My grievances concern the plight of mixed race people of African descent in the United States. Due to the sociocultural effects of the One Drop Rule, we are not seen as mixed race.

If a Eurasian or Mestizo says they are mixed, they are believed.
If a Mulatto, Blasian or any others who are part Black say they are mixed, they must be lying in the eyes of White Americans or "full of self-hatred, having a superiority complex and pushing colorism" in the eyes of Black Americans. And, that's just the way it is because society says so, because of slavery and hypodescent.

This is what being a mixed race person of African descent in the United States is like: A perpetual, non-stop racial attack on the validity of whether or not someone is truly mixed race, because they are part-Black and the United States adopted the One Drop Rule as a legal principle and cultural outlook, centuries ago, to further perpetuate slavery. This is not a part of America's conversation on race. Biracials and Multiracials of African descent and their plight means nothing to the United States Government. It's not important enough and doesn't fit the narrative of the political voting blocs. There are no Biracial interest groups or lobbies.

America prides itself on rights, freedom, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the right to self-determination. These things are the core values of the United States and are enshrined in the Constitution. Yet, we probably never be happy or be able to determine our own destiny. We do not even have our own identity. No other nation on the face of the Earth has the One Drop Rule or propagates the concept of hypodescent culturally.

When a mixed race person tries to join the Unite States Armed Forces, they are forced to pick one category out of three: Black, White or Hispanic. And if you do not pick, they will pick for you, regardless of how many family photos of you and your parents that you pull out or how you attempt to explain yourself racially to the recruiters. Even though the 2010 Census allowed people to choose more than one race and the 2020 Census went into significantly more detail, providing options for ethnicity, the United States Armed Forces still refuses to adopt more racial categories or allow a person to choose more than one race. This is discrimination and forces someone to deny half or more of their genetic makeup and ethnic identity. And for obvious historical reasons, stemming from slavery, this occurs exponentially more when the person is part-Black and has features of the African American phenotype, as Americans do not see a Mulatto, Blasian or any other part-Black mixed people as mixed-race. This is intentional racial bigotry against mixed race people of African descent.

When a mixed race person is arrested, detained or incarcerated, they are classified as Black if they are of African descent. Many male prisons segregate by race and the Corrections staff will classify Biracials as Black and put them with Blacks, where there will be potential for abuse or conflict, motivated by anti-Mixed and actual colorist based sentiments towards mixed people for being lighter skinned, along with the false assumption that mixed people have a superiority complex, which are prevalent narratives and views in the Black community and in the United States at large, leading to significant anti-Mixed prejudices. Mestizos have protections from this because they have their own racial category, Hispanic. Mestizos and Eurasians were never targeted by the One Drop Rule, nor were they accused by Indigenous and Asians, respectively, of self-hatred for identifying as mixed race.

When a mixed race person of African descent goes to a hospital or a doctor's office in the United States, they are automatically classified as Black, even though this can endanger our lives, endanger our medical safety and is willful lying by omission. If a mixed race person has cancer and needs stem cells or needs bone marrow, I ask you, what will you give them? Hispanics can receive donations from compatible Hispanics. The Eurasians can get donations from compatible Eurasians. Part-Black mixed race people are not recognized as mixed race because of the One Drop Rule's effects on the United States. Donations have to be racially specific, meaning you have to go find a Mulatto donor who is a match for a Mulatto. Mixed race patients need mixed race donors. In the event a mixed race person of African descent is miscategorized or not categorized, out of either ignorance or willful intent, it endangers them and subjects them to unnecessary stress from racial discrimination in the medical environment when their health should be the primary focus.

When a mixed race person of African descent tries to apply for a job, college or fill out various applications or documents in the United States, they have to fill out a racial category section that sometimes is not considerate of any mixed race individuals, period. However, Eurasians, Mestizos or any other group of mixed race people that is not of African descent, will be seen as "Other." We will be just lightskinned Blacks will a complex. In the Southern United States, some states do not even acknowledge "Choose all that apply" or enable people to choose more than one option on these forms. Especially those like us, as these states were One Drop Rule states.

