>Bob Marley was a person of
>mixed decent who choose to
>align himself socially, culturally, politically
>with the blackest among us.

So are you saying Bob Marley wasn't black, or aren't you? And what criteria are you using? Is it based measuring the various percentages of someone's ancestry, or judging how they choose to align themselves culturally?

>As for the tons of issues..well:
>1) in a color struck, color
>caste world with white on
>the top of the totem
>pole - mixed race (as
>the intermediate btwn black &
>white) gets elevated to a
>higher status than nonmixed black.
>Not only within the white
>community but within the black.

Of course, but "mixed-race" children are not the CAUSE of this, they are VICTIMS of it. Non-mixed Blacks are placed at the bottom of this same totem pole, and are exposed to "tons of issues" from there too. Does this mean we should not have Black children? Does having more Black children make the problem worse? Of course not. And neither does having more mixed children.


>2) Historically, black/white, black/whatever mixed people
>have served as a buffer
>or middle class - South
>Africa today being an example.

Again, this proves nothing, except that that mixed people are equally affected by racial politics as everyone else. Having mixed children does not create or perpetuate this problem, any more than having Black children perpetuates white supremacy.

>3) confusion as to what black
>is & means.

Just because someone has a different definition of self than you (or I) does not mean they are confused. Besides, our entire system of racial classification is based on confusion, and has no basis in science or logic. So there can be no absolute truth here.

>4) divided loyalties. Its hard
>to present a unified front
>when you're torn btwn 2
>sides. Hence why many
>of these biracials want a
>seperate category...they don't want to
>pick a side (unlike Bob
>Marley, Malcolm X, Adam Clayton
>Powell, etc.)

The process of self-definition hardly so simplistic. There are far more than two sides for anyone to be torn between, regardless of their racial percentages. How much of a unified front are "non-mixed" Blacks presenting in America right now? Case closed.

Jay Smooth
WBAI 99.5 FM in NY
http://www.hiphopmusic.com

Trying is the first step towards failure. - Homer S.