Yes, he is biracial. No, we don't care.

"Isn't it time for language to move on?"  This is a statement made by Marie Arana, one which is quite unimportant.  I feel that this is an unnecessary point, because it seems that the English language is in a good place right now, and she doesn't explicitly state any of the negative consequences that would occur if language didn't move on.  

First, she goes into the details on Obama's race, as well as her own.  She says that while the misconception is that Barack Obama is our first African American president, in truth, he is our first biracial president.  When reading this, I ask myself the same thing I am supposed to ask myself every time I write a paper - "So what?"  And that is exactly what I was thinking.  So what?  Nothing major, or even minor is happening because he is (part) black, although that is debatable.  It is not affecting any of his major decisions, and one way or another, it should not be affecting ours.  So, so what if we call him the same thing that he refers to himself as?  To me, making a big deal of this is just as moot a point as making a point of the fact that his middle name is Hussein.  So what?

She then proceeds to take the reader through the history of Hispanic-Americans, and the different bullet points along the timeline that defined the history of their race.  I understood that this was meant to make the point that racial groups and their rights are important, and that it never hurts to know the deep rooted history of any race, however, it failed to make me understand why someone's full racial heritage must always be acknowledged.  

She then goes on to point out all the celebrities who are biracial, but referred to as black, making the same case she initially made about Obama, that people shouldn't be taken at face value.  But what does it matter?  Why should we honestly care?  Race and ethnic background shouldn't play any kind of role in daily life or human interaction, other than cultural experiences (black churches, hula dancing, etc.).  So it doesn't matter if we know that Mariah Carey is half white, (to anyone but her and those who she shares in those cultural experiences with) because it should not play any role in how we see or interact with her.  People believing that she is entirely black, or calling her black with the knowledge that she is half white does not matter.  It brings absolutely no harm to Carey or society.  

In one of Arana's final points, she mentions that someone approached her saying  she was half African-American, half German, but no one can see that she is German, only Black.  As it so happens, all people judge by first appearance in some way.  If any person is asked to take a look at a dark skinned person, and is asked what race they are, the person is going to assume the other person is Black.  There is no harm in this (unless the person is a racist, but that's a separate issue entirely).  If someone is a lighter skin tone, we are likely to believe they are white, and if they are darker, we are going to believe they are black.  If their bicultural background is made common knowledge to the public, the words we call them will still remain the same.  This is a sign of neither racism nor unsophistication.  This is simply us calling it how we see it.  It is also a way for us to not have to say twelve syllables every time we want to refer to someones race.