Vlogger and comedian Franchesca Ramsey released a YouTube video this week calling out people who fantasise about having mixed-race children.
Ramsey, 32, took to YouTube after years of people commenting on the appearance of her hypothetical biracial children.
She told BuzzFeed News that it was when she and her white husband got married two years ago that people started to faun over the prospect of her having a mixed-race child.
"Someone would comment on my engagement ring and say, 'Oh, do you have a picture of your husband?", and once they'd see him there'd be a minute of surprise and then something like, 'Mixed babies are always so beautiful! Lucky girl!'
"I've never really known how to respond, because I know they mean well, but it's usually awkward."
The final straw came when a friend texted Ramsey asking when she'd start "popping out babies with great hair #TeamLightSkin".
When Ramsey called her friend out on the comment, it was brushed off with "you know I don't mean anything by it".
"But," Ramsey said, "it got me thinking about why this has become a 'compliment' and how strange it is to fetishise kids that don't even exist yet."
"Multiracial people come in all shades and mixes, not just black and white," she said.
When asked to explain the phenomena, Ramsey said she thought there was some element of "colourism, internal racism, and anti-blackness" surrounding the fascination with people who are "half black and something else".
"Just look at the concept of 'good hair' within the black community," she said. "Good hair is often categorised as a looser curl pattern which is typically (but not always) found in multiracial people.
"Even in the natural hair community, often the advertising won't feature tighter curl patterns or models with two black parents at all."
For the video, Ramsey turned to biracial Snapchat users to ask about the realities of having a complex, mixed-race identity – something she claims people ignore in the face of fluffy hair and tanned skin.
View this video on YouTube
"When these kinds of comments come from white people," she said, "ultimately I think they're trying to show how progressive and accepting they are of interracial relationships and just go overboard.
"It's similar to when they randomly mention the race of their black friend in conversation as if to let me know that they're friends with other black people."
Ramsey said that such comments come from a place of still not knowing how to talk about race and feeling uncomfortable because of it – something the black community is also still struggling with.
Ramsey cited how the media first reacted to Lupita Nyong'o as an example of how people respond to dark-skinned female beauty.
Ramsey said she hoped her videos would help more people think critically about how we view and treat multiracial people and accept people's beauty in all forms.
