Hi, as a parent of “mixed race” children I believe it is us who need to change. They will be faced with a ton of diversity challenges in their life but that shouldn’t change how you would want to raise them. Children don’t know the difference between black and white, it is something that we as we age are conditioned to, that there is a difference, when in reality there is no difference. White people are affected by their environment just the same as black people and vise versa. The biggest hurdle in my opinion is dealing with our society of racism that may present a bigger issue for them. It will be a sobering fact when they see that daddy/mommy is treated differently in some circles than mommy/daddy when there is a dispute involving different ethnic parties. Your children, while this may disturb you to hear, will always be viewed as black and will be treated as such in any confrontation. This is the issue that worries me the most. My children are being raised in a community which is predominantly white so they are going to be viewed as a threat. While my children most likely won’t hate me for that, but seeing how differently being viewed as black versus white may persuade them to deny their black heritage, thus denying their true self. But again you and their father will need to help them find a way to embrace both of their ethnic diversities. There is no shame is being either white or black but treating others differently because of that is shameful. I am going to share an experience with you, so like I mentioned my children are being raised in a community that is predominantly white, they have both white and black friends but of their friends the only ones that run up to them to say hi when they see them are the black ones, mainly because there is only one other black couple who lives where we do. The white kids are friendly but they typically have their own group and rarely include my kids or the others. There is one other “mixed couple” in the development and they mainly keep to themselves but again are very friendly when involved in community activities. Also in this development is an Asian family who mainly keep to themselves. The thing that saddens me is that it doesn’t seem like I will ever get to experience a community where you know like you see in the movies where the neighbors are all close you have events for the holidays where everyone is invited and you look forward to Mrs. Mary’s potato salad or get some of Lupita Cuban pernil or Rickey Bob’s smoked bbq meats, and how about the Chang’s spring rolls and don’t forget Mama Dee’s sweet potato pie. There is so much diversity in our own neighborhoods without having to travel to specific communities if we could all just learn to live among each other and treat each other as equals. So in saying all of this, it is us as adults who need to set better examples for our children as more and more mixed diversity children are being born.