Can You Choose Your Child’s Race? Rob Kardashian Makes Problematic Statements About His Daughter’s Biracial Identity

On a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Rob made several alarming statements about his daughter’s ethnicity and race.dream kardashian rob blac chyna 1a68266c 33e8 45b5 95cd c074075a96b2

According to Teen Vogue,

When asked by his sister, Khloé, if he’s scared of being a dad, Rob responded by saying:

“I can’t wait to have an Armenian baby.”

In turn, Khloé says: “And probably a little bit black,” reminding him that he’s not the only one responsible for Dream: Blac Chyna is the baby’s mother, therefore Dream is biracial.

dream-kardashian

However, instead of acknowledging this point, Rob replies by saying:

“It’s gonna be an Armenian baby” and later adds, “Let’s not make this a race war.”

Race can be a complicated subject, especially when it involves biracial children. The one-drop rule to which many of us still adhere, often forces biracial children to choose black, even if they don’t always “look,” the part. In this instance, Rob seems to want to diminish his daughter’s black heritage and focus solely on her Armenian side. This, of course, begs the question: If you are biracial can you choose the side with which you identify, or can your parent choose for you?

What do you think of Rob’s assertions? Sound off below!

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18 Comments

  1. Ultimately it is up to the child to choose for himself (or herself) what ethnicity to self-identify as. When Dream gets old enough she will self-identify as either black, Armenian, or both. My personal opinion is that biracial individuals should proudly claim ALL of their heritage. If a child has 1 white parent & 1 Asian parent, for example, the child is both Asian & white, not just one or the other.

  2. His comments are asinine. I’m a parent of biracial children. I am black and my husband is white. We do not force them to identify with one or the other. You educate them. Why do they have to be one or the other. Your race does not define who you are as a person.

    1. I whole heartedly agree. They are human beings. End of story. I don’t know why people are always trying to categorize each other.

  3. Obviously, biologically she is both Armenian and Black. Her parents can controlher enviornment as a young child thus influencing a certain race of friends but once she starts school and starts to do her thing in life, she’ll self identity however is comfortable for her and there’s nothing they can do about it.

  4. I think his comment is ignorant and he needs to think about the fact that the baby isn’t just one race. I am in a similar situation I’m Black and my boyfriend is White, we’re about to have a baby girl and of course she will be both black and white but it’s frustrating when we have to “decide” her race for hospital records and birth records. I see it all the time because I work in the hospital, sometimes people choose race unidentified, that’s crazy.

  5. Race is arbitrary and culture matters. Armenian is not a race. It is a nationality. There are Armenians of African descent just like.thwr are Armenians who are not. This question is race is not based on any science.

  6. ShawnTe Pierce says:

    But Armenian is not a race. lol Could it be more that he is talking about raising her in the ways of Armenian culture? It seems he identifies more with being Armenian than the heritage of his mother. That might have been why he said not to make it a race thing. Quite frankly, a parent can raise a child in whatever culture they choose. Once that kid becomes older they will choose to identify as whatever side they want. We can say he can’t do this or he can’t do that but not one of us are Dream’s parents. That is for Chyna and Rob to decide. Ideally, people should raise their biracial children with knowledge about their mixed heritage and race. However, some parents already have an idea of how they will raise their children when they have them regardless if the children are mixed race or not. Back when I did want children I had it in my mind they would be raised Christian, black, holding to my ideals.

    1. Armenian is Armenian. We are not white nor are we black. Ask any Armenian if they are white and they’ll respond to you, Armenian. We don’t play color games ..

  7. Lydia Sadler says:

    She will be who she chooses to be; just like the rest of us.

  8. I think he’s right it’s khole who doesn’t want to accept chyna DNA rob is right 99.9% if that child was darker people would throw words on her but it come out the other way round why can’t they let them say or think what they really want and people just accept them the child is originally Armenian khole isn’t her father is oj who points at her not resembling her dad she’s not an Armenian therefore she should deal with her silly comments

  9. Isn’t he biracial?

  10. To me this isn’t an issue and it’s actually correct. In my culture and on many african cultures you are where your fathers from. So, as Rob is Armenian his Children will be too. With that being said, Armenian is not a race, it’s an ethnicity. Now let’s move along.

  11. Shane Antonio Benitez says:

    I’m tri racial and so are my kids and I raise them to accept all of there ethnicities not just one, me and my kids are Spanish, Cherokee & European, I’m light brown tanish and my kids are white tanish so we look more Latino and we have Spanish names so we are considered Latino or brown American hybrids. It will be difficult to raise his child to believe she’s just Armenian because the kid skin will get darker and will resemble the mothers and he’s not raising Dream alone so like it or not Dream will learn about her black part from both Chyna family and Kardashians and school.

    1. Who says the skin will get darker?? In most cases, with a darker mother, the kids turn out lighter. My biracial kids came out one way, and stayed with the same, practically white skin.

  12. I think she’s a beautiful baby and race shouldn’t be a tobic right now at all. And when she’s being thought both cultures she should be able to have pride of acceptance in both.

  13. juliemango says:

    He’s only half Armenian so what is his point? He is only passing on 1/4 of the ethnicity to her anyway.

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