BY: Denver Sean
Published 9 years ago
Taye Diggs wrote a children’s book, Mixed Me, based on his son’s experience as a biracial kid.
While doing press for the book, he spoke about his inspiration and why he feels it’s important for his biracial son to embrace being ‘mixed’.
He told The Grio:
“When you [call biracial kids Black], you risk disrespecting that one half of who you are and that’s my fear. I don’t want my son to be in a situation where he calls himself Black and everyone thinks he has a Black mom and a Black dad, and then they see a white mother, they wonder, ‘oh, what’s going on?'”
“[Mixed Me] is kind of along similar lines for my son, even though in this day and age he’s going to have less of an issue being mixed than I did. It’s a book of self love and self appreciation and knowing that you are special regardless of what people will say about you because people will always say stuff.”
Using President Obama as an example, Taye pointed out the fact he’s referenced as the first black president, despite the fact he’s biracial.
“As African-Americans we were so quick to say okay he’s black he’s black, and then there were the white people who were afraid to say he was biracial because who knows. Everybody refers to him as the first black president, I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that it’s interesting. It would be great if it didn’t matter and that people could call him mixed. We’re still choosing to make that decision, and that’s when I think you get into some dangerous waters.”
Watch Taye’s full commentary below.