Category: Articles

  • Tony Williams’ “Wilderness” and Mixed-Race Identity through Jazz Soundscapes and Such: Critical Thoughts on Sonic Subjects 2015-05-27 Shawn M. Higgins University of Connecticut Tony Williams (source: Wikipedia) Why do song writers choose the song titles they do? Perhaps Herbie Hancock’s 1980 track “4 A.M.” was recorded at that exact time – or maybe finished then?…

  • On The Cherokee Rose, Historical Fiction, and Silences in the Archives Process: a blog for american history 2015-05-26 Martha S. Jones, Arthur F Thurnau Professor, Associate Professor of History and Afroamerican and African Studies University of Michigan Martha S. Jones Martha S. Jones is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan on…

  • Novelist Mat Johnson Explores The ‘Optical Illusion’ Of Being Biracial Weekend Edition Sunday National Public Radio 2015-05-24 Growing up in Philadelphia, Mat Johnson lived mostly with his mother in a black neighborhood. The son of an African-American mother and an Irish-American father, his skin was so light that he might have passed for white. But…

  • Crossed lines The University of Chicago Magazine May-June 2015 Lydiayle Gibson Allyson Hobbs, AM’02, PhD’09. (Photography by Jennifer Pottheiser) A secret in her own family led Allyson Hobbs, AM’02, PhD’09, to uncover the hidden history of racial passing. “You know, we have that in our own family too.” That was the bombshell, the offhand remark…

  • Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature by Diana Adesola Mafe (review) Research in African Literatures Volume 46, Number 2, Summer 2015 pages 166-168 Tru Leverette, Associate Professor of English University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida Mafe, Diana Adesola, Mixed Race Stereotypes in South African and American Literature: Coloring Outside the (Black and…

  • Blackness and Blood: Interpreting African American Identity Philosophy & Public Affairs Volume 32, Issue 2 (April 2004) pages 171-192 DOI: 10.1111/j.1088-4963.2004.00010.x Lionel K. McPherson, Associate Professor of Philosophy Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts Tommie Shelby, Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy Harvard University In his Tanner Lectures, “The State and…

  • The Psychological Advantages of Strongly Identifying As Biracial New York Magazine 2015-05-22 Lisa Miller As I reported in the most recent issue of New York, a new program at an elite private school in New York aims to combat racism by dividing young children, some as young as 8 years old, into “affinity groups” according…

  • Expats Find Brazil’s Reputation For Race-Blindness Is Undone By Reality Parallels: Many Stories, One World National Public Radio 2015-05-22 Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, South America Correspondent There is a joke among Brazilians that a Brazilian passport is the most coveted on the black market because no matter what your background — Asian, African or European — you…

  • Learning to live with complexity and ambiguity

  • Brazilian Racial Democracy: Reality or Myth? Humboldt Journal of Social Relations Volume 10, Number 1, (Fall/Winter 1982/83): Race & Ethnic Relations: Cross-Cultural Perspectives pages 129-142 Carlos Hasenbalg, Professor of Sociology Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro Suellen Huntington University of California, Berkeley The Brazilian claim to “racial democracy” is examined historically. and in…