When Your Characters Are All Mixed Up

First off...I'm back! No, I didn't fall off the face of the planet. My eyes needed a rest from the computer, literally. I spend a lot of time staring at screens, whether it's for writing, surfing the Net or making an ulitmate playlist and all those hours were taking a toll on my beautiful greenish eyes. I like my eyes and well, I need them so I had to take a forced hiatus from the blogoshpere. But thanks to time, some anti-reflective lenses and the Good Lord, here I am.

So here's something that's been on my mind, especially for all you aspiring screenwriters and filmmakers out there: How do YOU go about describing biracial and multi-cultural characters? For example, I'm working on a script where the main character is black and white (African-American/Irish-American). Do I simply write that upon first introduction of the character in a direct way or do I let the story flesh that out in a more subtle way? I want to create stories where people just don't come in neat little racial packages because in real-life a lot of people aren't just "one thing".

That got me to thinking, how does society view biracial people? Well, let's think about that...let's put this into a little scenario: If _______ walked into an elevator with you, what would YOU view them as? Insert the following names into the blank space:

*Tiger Woods
*Barack Obama
*Halle Berry
*Jessica Alba
*Alexis Bledel
*Wentworth Miller
*Rosario Dawson

Do you think of Tiger as an Asian-American man? Barack and Halle as "white"? Jessica as Danish-American? Alexis as Hispanic? Wentworth as "black"? And Rosario as...well, she's a bunch of things. Do you see where I'm going with this?

These questions didn't start off as a "race thing", it was birthed out of craft, that is me trying to better understand the ways of screenwriting. But nevertheless, these questions are very much clear and present. So what do I do? How do I write it, how is Hollywood writing it? And better yet, is Hollywood writing it right?

Maybe I'm thinking too much about it or maybe I should write a book. Either way, what are your thoughts on the matter? I'm eager to know, so sound off...