... on the train, I was reading...

...and stumbled onto this...

"what does part Indian mean? (Which part?) ... You don't get 50% or 25% or 16% treatment when you experience racism - it is always 100%"

From an art installation by
Joane Cardinal-Schubert

This is just the question I ask myself when someone tells me they are half something.

Half what?

Invariably when someone says, "half," it is because "mixed" or "ethnic" is not readily apparent. That is to say, in their everyday life, they do not have to tell any one "what" they are.

Half and part are euphemistic ways of saying mixed, but emphasizing a part... the white part in "everyday" (read: passing mode) and the ethnic part ... well that's the sticky part, right?

I have almost always heard it from folks who say or do questionable things as a way of validating the action or their perspective as qualified to speak for people of color.

Yeah...back to reading and analyzing that reading...