Category: Articles

  • This week marks the release of Loving Day, the new novel from Mat Johnson, author of “Pym,” “Drop,” “Hunting in Harlem,” “Incognegro,” and others. Johnson and I spoke last week on Skype.

  • The Octoroon, a Tragic Mulatto Tale of the Old South Jubilo! The Emancipation Century 2011-01-23 Alan Skerrett, Jr, Editor Washington, D.C. The Octoroon is a tragic mulatto play by Irish playwright and actor Dion Boucicault. It opened on Broadway in 1859, just a few years before the American Civil War. The play was based on…

  • We Must Be Alive: Among the Wild Mulattos & Other Tales by Tom Williams Electric Lit 2015-11-13 Rosie Clarke In his 1991 hit song, Black or White, Michael Jackson meditates on racial equality, singing, “I’m not going to spend/My life being a color.” However, Jackson’s well-documented, complicated relationship with his African American appearance speaks to…

  • The challenges of being multiracial The Santa Fe New Mexican 2015-11-16 Sakara Griffith, Sophomore Santa Fe High School, Santa Fe, New Mexico There is a photo of a black family featuring smiling faces of joy, with some of the participants wearing ugly, matching sweaters that grandma knitted and a brother and sister caught on camera…

  • Why I want my interracial son to play with Legos The Washington Post 2015-11-27 Nevin Martell “Come build with me,” says my 2-year-old son Zephyr, beckoning me to join him on the living room floor next to a giant bin full of Lego bricks. He pats the finished wood next to him, smiles widely and…

  • A monumental moment in the history of the United States will be celebrated in December when the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery at the close of the Civil War, turns 150 years old. But despite the passage of time, the U.S. continues to struggle with racial inequality.

  • Shades of Race: How Phenotype and Observer Characteristics Shape Racial Classification American Behavioral Scientist Published online before print 2015-10-28 DOI: 10.1177/0002764215613401 Cynthia Feliciano, Associate Professor of Sociology; Associate Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies University of California, Irvine Although race-based discrimination and stereotyping can only occur if people place others into racial categories, our understanding of this…

  • Diversity and Multiracial Voices Mount Holyoke Radix South Hadley, Massachusetts 2015-11-10 Sonia Mohammadzadah ’18, Contributing Writer ***Please note: my use of the term “cultural org” includes both cultural orgs associated with cultural houses and those that are not. As someone who identifies as biracial, I’m never quite sure where I stand or what my role…

  • Taye Diggs Isn’t Wrong (Or Right) About His Son’s Biracial Identity The Establishment 2015-11-20 Jessica Sutherland, Marketing Director In October, Taye Diggs released Mixed Me! as a followup to his first children’s book, 2011’s Chocolate Me! While Chocolate Me! was inspired by Diggs’ experiences as a black child in a predominantly white neighborhood, Mixed Me!…

  • Between Two Worlds: Racial Identity in Alice Perrin’s The Stronger Claim Victorian Literature and Culture Volume 42, Special Issue 3, September 2014 pages 491-508 DOI: 10.1017/S1060150314000114 Melissa Edmundson Makala University of South Carolina Like many Anglo-Indian novelists of her generation, Alice Perrin (1867–1934) gained fame through the publication and popular reception of several domestic novels…