Who's to say if someone is Black or White or PURPLE??

Who's to say if someone is Black or White or PURPLE??
There is a woman on a show that I watch that is Biracial. A trip to the message boards about the show reveals how much hatred and bigotry is still running rampant in this country. One of the topics led me to ponder how Biracial Americans view themselves and define their cultural identity.

The first issue that focused on her was the question of "What is she"? I think the posters are looking for her racial identity. WHen I hear this, I'm divided on the subject. My first instinct is to think we should live in a world where it doesn't matter. But, I know that it does. Then I wonder if people mean, is she black or white. Well, she is both.

Regardless of how she identifies herself, she is Biracial, part White and part African American. I don't even like saying that because both of those halves are made up of likely many ethnicities. She could be a bit Greek and a bit German or some Irish or some Native American. We are more than those labels.

It seems that there is some truth to the thought that Biracial people walk a thin line between both Blacks and Whites, but I think they fit in both and on their own as multiracial people. Whereas, I have witnessed for myself the pressure that African Americans place on Biracial people to identify themselves as being African American, I rarely have seen Whites look at someone like Halle Berry and ask, "Why doesn't she say she is White"?

However, when Mariah Carey came out with her first record, most African Americans ( as written in articles and discussed widely after an appearance on the SOul Train Music awards) knew that she was at least part African American and thought she was distancing herself by not saying that she was Black. Was she? Shouldn't she be able to be Biracial and call it a day?

The One drop rule in this country says that she cannot. With one drop of African American blood in her veins, she is Black. What I don't understand is why the reverse isn't true. If someone has one drop of White Blood in them, why aren't they to be considered White?

Just things that make me go hmmmmmmm....