This statement shows that Nicole's mother values her child's identity and rejects derogatory labels like "mulatto." By refusing to use that term on Nicole's birth certificate, she demonstrates a commitment to honoring Nicole's mixed heritage and individuality. This helps us understand Nicole's viewpoint in "Nicole," where she emphasizes the importance of self-identification beyond societal labels, advocating for personal agency and a rejection of reductive categorizations.
My mother is white and my father is black. I don't consider myself biracial, or black, or white. I consider myself Nicole, although when we visit my white grandparents' house and there are other family members around like my cousin, it is he who is seen as the "good" child. He is pure white. I am the black sheep of the family, just like my mother is the black sheep of her family for dating my father. In society, I am made to feel like a black sheep for precisely that reason of my white mother and my black father getting together and having me, which was considered wrong at the time and still is in some people's minds. I am the walking representative of that wrongness.
We all have the ability and the resources to be individuals, but when I walk down the street I am clearly identified as a black person and am discriminated against accordingly. I don't blame my parents and I don't blame people for their ignorance. Nobody has done anything wrong here, but it's like having to work at a job I didn't apply for. I alone have to come up with the added strength to deal with racism, and that isn't something I bargained for when I came into this world. I don't draw from the loving union my parents had when they got together to make me; I draw from the love I have for and within myself. Basically, I'm the one who is going to be here in the end. I'm the one who is going to have to defend myself.
I can tell my mother when I am discriminated against or whatever, but I'm the one who has to look it square in the face.
I think when people act stupid they are holding themselves back and ultimately losing out.
I'm the one winning in a situation where someone is acting stupid toward me. I have the advantage because when we throw down, in the final analysis I'm the one with the knowledge and the sense of self. The racist is the one who will forever have in his or her mind that I am bad and that they are good, which is a lie. It's just not true. Period. End of story. I get so tired of people believing in their heart of hearts that they can win or achieve anything by making someone feel inferior. I think that's how I have developed my defense mechanisms against racism; I just got so tired of hearing the rude remarks and having teachers and counselors tell me that there wasn't anything I could do about it. Because there most certainly is.
Nicole.ArtA.Lrg.jpg
When I was younger, my teachers would tell me not to beat up these kids who were saying racist things to me because then they would win twice: I would look like twice the animal they were telling me I was. What made me mad was that I didn't think they were winning at all, never mind once or twice, and I felt compelled to do them the favor of making that completely clear. My teachers would tell me just to walk away, that I would come off more powerful if I just walked away, which, in retrospect, I suppose was true, but it took me a long time to truly believe that. It's all well and good in theory, but it doesn't exactly eliminate the feeling of having a knife twisted around in your gut. Now, as I've grown older, I find that it is really important to just be focused and to stay as positive as I can. I do still get angry, though. I have a real temper. Emotions and theory don't really go hand in hand, so it can be very difficult for me sometimes. But I have learned from my mistakes.
On the census checkoff lists that offer little boxes next to black, white, or other, I refuse to check just one box. I check them all off because I am all of those things.
My mother told me that when I was born and she was filling out my birth certificate, the nurse asked her to write in mulatto, which my mother did not do. I think the word is incredibly negative and degrading. It sounds like a sickness. The part of me that is black-identified doesn't fit into a category or a box. Society has such awful ideas about black people, and I don't want society to decide for me what it means to be black. When I think of being black, I think of kings and queens and history and beauty and authenticity.
You can call me black if you want to, you can call me mulatto, you can call me biracial, you can call me whatever you please, but I'll still be Nicole. Are you going to remember me as "that black girl"? No, you're going to remember me as Nicole if you've taken the time to learn my name. And those who haven't taken the time, I don't care to be remembered by. It's Nicole today, it'll be Nicole tomorrow, and it'll be Nicole when I die. I don't care if you have something against black people, or if you have a problem with interracial relationships, or if you don't like biracial kids. I don't care. But if you are talking to me, call me by my name.
Question
On the census checkoff lists that offer little boxes next to black, white, or other, I refuse to check just one box. I check them all off because I am all of those things. My mother told me that when I was born and she was filling out my birth certificate, the nurse asked her to write in mulatto, which my mother did not do.
What does this statement show about Nicole’s mother? How does it help you understand the viewpoint expressed in “Nicole”?
make it short
1 answer