen the cootie girl of the class makes a connection between ethnicity and the Ramen noodles in your pink and white Cabbage Patch Kids thermos, knee-jerk reaction tells your eight-year-old mind to defend your roots -- or at least your mama.\nYou can't blame me for getting indignant.\nBetween playing kickball with nuns and defending champion-status in blackjack, my third-grade repertoire included sad attempts at deflecting cultural misnomers.\nEleven years later, I've learned to incorporate love into my love/hate relationship with racial categories. Quite honestly, I love the fact that the African-American literature section at Barnes & Noble makes finding Toni Blackmon and Joan Morgan a cinch. But I hate the fact that "African-American books" are enough of a novelty to be confined to a 10-foot by 10-foot shelving section.\nLooking back, I can laugh at homegirl's noodle-Asian-Chinese equation. "Chinese" was just an ignorantly-used, generic term for "Asian." (My mom's Filipino.) And besides that, Ramen noodles say little about Asian cuisine. She may have been better off mislabeling me as a college student.\nI can't deny it though, Ms. Thing's comments embarrassed me enough to end any requests for noodles and led me to consume 25-cent milk and bologna sandwiches with ketchup for the remainder of my elementary school years.\nBack then, I had no clue that my face didn't blend in with the others. \nAge and experience, however, has led me to recognize and celebrate my differences. FYI -- I'm a self-described Blasian (Black + Asian); you might even call me a Blackapino because I'm as Black as I am Filipino. \nI'm fine with sounding like multiracial poster boy Tiger Woods. I clapped when he said:\n"Growing up, I came up with this name: I'm a Cablinasian," in a 1997 Oprah appearance. \nTo be precise, "Cablinasian" incorporates his Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian heritages. Brotha-man must have been a box-checking fool when he filled out the 2000 Census (the first Census to recognize multiracial individuals).\nTiger wanted the media to recognize both his black and Asian heritages.\nAnd they did. \nBut just because CNN and the New York Times respect an individual's pursuit of multiracial identity, doesn't mean the masses will. In fact, groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People heavily criticized the new Census' use of the "check all that apply" practice. \nThey argued black representation would be diluted and therefore negatively affect policies dependent on statistics. \n"Make sure you put down what you're perceived as," said NAACP member Hilary Shelton in an article for usatoday.com.\nApparently Shelton goes by the "one drop rule," an idea which originated in slavery and says anyone with one drop of "black blood" is black. \nI've heard the rule one too many times --usually from folks whose parents are of the same ethnicity, but not always.\nMy dad has black and Turkish origins but identifies himself as black. I don't disagree with his way of identification, but I've chosen to go the Tiger Woods road, even if it means I'll be called a traitor, much like my brethren Blasian.\nIn the next Census, I'll take Shelton's advice and "put down what (I'm) perceived as:"\nBlack and Asian.\nI've defended myself at the lunch table too many times not to.