The Importance of Including Multiracial People in Discussions of Racial Reconciliation

“Multiracial” people tend to be an excellent source of intercultural insights for two reasons. First, most interracially married parents have learned how to maneuver cultural “differences and conflicts,”[1] and their offspring are the beneficiaries of this wealth of practical information. Second, they have weathered more than their fair share of ethno-cultural issues as well. Multiethnic people who understand the value of the important skills they have developed will prove to be indispensable in the arena of race relations and racial reconciliation.

            In my opinion, one important key to improved race relations is not pretending that cultural differences do not exist, but learning how to view these differences through the proper lens. Beverly Tatum, an expert in race relations, wrote, “My White college students sometimes refer to someone as Black in hushed tones, sometimes whispering the word as though it were a secret or a potentially scandalous identification. . . . Of course, sometimes one’s racial group membership is irrelevant to the conversation. . . .  But when it is relevant . . . we should not be afraid to do so.”[2] We must not be afraid to discuss issues related to ethnicity, and multiethnic people can help us to broach this often uncomfortable subject because of their innate expertise.

First, multiethnic individuals tend to be what ethnologists refer to as third culture people.[3] That is, their “lives span two cultures”[4] due to their exposure to, and their negotiating of, their parents’ diverse backgrounds.[5] If acculturation to both sides of their heritage is thorough, they will be able to see intercultural interactions from multiple viewpoints. Since a lack of understanding and a failure to communicate are two common problems when it comes to ethnic relations, multiethnic people are useful resources when inevitable cultural disconnects occur. Proper understanding is fundamental to racial reconciliation, and biracial individuals who are adept at “reading” diverse cultures can help different groups to understand each other.

For example, a matter that may cause consternation and disagreement is whether or not people should present identification at voting booths. An Anglo may see this topic as a non-issue and wonder why anyone would object to implementing a procedure that will ensure the integrity of the voting system. On the other hand, a person of color who recalls that minorities have not always possessed voting privileges might see the requirement of photo identification at the polls as another means by which to disenfranchise Black voters and to suppress their voice.[6]  A Black-White individual stands a better than average chance of understanding both sides of this debate, as well as helping to explain the differing positions to people who may have no clue what drives the opposition view. Of course understanding an alternate opinion provides no resolution in and of itself, but it is the groundwork for conflict resolution.[7]

Second, multiethnic people who are comfortable in two cultures are in a good position to relate well to people from both of their parents’ backgrounds. The apostle Paul noted the importance of this skill:

For being free from all for all, I enslaved myself so that the many I might gain. And I became to the Jews like a Jew, so that I might gain Jews. To those under the Law as under the Law, not being under the law, so that I might gain those under the Law. To those outside the Law as outside the Law, not being outside the Law of God but under the Law of Christ, so that I might gain those outside the Law. I became to the weak as weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all so that I might certainly save some. But all that I do is for the gospel, so that I might become a partner of it (1 Cor. 9:19-23).

Properly trained, multiethnic people may more easily apply this passage to their lives than a monoethnic individual.

Paul’s point in this paragraph is not that anything goes. After all, just because members of any particular culture chose to adopt a specific practice does not mean that this custom is acceptable. Rather, Paul emphasized that all believers are under the Law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21), meaning that Jesus’ followers do not have a license to disobey the Lord’s commands because of the grace that God has shown them (cf. Rom. 6:1-2). Paul did not speak in 1 Corinthians 9 of actions that God views as wrong, but rather ambiguous aspects of culture for which there is no biblical mandate.

Multiethnic Christians, therefore, are integral to dispelling the well-intentioned, yet faulty mindset that society should employ a colorblind mindset. God had gifted them with ethno-cultural insights that would be foolish for the church to overlook. Multiethnic people deserve a seat at the table of reconciliation discussions because many of them have accomplished in their personal lives what we long to implement in society at large.

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[1] Kathy Russell Cole, Midge Wilson, and Ronald E. Hall, The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color in a New Millennium, rev ed. (New York: Anchor Books, 2013), 138.

[2] Beverly Daniel Tatum, “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations about Race (New York: Basic Books, 1997), 37.

[3] Saenz, Hwang, Aguirre, and Anderson, “Persistence and Change in Asian Identity,” 177.

[4] Marth M. West, “Teaching the Third Culture Child,” Young Children 56.6 (November 2001): 27.

[5] Missiologists refer to people with stakes in two cultures as “150 percent persons.” Monoethnic adults and their children who find themselves in dissimilar cultural-linguistic contexts fit the criteria for being third culture people. See Sherwood G. Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers, Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnation Model for Personal Relationships (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), 124.

[6] “Should Photo ID be Required to Vote?” U.S. News & World Report, http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-photo-id-be-required-to-vote (accessed December 8, 2017).

[7] While Christians do not have the liberty to violate biblical principles, certain cultural practices and points of view are ambiguous in nature. Personal identification at a voting booth is one such example of a scripturally ambiguous issue.