Taye Diggs Fires Back: Black or White, It's Up to My Son!
(Photo: Getty)
Taye Diggs says he's black and he's proud... but he doesn't want his son viewed as just black.
Wait, we know, when taken out of context it sounds bad. But Taye is trying to set the record straight and shut up the haters by tweeting Wednesday:
"I am a proud black man. I want my son to grow up to be aproud black man if he so chooses. He has a mother who is white. He has every right to be just asproud of his mother's 'blood' as well. Please wake up, people. It's not that deep."
If you've been out of the loop, here's what's going on. Taye's been making the media rounds promoting his new children's book, Mixed Me. It's dedicated to his 6-year-old biracial son Walker.
Sweet, right? Well, things quickly turned bittersweet, rubbing black folks the wrong way during his interview with
“When you [call biracial kids Black], you risk disrespecting that one half of who you are and that’s my fear,” he explains. “I don’t want my son to be in a situation where he calls himself Black and everyone thinks he has a Black mom and a Black dad, and then they see a white mother, they wonder, ‘oh, what’s going on?‘”
He even used President Obama as an example.
"Everybody refers to him as the first Black president. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that it’s interesting. It would be great if it didn’t matter and that people could call him mixed. We’re still choosing to make that decision, and that’s when I think you get into some dangerous waters.”
What do you think? Does Taye have a point?
