ABSTRACT
Maria Root's explicit framing of race as a social, as opposed to a biological, category is inconsistent with her special pleading for biracial identity on the basis of biological mating. Root's multiracial argument is therefore contradictory to the system of social designation within which she has chosen to frame race. Multiracial identity is predicated on the idea that race exists and that the offspring of persons from different racial groups is a multiracial individual. One strategy used by some multiracial advocates to obscure the necessary connection between biological race and multirace is the positing of race as a social instead of a biological reality. The chapter argues that people are accountable for the philosophical positions they take and for the implications of those positions. Root attempts to sever any connection with biological race by making explicit reference to "socially designated racial groups."
