Published on Tuesday, August 26, 2008
By DAVID OLSON
When Sen. Barack Obama takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Thursday night, he will be heralded as the first black candidate to accept a major-party presidential nomination.
For many multiracial Americans, Obama -- the son of a white mother and black father -- will represent something more: A symbol of their growing visibility in a country that has long viewed race primarily through the prism of black and white.
Yet Obama's self-identification as black after years of struggling with the matter illustrates the complexities surrounding racial identity. Multiracial Inland residents say they, too, have wrestled with their identities, and with society's insistence on forcing them to choose a race instead of allowing them to embrace all of their backgrounds.
"A lot of people struggle with it, but it shouldn't be a struggle," said Maria Shepard, of Highland, who is half black and half Filipina. "It's society that makes it a struggle."
