Mixed families aren’t rare in America anymore.  Adults choose who they want to love and marry, often regardless of race.  Celebrities are doing it, urbanites are doing it, and even my neighbors have chosen their partners based on the quality of their character instead of the color of their skin.  These partnerships produce children that are a mix of their parent’s heritages.  The adults have chosen their relationship and can rationalize who they are and where they come from in terms of their racial culture.  But the kids?  The children of these unions are a mixed bag, not fitting easily into either culture.  How do you parent a child that doesn’t firmly identify with either culture, where their identity is rooted in the best and worst of not only one race, but TWO?

Where do bi-racial or multi-racial kids fit in the landscape of a predominantly white America?  And as a parent, how in the world do you raise a child of mixed race to feel firmly grounded in both races AND to feel secure in their place in the world as a child, adolescent and teenager?  What if the child identifies more with one race than the other?