I get so annoyed when I hear the media using racial/ethnicity labels to describe people; as if that were a relevant fact to any news story.  Again a few days ago I heard a news reporter mention that Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, is the first  “mixed race” member of the British royal family.  Because her father was Caucasian and her mother was African-American they felt it necessary to put a label on her ethnicity. In these times we should be morally and socially evolved enough that sub-divisions of the human race is not required. 

It is even harder to follow how the media define these new labels that they constantly create for their news stories. The press chose to label the past president of the US, Barack Obama as America’s first black president.  His parentage ( Caucasian mother and African father) enabled the press to label him as “black” rather than “mixed race”. 

So, let me see if I can decode the definition behind these two media labels. 

Media definition of  “mixed race” –

If your father is Caucasian and your mother is African-American your media label is  “mixed race”.

Media definition of  “black” –

If your mother is Caucasian and her father is African-American your media label is  “black”.

Confused yet? I am.