- not to justify my existence in this world
- not to keep the races separate within me
- not to be responsible for people's discomfort with my physical ambiguity
- not to justify my ethnic legitimacy
- to identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify
- to identity myself differently than how my parents identity me
- to identify myself differently than my brothers and sisters
- to identify myself differently in different situations
- to create a vocabulary to communicate about being multiracial
- to change my identity over my lifetime--and more than once
- to have loyalties and identify with more than one group of people
- to freely choose whom I befriend and love"
Multiracial Oath of Social Responsibility
"I want to make a difference in this world. Therefore:
I strive to improve race relations.
I know that race and ethnicity are not solely defined by one’s genetic heritage;
I refuse to confine my choices in love or loyalty to a single race;
I make efforts to increase my knowledge of U.S. racial history;
I know that race and ethnicity can be used as political, economic, and social tools of
oppression.
I recognize the people who have made it possible for me to affirm my multiracial identity.
They are my relatives, friends, and mentors;
They are people who have crossed color lines to fight discrimination;
They are people who identified as multiracial before this choice was recognized;
They are people who have exposed and explained the suppression of multiraciality.
I must fight all forms of oppression as the oppression of one is the oppression of all.
I recognize that oppression thrives on fear and ignorance;
I seek to recognize my prejudices and change them;
I know that it is neither helpful nor productive to argue over who is more oppressed;
I recognize that my life interconnects with all other lives.
I will make a difference!"
