Geez, how did I miss this topic the first time it came around? I must have been asleep at the keyboard.
The subject of race is certainly a can of worms. So many angles to look at, questions that can never be fully answered and on and on. But being "high yella" bi-racial black & white I guess I should weigh in on this discussion.
Though my parents were not together long, my (white) Irish-American mother who raised me remained sensitive to racial dynamics thereafter. I feel extremely fortunate to say that incidents of racial bigotry directed at me personally during my childhood were few and far between and very isolated. Of course the relative lightness of my skin had a lot to do with it, but there were other factors. After leaving the Midwest when I was 9 y.o., we lived in Denver, where the pace is slower and attitudes milder compared to other more volatile sections of the country. We lived in a middle-class, racially mixed neighborhood and I always attended racially diverse schools, where I had black friends and white friends. Many other biracial people I've met described feeling torn between worlds or unable to fit in amongst either community but that was not the case with me. For high school Mom sent me to a private school located in a wealthy section of town where affluent blacks lived alongside "new money" white families in big beautiful houses. Many of my black schoolmates, like their white counterparts, were the privileged sons and daughters of successful businessmen and community leaders. This had a huge impact on me in that it gave me a picture of black American life far different from the stereotypical ghetto/housing project scenarios constantly played out in media and pop culture. Though my sexuality and effeminate behavior proved to be a frequent stumbling block and the source of much aggravation, none of my schoolmates ever gave me a problem on the race issue. The few episodes of racial animosity I faced always involved adults, never the kids at school who didn't seem to care. While Mom never went out of her way to introduce black history to me herself, I never felt I was missing out on anything because I had black friends, I went to their parties, listened to their music and understood their references. Likewise my white friends felt comfortable with me and never drew a distinction between my background and their own.
Ironically it wasn't until I came here at the age of 20 that I began to see an uglier picture. One situation I encountered frequently (and still do sometimes) was people freely airing their bigotry right in front of me, obviously not realizing my half-black ethnicity -- thus placing me in the position of either ignoring their remarks or challenging them. Still though, compared with things that darker African-Americans face, that's nothing and I'm very very lucky.