Actor Taye Diggs says his son, Walker, has the right to identify as white just as much as he does to identify as black.
The actor has hit back after his comments about his son’s mixed race set off a firestorm on social media. He wrote on Instagram, “I am a proud black man. I want my son to grow up to be a proud black man if he so chooses. He has a mother who is white. He has every right to be just as proud of his mother’s ‘blood’ as well. Please wake up, people. It’s not that deep.”
The controversy started after Diggs told The Grio that he he considered his son mixed instead of black, saying, “I think when you [call biracial people black], you risk disrespecting half of who you are.”
Diggs explained, “I don’t want my son to be in a situation where he calls himself black and everybody thinks he has a black mom and a black dad and then when they see he has a white mother, they’re like, ‘What’s going on? Are you ashamed?'”
Several Twitter users, in fact, asked Diggs if he was “afraid” or “scared” that people would think of his son as black, prompting Diggs to write his response on Instagram.
Diggs, who wrote children’s book “Chocolate Me” about a young black boy who is teased for being different, just published the follow-up, “Mixed Me,” which follows a little boy who is half black and half white.
“[The book] is kind of along similar lines for my son, even though in this day and age he’s going to have less of an issue being mixed than I did,” Diggs told the Grio. “It’s a book of self love and self appreciation and knowing that you are special regardless of what people will say about you because people will always say stuff.”
Diggs shares his 6-year-old son with ex-wife Idina Menzel of “Frozen” fame.
“A person of mixed heritage should have the right to include his or her COMPLETE ethnic background when identifying themselves. Period.”
In other words, Diggs doesn’t feel that his little boy needs to align himself with one race — and he hopes that he will be just as proud of his African-American heritage as his Caucasian one.
Thankfully, many on social media came to his defense.
@TayeDiggs I LOVE that you are teaching your son to embrace being black and white, and not to be defined by just one. #loveAll
— ⚜️Denise Hunnings⚜️ (@DeniseHunnings) November 21, 2015
@TayeDiggs I embrace being mixed. Thank you for opening up a discussion that too many people avoid. #nextstop: a #mixed option on paperwork
— Spinks (@spi_nks) November 21, 2015
— 360WISE ® (@Iam360WISE) November 21, 2015
