Author: Steven

  • We now know that the way we talk about race has no scientific validity. There is no genetic basis that corresponds with any particular group of people, no essentialist DNA for black people or white people or anyone. This is not a hippy ideal, it’s a fact. There are genetic characteristics that associate with certain…

  • The ambiguity of racial categories The Washington Post 2015-06-16 Andrew Gelman, Professor of Statistics and Political Science Columbia University, New York, New York Racial classification has been in the news lately with the story of Rachel Dolezal, the NAACP official who is ethnically white but characterized herself as black until the story came out: The…

  • What Is Whiteness? Sunday Review The New York Times 2015-06-20 Nell Irvin Painter, Professor Emerita of History Princeton University The terrorist attack in Charleston, S.C., an atrocity like so many other shameful episodes in American history, has overshadowed the drama of Rachel A. Dolezal’s yearslong passing for black. And for good reason: Hateful mass murder…

  • Post-Magical Thinking America The Offing: A Los Angeles Review of Books Channel 2015-06-05 Matthew Salesses This semester, a strange thing happened. A student came to my office hours to complain about the difficulties of understanding her own oppression. I teach a course called “Asians in the Media” at the University of Houston, where I am…

  • Misty Copeland Is Promoted to Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theater The New York Times 2015-06-30 Michael Cooper Misty Copeland, whose openness about race in ballet helped to make her one of the most famous ballerinas in the United States, was promoted on Tuesday by American Ballet Theater, becoming the first African-American female principal dancer…

  • America’s ‘Postracial’ Fantasy The New York Times Magazine 2015-06-30 Anna Holmes Illustration by Javier Jaén For millions of mixed-race people, identity fits more than one box, but we still see one another in black and white. On Father’s Day, my dad and I had brunch with some close friends of mine. The conversation soon turned…

  • As we harvest ever more human genomes one fact remains unshakeable: race does not exist

  • The fiction of race hides the real source of racism and inequity in America today.

  • Review: Misty Copeland Debuts as Odette/Odile in ‘Swan Lake’ The New York Times 2015-06-25 Alastair Macaulay, Dance Critic Misty Copeland and James Whiteside in “Swan Lake.” Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times When Misty Copeland made her New York debut in the double role of Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake,” the most epic role in…

  • Mat Johnson On ‘Loving Day’ And Life As A ‘Black Boy’ Who Looks White Fresh Air National Public Radio 2015-06-29 Terry Gross, Host As a biracial child growing up in Philadelphia, writer Mat Johnson identified as black – but looked white. His new novel is about a man who returns to his hometown after inheriting…