I found Aisha Khan’s, What is ‘a Spanish’?: Ambiguity and ‘mixed’ ethnicity in Trinidad to be quite interesting. Khan asserted that there was a “middle ground” in discussing Trinidadian ethnic and racial identities. She mentioned two categories: racial and color. When I think of a race, I mostly think white or black, dark-skinned or light-skinned, but Khan argues that there is so much more than that. There is a compromise between black and white when assessing one’s appearance. I also found it interesting when she further broke down ‘appearance’ into internal and external facets. It made me think, “How do I see myself?” versus “How do other people see me?” When I think about it, ‘mixed’ and ‘colored’ are used interchangeably around me, but this is incorrect. This brings me to my question; What does it truly mean to be of mixed heritage? and Is there a politico-cultural agenda behind procreating with a member of a different nationality, if so what?
I agree, I was also really interested in Khan’s essay, “What is ‘a Spaish’?” In the United States, there is such a binary of race that it almost seems like you have to be black or white. Much of this comes from the rule of hypodescent, which was never present in Trinidad so it makes sense that the ideas of race there are less black-and-white.