So one of the many awkward about being biracial is that it's kind of a pain in the ass to introduce yourself to someone new. This is mainly because the question that usually first comes up is: "So, what ethnicity are you, exactly?" (there are different, more common ways people ask that question, but this is the nicer, more socially conscious version). Now, if you're most half-black, half-white people (i.e. Halle Berry, Beyonce, President Obama), you can usually get away with just saying "I'm black", because most black and white people look mostly black. It's cool, because it's a quick, simple answer, and you can move forward and move on to a much more interesting subjects, because, quite frankly, speaking about topic of "race/ethnicity" almost always ends up becoming annoyingly awkward or argumentative, unless both people in said conversation are of the exact same race (from personal experience, at least). The same thing happens with topics of conflicting religions, sports teams, video game consoles, or James Bond actors. No good can come of talking about any of these things for extended periods of time..
So when you're a biracial dude, or half-black, half-white, and your appearance doesn't particularly lean towards either of the two ethnicities that you are (i.e. Vin Diesel, The Rock, or yours truly), things can get a little hairy when racially identifying yourself to other people. Especially when you're part white, because that adds yet another annoying part of the identifying process, like "are you Italian, German, Irish, etc"? It turns into you having to speak a very long and weird run-on sentence to someone you barely know. And it gets a little more irritating every time you have to do it.
Personally, I probably could try to get away with just saying "I'm black" and leave it as that, quickly changing the subject to something like how retarded the Twilight movies are (something neutral that we can all see eye-to-eye on), but then said person would most likely pause the riveting conversation about lame movies to ask "hey, if you're black then why do you have extremely light skin and green eyes?" (or they say, "you're so well spoken", but I usually just leave the room after that... unless I'm trying to get laid, but that's another topic) and then the conversation becomes awkward again. So then I have to explain how "I'm actually black and white, with a little german (still not 100% sure about that) and native american splashed in". After I say that, the other guy or gal usually stairs blankly at me for a few seconds processing the weird mixture I just said (not that I blame them) and says either "oh..." followed up with an either longer pause or says "wow, what's that like?".
So, basically, the response to my awkward explanation of why I look the way I do is just as awkward as the explanation yourself, especially when they say "what's that like", because, I mean, what do you say to that? I usually just say "Its cool", because I really want this conversation to move onto something more interesting than my complexion and so I can stop feeling like a piece of lame art at a museum. Though the actual honest answer to that question for me would be "It's cool, until someone like you asks me 'what's that like?', then it's annoying as F**K and makes me lose my train of thought. What ethnicity are you?" I'd probably have no friends and be a virgin if I went with the latter response though.
Really, I just wish we, as a society would stop putting such a huge importance on race and, instead, would just focus on people as...just people. I'll admit, even I do the same thing every once in awhile (yes, I'm a giant hypocrite... Sorry) when I meet someone new, but it's just because the subject of "race/ethnicity" is engraved so far into my mind, in ALL our minds, that I/we can't help it. And I think that's a shame.
On the other hand, "Hey, guess what ethnicity I am!" could be an excellent ice breaker at parties.
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