A couple of months ago, I stumbled across the BBC Two report "Twincredibles", which gave an insight into the lives of mixed-race twins. The term mixed-race twins basically means that one child is dark-skinned, whereas the other one is light-skinned. This is extremely rare and therefore extraordinary.
One set of twins shown in the report was James and Daniel Kelly, two very different brothers from South East London not only differing in terms of skin color but in terms of character traits. James being confident and academic; Daniel being shy and more athletic. But what struck me the most was the fact that Daniel, the light-skinned twin, fell victim to severe bullying at school because of his Afro-Caribean origin.
Everything went well until someone in school figured out that James was Daniel's fraternal twin brother. Then verbal assaults and physical attacks started. From that point on, Daniel was labeled black despite the fact he is obviously a white person. The big issue is that James was accepted by the bullies as a regular black man in a black man's body but on the contrary, they considered Daniel as a black man in a white man's body.
But, what is it that makes the white man white; the black man black? The explanation for the difference in the twins' skin color is very simple. The twins' father Errol passed on his African DNA to James and his European DNA to Daniel.
I think people may felt threatened by him. Or even slightly cheated on? For they didn't notice any difference and they probably think they should have since, though on the surface Daniel is a proper white man, he is black on the inside. They regarded him as "dirty white", as the twins' brother Jordan put it. Here it's really not the skin color that identifies you, it's your genetic make-up and how others perceive it. So Daniel got marginalized by his white fellow students to make sure that he is not part of their white community because of him being the offspring of a black man that cannot be pure white. This whole distinction is ridiculous. To me, the idea of impurity proves that being black or white is nothing but a social construct. Somehow people desperately need to categorize others, need to identify the other in order to finally make sense of their own being.
I wonder what it will be like when mixed-race couples get more and more prominent and what it would be like when this whole idea of purity collapses.
Will we ever get rid of stereotypes and labels?
Will we ever stop considering "the other" as something alien?
But, what is it that makes the white man white; the black man black? The explanation for the difference in the twins' skin color is very simple. The twins' father Errol passed on his African DNA to James and his European DNA to Daniel.
I think people may felt threatened by him. Or even slightly cheated on? For they didn't notice any difference and they probably think they should have since, though on the surface Daniel is a proper white man, he is black on the inside. They regarded him as "dirty white", as the twins' brother Jordan put it. Here it's really not the skin color that identifies you, it's your genetic make-up and how others perceive it. So Daniel got marginalized by his white fellow students to make sure that he is not part of their white community because of him being the offspring of a black man that cannot be pure white. This whole distinction is ridiculous. To me, the idea of impurity proves that being black or white is nothing but a social construct. Somehow people desperately need to categorize others, need to identify the other in order to finally make sense of their own being.
I wonder what it will be like when mixed-race couples get more and more prominent and what it would be like when this whole idea of purity collapses.
Will we ever get rid of stereotypes and labels?
Will we ever stop considering "the other" as something alien?
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Sources:The Guardian
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