America is the most diverse country with many different people and different cultures from all over the world; because of immigration. Since immigrants have been more accepted and welcomed in the United States, the numbers of intermarriages and biracial children have been increasing extensively.
Although, multiracialism brings all races closer, some people use their own culture as a standard. These people who hold their unmixed racial lineage as the golden standard often evaluate other races which leads to racial discrimination. This is the main problem that we are facing in America. In the book, Identity Matters by Lillian Bridwell-Bowles, she put together Reginald McKnight’s essay, Mura’s essay, and Alexis’ short story to address this problem and how the writer, the speaker, or the character has affected the society. In the first essay, “Confessions of a Wannabe Negro”, Reginald McKnight was talking about the struggle of being a black student and the journey of finding his true self as a black boy.
People like Reginald McKnight were being mistreated by society because of their skin color and their way of acting. Despite of what his friends were calling him, McKnight just ignored them because he knew that he could never fight back the majority since he was the only black kid at his Catholic school. Born in Germany and attending a white-dominated school growing up, moving to a segregated school was a big change for McKnight. He felt more comfortable around his new black friends and teachers.
But that did not last long, the fact that he didn’t fit in with his other classmates led to harassment towards him. McKnight cites Trey Ellis, who writes, “It wasn’t unusual for me to be called ‘oreo’ and ‘nigger’ on the same day…. I realized I was a cultural mulatto” (McKnight 68). He prefers himself as a cultural mulatto because his behavior was not accepted by the black community.
However, he also cannot be accepted into the white community because he was born as a black male.
