Category: Articles

  • ‘Barry’ director on race, identity and why the young Obama matters Mashtable 2016-12-20 Proma Khosla Vikram Gandhi didn’t direct the Netflix biopic Barry because he cared about Barack Obama. He made it because he cared about a kid named Barry. Gandhi set out to discover who Barack was before he was Barack, back in 1981.…

  • The Problem With Obama’s Faith in White America The Atlantic 2016-12-13 Tressie McMillan Cottom, Assistant Professor of Sociology Virginia Commonwealth University The president’s optimism about race blinded him to the pervasiveness and stubborn persistence of racism. I screamed a lot while reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’s My President Was Black. When I was done reading and screaming,…

  • The Physics of Melanin: Science and the Chaotic Social Construct of Race Bitch Media 2016-12-19 Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Research Associate Department of Physics University of Washington, Seattle It could have been earwax. It turns out that the texture of a person’s earwax is not determined by environment but rather is written into a person’s genetic…

  • Dating in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter Racism Review: shcolarship and activism toward racial justice 2016-02-24 Shantel Buggs, Ph.D. Candidate Department of Sociology The University of Texas, Austin When I started my dissertation research a year ago, I had not considered what impact the widespread media coverage of #BlackLivesMatter as a movement and rallying cry might have…

  • What does it mean to be “black enough?” Three women explore their racial identities The Washington Post 2016-12-11 On “Historically Black,” our podcast about black history, narrator Roxane Gay introduces three new voices. “What are you?” “Are you adopted?” “What are you mixed with?” Many photos and stories submitted to “Historically Black,” The Washington Post Tumblr…

  • Even today, being biracial in America is not always easy Observer-Reporter Washington County News Washington, Pennsylvania 2016-12-17 Karen Mansfield, Staff Writer Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter Dontae Monday, a student at Washington & Jefferson College, stands in front of Old Main recently. Koron Harris is used to strangers sneaking glances at her, and she knows why. “They’re…

  • The Monoracial Millennium (a parody): Rethinking Mixed Race in the Age of Obama Medium 2016-12-18 Gino M. Pellegrini “The Four Races” from Le Tour de la France par duex enfants (1877) by G. Bruno It sucks to wake up and realize that you’re back out of style — viewed as a promising development in one decade, viewed as an…

  • Book Reviews: Machado de Assis: Multiracial Identity and the Brazilian Novelist [Geiger Review] Comparative Civilizations Review Volume 75, Number 75, Fall 2016 Article 11 pages 125-126 Pedro Geiger G. Reginald Daniel, Machado de Assis: Multiracial Identity and the Brazilian Novelist University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania University Press, 2012 The long and excellent book by Reginald…

  • The One They’ve Been Waiting for: White Fear and the Rise of Donald Trump Politics of Color: commentary & reflections on race, ethnicity, and politics 2016-11-27 Linda Alvarez, Assistant Professor California State University, Northridge Ivy A. Melgar Cargile, Assistant Professor California State University, Bakersfield Natasha Altema McNeely, Assistant Professor University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley…

  • Where Has All the Loving Gone? A Review of the New Film, ‘Loving’ African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) 2016-11-27 Peter Cole, Professor of History Western Illinois University A new film about the Southern working class couple whose love and dedication broke the back of anti-miscegenation laws across the nation arrives just in time. Released…