Portrayal of Biracial Characters in Media The most common way of identifying and categorizing people is through their race. The particular race or ethnicity of someone can lead to many stereotypes and preconceived notions about them. In the media many times white people are perceived in more favorable light with many preconceptions seeing them as intelligent and more economically stable. On the other hand many black people are seen in the opposite light being thought of as poor and unintelligent compared to their white counterparts. According to the 2000 census it is estimated that 2% of the population claims to be two races and of that .28% are black and white. This grey area of sorts provides a conflict for biracial people because they hold the heritages of two groups on opposite ends of the social spectrum that have a history of…show more content… Biracial people with lighter complexions are able to move between their racial identities. Lighter skinned people are better able to associate with their white heritage which can be an advantage. However, biracial people with a much darker complexion not only are less likely to be able to move between the color boundaries as a white person but are also less likely to be seen as biracial and are labeled solely as black with the same stereotypes gives to them.
Biracial people are in a unique subcategory of their own because at times they are often excluded from their other racial identity groups. Biracial people are often in an uncomfortable position of feeling not enough of one group and being excluded and left alone or to find others who are dealing with the same issues. The feeling of not being good enough for a particular group can be shown to be heavily impacted based on physical attributes and media portrayal of light skinned qualities that are different than what “real” black people are