The United States has never acknowledged the One Drop Rule's damage to us, nor has any state in the United States. The indoctrination is so significant and pervasive that many mixed race people of African descent will not identify as mixed race. They see themselves as just Black because that is how society sees them and what the One Drop Rule instigated and did to us. The One Drop Rule is a part of America's culture, as well as its legal history. Any attempt to address the One Drop Rule will incite a unjustified and irrational response from the American people against us for speaking up. That is why I have decided to file this petition, in the hopes the government will do something to right this wrong. If the government addresses it, perhaps people will not react negatively to our advocacy for Biracial and Multiracial categorization, as well as our dissent towards the cultural view of hypodescent in the United States.

The United States Government's refusal to apologize or address the issue only further rationalizes and solidifies it as part of the American culture as time passes. America has apologized and even provided reparations to the interned Japanese-Americans who were detained during World War Two. America has apologized for slavery.
Why does America outright refuse to apologize for the One Drop Rule and the stripping away of the identity of mixed race people? Why does America continue to perpetuate the One Drop Rule?
It would be nothing to apologize.
Or to federally adopt and enforce Biracial/Multiracial categories, nationwide.
Or to simply reinstate the Mulatto category of 1850.
This costs nothing. Two more categories in the racial category space are not going to bankrupt the United States.

Where are the government studies on mixed race demographics as far as mental health, physical health or other fields are concerned, such as the studies done for other ethnic and racial groups? The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study is significantly outdated, severely limited and there should be more studies, if any ever took place, by the Federal Government on mixed race populations exclusively. All of them, not just those of African descent. It is asinine there are so many monoracial and composite ethnic groups in this country and they have absolutely no representation or research whatsoever here. There are no federal government medical studies on Black/White biracials or any biracials. So, how will we know what diseases we are most likely to get? How will we know anything about ourselves if you won't research it and don't see it as worthy of research?

In 1988, the United States could have adopted Biracial and Multiracial categories. They willfully decided not to. Then Congressman Augustus Hawkins and Congresswoman Diane Watson were the most vocal in their dissent against Biracial categorization, because they were worried about the impact of Biracial categorization on the Black community and the political power of said community and did not care about our community at all or what we wanted for ourselves, at all.
"Choose all that apply" is a cop-out. Even when you check all those little boxes, someone can always go behind you and change it. In medical records, legal documentation and police reports, they always will go behind you or disregard what you identify as and change it anyway, especially in Southern states. This is why outright Biracial/Multiracial categorization is the only solution and needs to be a reality. There needs to be an actual category and it needs to be an option on every piece of identification and every document that has a racial categorization section, in every state. This would not only benefit us but all mixed race ethnic groups.

Our identity belongs to us. It is for us to decide. No one has moral authority to tell us what we are and what we are not but us. Neither does any nation, state or territory. It would be self-hatred to reject our mixed race identity, to pick a side when we have our own side and to see a wrong occurring in the present day and say nothing about it. We don't need a mouthpiece. We can speak for ourselves. We are mixed race and we deserve to be seen as what we are, like all the mixed race people who are not of African descent and aren't robbed of their identity because of ideas and mindsets from the 1700s. It is my hope that the grievances herein are seen as legitimate and that one day, in the distant future, someone will address these issues and we will no longer be subject to the effects of the One Drop Rule.

Links For Context:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-racial_American
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/12/one-drop-rule-persists/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html
http://sociology.iresearchnet.com/sociology-of-race/one-drop-rule/
http://dev.prwatch.org/news/2008/11/7932/how-far-have-we-really-come-one-drop-rule
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Racial_Integrity_Laws_of_the_1920s
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090807184847AAV1i8q
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-the-eye-the-beholder/201104/the-one-drop-rule-how-black-is-black
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/plessy-v-ferguson-who-was-plessy/
https://www.onyxtruth.com/2017/03/04/one-drop-rule/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Prison/comments/54pxuw/how_are_mixed_race_people_viewed_in_prison/
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wur7WderZpo
https://www.quora.com/How-do-mixed-race-prisoners-decide-which-prison-gangs-to-join?share=1
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080520220919AA8ZHqZ&guccounter=1
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-wrong-to-feel-like-an-outcast-because-I-am-mixed-race
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07mqrbn/-being-mixed-race-means-i-could-die
https://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild/publications/racial-reorganization-and-united-states-census-1850-1930-mulattoes-half-br
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biracial_and_multiracial_identity_development
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1zqunj/til_that_the_onedrop_rule_meaning_that_a_single/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mixedrace/comments/hf8wo7/does_anyone_else_see_how_racist_the_one_drop_rule/