We have a president who is mixed-race (though many people seem to forget that), many prominent figures in Hollywood, and according to National Geographic by the year 2050 the "average" American will be mixed as well, so why does the idea of being anything other than homogenous still make so many Americans so uncomfortable?

Having grown up in the United States with a mother who is of Haitian, Native American, Mongolian, French and German-Jewish ancestry, and a father who is of English, German, French, Scottish and Norse ancestry, I'm often asked about my race even though I never make a big deal out of it. I tend to think that this is in part due to genuine curiosity, but it has also become an innate need in our society to categorize people in order to make sense of the world around us. While it annoys me to no end to have people ask, "What are you," before they even know my first name, this aspect of being mixed pales in comparison to how many people in the US seem to think that I, along with millions of other Americans, are a mistake and a blight on society.

Just recently there was an advertisement created by Old Navy featuring a family consisting of a black woman, a white man, and their mixed race child -- a family that looks an awful lot like mine. While the ad at first glance is seemingly innocuous (and might I add everyone in it was quite attractive) many Americans didn't seem to think so.

It was not too long ago that another advertisement that was harmless in nature conjured up hateful thoughts by portraying a mixed-race couple and their child, an ad by Cheerios that they refused to take off the air despite many publicly declaring that they will boycott the cereal company. Thankfully neither companies decided to pull the ad, and yet they seem to be doing just fine not receiving business from creepy racists who liken mixed-race relationships to pedophilia. I mean seriously. What. The. Actual. F*ck?

While it is difficult to even dignify the particular level of idiocy these people have with a response (I can feel my brain cells depleting with each new tweet I read), it is important to draw attention to the fact that racism is still alive and well in this country. While these arguments are coming from a place of ignorance and fear as well as seriously violating several logical fallacies we must not, as a nation lose sight of the fact that these types of people still exist.