Straddling a Barbed-Wire Fence

We say this country is free. That everyone is free to do what they want to do. Free to become who they want to become. Free to determine their own identity.

And perhaps it's true if you're willing to firmly plant your feet on either side of the black-white divide.

But for those of us who don't fall so neatly in place, for those of us whose identities lie within the shades of gray our society tends to ignore, such freedoms remain a distant reality, a future dream. Preserving and celebrating our unique identities is an ongoing struggle--one that may win battles (e.g. the option to identify as multiracial on the census 2000, the celebrity of an outspoken mixed person--Tiger Woods, Mariah Carey, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Vin Diesel), but which has yet to win the war (e.g. broader acceptance and validation of the identities that prove the world is not just black or white).

I will keep straddling the barbed-wire fence dividing black and white--it is an arbitrary divider, informing each side on how to speak, act, dress, even dream in a way that is different from the other. My insistence on doing so may cause me pain, it will surely win me enemies, but I will do it for me, for my children, and for their children to come.

I strongly believe that the hard-earned freedom to be who we are, to shape and celebrate our whole identities is truly worth fighting for.