Taye Diggs Wants His Biracial Son to Be Seen as 'Mixed,' Not Black

Taye Diggs and Walker at a movie premiere (Photo: Getty Images)

Racial identity isn’t a black or white thing, says Taye Diggs.

The Murder in the First and Rosewood actor, who is raising a 6-year-old son, Walker, with ex-wife Idina Menzel, is taking heat for saying he doesn’t want his son being labeled “black.” He made the comments while promoting his new children’s book, Mixed Me, about a young, mixed-race boy who finds himself answering a lot of questions about his appearance. The story is inspired by his son.

“When you [call biracial kids black], you risk disrespecting that one half of who you are and that’s my fear,” he told TheGrio.com. “I don’t want my son to be in a situation where he calls himself black and everyone thinks he has a black mom and a black dad, and then they see a white mother, they wonder, ‘Oh, what’s going on?’"

Diggs tackles the topic in a new book called Mixed Me. (Feiwel & Friends)

An example he cited was President Obama, who is frequently described as the first black U.S. president, but he is actually biracial.

"As African-Americans, we were so quick to say, 'OK, he’s black, he’s black,’ and then there were the white people who were afraid to say he was biracial because who knows,” Diggs said. “Everybody refers to him as the first black president. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that it’s interesting. It would be great if it didn’t matter and that people could call him mixed. We’re still choosing to make that decision, and that’s when I think you get into some dangerous waters."

When Diggs’s comments started generating buzz, he took to Twitter to clarify his comment. Here’s what he posted:

(Twitter)

Describing himself as a "proud black man,” the actor said he wants his son to also view himself that way — “if he so chooses.” However, the child has a mother who is white, so he wants him to “be just as proud” of that part of him too.

Internet trolls went at him hard and soon he was trending, so he called in to TMZ Live on Wednesday to speak out even further. The only thing he really added though was, “If anyone has an issue with that, they can go fly a kite.”

This isn’t the first time the star tackled the topic of race in print. He previously authored Chocolate Me, about a boy whose skin is darker and hair is curlier than everyone else. The 2011 book was inspired by his own childhood growing up in a predominately white neighborhood.