(CNN)It's hard not to get excited.
It's like watching the unfolding of a modern-day fairy tale.
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, just gave birth to a boy. The royal baby becomes the "first Afro-American baby born into the royal family," a "gorgeous" symbol of racial progress in the US and Britain.
It's a lovely story that deserves to be celebrated.
But let's not use the royal birth to trot out a dangerous myth.
Let's not turn this child into another "Great Mixed-Race Hope."
We've seen this story before. A mixed-race person is elevated to a position of prominence. They're touted as proof of racial progress, part of a Brown New World in which racism will inevitably collapse in the future because there will be so many interracial relationships.
This anointing is part of what some call the ongoing "fetishization" of interracial children and adults. Remember Obama's "hope and change?" His biracial upbringing was supposed to help him bridge racial differences.
But I no longer believe in the redemptive power of interracial unions, though I am the product of such a relationship. It's a tired story. And it's a dangerous one. We can't "procreate" our way to racial equality.
Despite this history, there's still much to look forward to with the new royal baby.
Some of us can learn something from the royal family as we watch this child grow up.
But the presence of these mixed-race symbols in positions of power doesn't automatically translate into more power for people of color.
Here's another story I'd like to celebrate one day.
Imagine a child born to a couple like the Duke and Duchess, and no one obsesses over their racial mixture, or how white or black they look.
Imagine if that child was born with dark skin, a wide nose and kinky hair -- and people would still call that child "gorgeous."
All that would matter is that the child has two parents who love him or her.
That's the kind of fairy tale I'm waiting for.
John Blake is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He writes about race, religion, politics and other assorted topics.
