What Are You, Tiger?

Former President Richard Nixon is on record as supporting the termination of pregnancies of bi-racial couples. A Justice of the Peace in Florida recently refused to marry a bi-racial couple. What did they have in common? Their "concern" over the psychological welfare of the children of mixed-race couples.

Are their concerns justified? Do children of mixed-raced couples grow up "conflicted and unhappy"? Do they have more identity problems than other kids?

I am embarrassed to confess that there was a time - long, long ago - when I believed that they do. I was young, inexperienced, uneducated, and wrong. I am now old, experienced, educated, and right. At least according to an article in the Journal of Social Issues.

Well, technically, the article doesn't say that I am old, experienced or educated. But it does say that I am right when I now say that having mixed-raced parents is not a precursor of adjustment problems for a child.

The research says, "Multiracial kids have few problems establishing a comfortable identity, particularly if they embrace all aspects of their heritage rather than just one."

POP QUIZ: Would you say that Tiger Woods has done okay establishing his identity?

He is a great example of a multiracial kid who has "embraced all aspects of his heritage." He is Caucasian, Thai, Chinese, African American, and Native American. When he was a teenager he got tired of people asking him, "What are you, Tiger?" He made up a term to include every aspect of his heritage: "I am Cablinasian."

Children who have no reason to believe they will have identity problems will not have any more identity problems than most kids.