Taye Diggs, We Need to Talk About Biracial Blackness

[dropcap1]A[/dropcap1]s any musical theatre Blerd can tell you, Taye Diggs has been holdin’ it down for a minute. Whether you remember him from the classic starving artist story in Rent, the dazzling gender adventure of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, or even non-musical works like How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Private Practice, the brotha has proven his talent time and again. All that to say, we should know by now that just because you got the pop culture resume don’t mean you can’t slip up and set off the Twitter fingers. In the past week news outlets have been having a field day with Diggs’ answers in this recent interview with The Grio regarding the racial identity of his son, Walker, whose mother is famed actress Idina Menzel. What the news has not been talking about, however, is the reactions of children of different race parents or the parents themselves to this conversation (you know, the people whose life experiences are actually most connected with this issue). Fortunately at Black Nerd Problems staff members Nicole Homer, Leslie Light, and Lauren Bullock sat down to reveal three different perspectives on what the recent backlash against Diggs’ comments means for them and their racially diverse families. Nicole I used to say I was mixed when I was younger and my reasoning was much like Diggs who said, “When you [describe biracial kids as Black], you risk disrespecting that one half of who [they] are and that’s my fear.” I used to worry about my dad, that there was …