Believe it or not, the norms of American society – alongside the slavery-adjacent laws instituted within the earliest American states and the widespread falsities of the constructs of race – once insisted that as little as one single drop of blood determined whether a living, breathing human being was African American or not. Can you imagine that? One’s ability to live in freedom, one’s ability to live a life of dignity and (relative) safety, one’s ability to pursue the earliest iterations of the American dream (read: the achievement of money, power, privilege, and patronage) were all entirely reserved for White American men of a certain class/status. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, even poor or working-class White men were systemically prohibited from voting access and, therefore, socially relegated to the long list of American citizens considered all but useless. Of course, enslaved Black Americans – men, children, and especially women – were placed at the very bottom of America’s VIP list. I’m not at all certain we were even on that list.

Yet, here we are: well into 21^st Century America. It should come as little surprise to anyone that in the postmodern age, racial discrimination remains every bit as pernicious as it is prevalent, every bit as unrepentant as it is unresolved. As the hip, young folks say these days, IYKYK. If you know, you know.

And yet, the vast majority of Americans don’t know. Miscegnation is real. The evidence is all around us. Virtually all of us encounter biracial people on a constant basis. We socialize with them. We attend Church services with them. We work with them. They are our friends, our family members, our classmates, our colleagues, our fellow servicemembers, our neighbors, and our fellow townspeople.

This matter is extremely personal and extremely important to me. My son and my daughter are biracial. The very idea that someone – anyone – would feel entitled enough to question the blackness of my beloved children infuriates me to infinity and beyond. The very concept that someone – anyone – would feel delusional enough to attempt to someday quantify who my children love and whether their relationship is socially justifiable enrages me beyond description. As preposterous as those analogies are, there exist individuals and groups of individuals who seek to define and/or regulate what Blackness is and who qualifies as Black remains a seeping wound from America’s original sin of slavery.

Right now, as you’re reading this, at least one-half of the American media apparatus is currently spreading the false narrative that the Vice-President of the United States of America may or may not be Black after all. According to those so-called journalists, Madame Vice-President allegedly woke up one morning years ago and decided to begin identifying as Black. Apparently, being the second African American US Senator or the first African American Attorney General of the great state of California or the first African American District Attorney for the city of San Francisco had nothing to do with nothing. Clearly, Madame Vice President’s membership in the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. or her graduation from Howard University (one of the most elite Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America) are to be ignored. Ironically, Madame Vice-President is vilified by one-half of the American media apparatus because she had the unmitigated gall to marry a Jewish American man over 10 years ago; I assume because (according to them) she didn’t have the common decency to marry within her own race. If someone as accomplished, brilliant, aspirational, and inspirational as the Vice-President of the United States is subject to the racial madness that is miscegenation, then no one is immune. No one is safe from it.

The game has been changed. The goalposts have been moved from one point to another point, from one stadium to another stadium, and from one town to an entirely different town. Once upon a time a single, solitary drop just to be used to classify a human being – or at least 3/5^th’s of a human being as Black. Nowadays, having one parent be Black – which by my math makes someone undeniably Black regardless of their eye color, hair color, hair texture, complexion, skin color, style of dress, faith tradition, or anything/everything else – is no longer the metric. In 2024, Blackness is supposed to be assigned arbitrarily and exclusively by non-Black people? Are you joking? Are you serious?

It is no wonder at all, then, that those who are actively being terrorized – as well as those who have been historically terrorized – deal with profound trauma on a regular basis. Trauma can generate pain beyond one’s ability to express in words. Unacknowledged and/or untreated trauma can easily lead to anxiety, self-loathing, depression, suicidal ideations, and a wide variety of other mental health diagnoses.

For these reasons, I truly believe that every African American man, woman, and child should be assigned at least one mental health specialist. While being Black is a God-given privilege, it is also a living nightmare in this all-too-often cold, bitter, and broken world of ours.

As time goes on, it is my not-so-humble opinion that the unholy cruelty that is foundational to the societal default setting of the White majority to even pretend to seek out and acknowledge the humanity of their own non-White brothers and sisters in Christ. There is a fundamental truism that transcends organized religion and spirituality alike. It is the ultimate logic bomb. That truism simply states that one cannot claim to love God while also claiming that he or she loves God’s people. The inverse is equally non-negotiable and non-debatable: One cannot claim to love God’s people while also claiming that he or she hates God. So then, why is it that so many Americans who are utterly convinced that their words and actions uphold the very best tenets of Christian virtues and values are usually the very same people who propose policies, norms, and laws that are permeated with racism and xenophobia?

Sadly, miscegenation is at the very core of intra-racism – the existence of hatred within the Black community based primarily on skin color, hair texture/color, eye color, and other external physical features between wholly Black people and biracial Black people. The whole “good hair” theorem is one of the more well-known tools weaponized among Black folks during the extremely bleak days of slavery. Another theorem was the cultural algorithm between the worth of house Negroes and field Negroes. Of course, the darker skinned Black men, women, and children were assigned to the treacherous environments of working outdoors: the heat, humidity, cold, inclement weather, insects, and so on, while the lighter skinned Black men, women, and children were assigned the duties of working within the house. The labor was just as extensive, but the biracial Black folks working indoors were often extended slightly better treatment and better food within a better working condition by their captors. Black folks didn’t organically create these battlelines among themselves; they were intentionally and deliberately created by the slaveowners to destroy any attempt by the enslaved persons to plant the seeds of common cause and unity among themselves.

As it relates to the miscegenation, perhaps the answer lies in the single rap verse consisting of three words offered to us all by Q-Tip in De La Soul’s classic song “Me, Myself, and I” when he said, “Black is Black.” Facts.

Black is black. Be it one drop, 10%, 25%, 50%, or 100% Black is black. Black folks naturally have every conceivable hair color, every available grade of hair, every possible eye color, and every hue of skin pigmentation from whiter than White to black as night. Racist folks, you really need to check your tone and your tenor because you never really know if the person you’re talking to or laughing with is actually Black. Be cool. Don’t be a fool. As I said before, miscegenation is real.

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