Mixed Race Studies

The Likely Persistence of a White Majority

The American Prospect
Winter 2016, Volume 27, Number 1 (2016-01-11)

Richard Alba, Distinguished Professor of Sociology
Graduate Center, City University of New York

Has the notion of demography as destiny ever enjoyed so much credence? The disappearance of a white majority in the United States by the middle of this century is now widely accepted as if it were an established fact. Projections by the Census Bureau have encouraged those expectations, and people on both the right and left have seized on them in support of their views. On the right, the anxieties about the end of white majority status have fueled a conservative backlash against the growing diversity of the country. On the left, many progressives anticipate an inexorable change in the ethno-racial power hierarchy. Numerous sites on the web offer advice and counsel on how whites can handle their imminent minority status.

But what if these different reactions are based on a false premise—actually two false premises? The first stems from the Census Bureau’s way of classifying people by ethnicity and race, which produces the smallest possible estimate of the size of the non-Hispanic white population. Whenever there is ambiguity about ethno-racial identity, the statistics publicized by the bureau count an individual as minority. This statistical choice is particularly important for population projections because of the growing number of children from mixed families, most of whom have one white parent and one from a minority group. In the Census Bureau’s projections, children with one Hispanic, Asian, or black parent are counted as minority (that is, as Hispanic or nonwhite). The United States has historically followed a “one-drop” rule in classifying people with any black ancestry as black. The census projections, in effect, extend the one-drop rule to the descendants of other mixed families. A great deal of evidence shows, however, that many children growing up today in mixed families are integrating into a still largely white mainstream society and likely to think of themselves as part of that mainstream, rather than as minorities excluded from it…

Read the entire article here.

Black and Jewish: Language and Multiple Strategies for Self-Presentation

American Jewish History
Volume 100, Number 1, January 2016
pages 51-71
DOI: 10.1353/ajh.2016.0001

Sarah Bunin Benor, Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, California

In January 2014, hip-hop star Drake hosted “Saturday Night Live” (SNL), opening with a skit about his black Jewish identity. In this skit, which takes place at his bar mitzvah reception, language is central to the comedy: Drake’s white Jewish mother has an exaggerated New York-sounding accent, and she uses Hebrew and Yiddish words — “tuchuses,” “oy vey,” “goy,” and “mazel tov.” His black dad uses features of African-American English, like /th/ sometimes pronounced as /d/, and he jokingly highlights his lack of knowledge of Drake’s mom’s Jewish language: “Torah, aliyah — man, I know dose girls, I met them on da road.” When Drake enters, he greets his relatives with words associated with each group: “To my mom’s side of the family I say, ‘Shabbat shalom,’ and to my dad’s side, I say ‘Wasssupppp.’” Drake proceeds to sing and rap about being black and Jewish, incorporating strains of “Hava Nagila” and hip hop, and highlighting stereotypical characteristics and linguistic features of both groups: “I play ball like LeBron [James], and I know what a W-2 is. Chillin’ in Boca Raton with my mensch Lenny Kravitz [another black Jew], the only purple drink we sip is purple Manischewitz. At my show you won’t simply put your hands in the air; we can also raise a chair or recite a Jewish prayer… I eat… knishes with my bitches … I celebrate Hanukkah, date a Rianika… You’re Jewish and black and you’re — challah!”

The juxtaposition of stereotypical linguistic, culinary, and celebratory practices associated with African Americans and Jews is funny to the audience because of the incongruence: The audience is not used to observing these practices in the same room, let alone the same individual. In addition, the presentation is intelligible as indexing black Jewishness because people outside the black and Jewish communities associate these practices with black people and Jewish people, respectively. Even if Drake does not use cultural combinations like these in his everyday life, he (along with the SNL production team) considers them appropriate for a parodic performance of his black Jewish identity.

Drake’s performance represents a growing phenomenon: individuals presenting themselves to the public as black Jews through comedy, performance art, interviews, and memoirs. In all of these “performances” (the term used broadly to refer to any speech act intended for consumption by a large audience), language plays an important role in how speakers align themselves with African Americans, with Jews, or with both. In this paper, I analyze nine such performances, focusing on the nine individuals’ use of linguistic features associated with Jews and with African Americans. This analysis points to the importance of language in self-presentation, as well as to the diversity of black Jews.

Black Jews

First, a bit of background on black Jews and on language associated with both groups. A common origin of black Jews is the union of a white Jew and a black non-Jew (sometimes involving the conversion of one spouse). This is the case for Drake and five of the nine individuals featured in the analysis below. The biracial children of these unions are sometimes raised with Judaism as their religion, sometimes with a Jewish cultural identity, and sometimes with no Jewish identity or practice. Another common origin occurs when white Jewish parents adopt children from Africa or from African-American birth parents and raise them as Jews, sometimes officially converting them. In addition to these individuals who grow up black and Jewish, many black people adopt Judaism later in life. Some of these converts are attracted to Judaism for spiritual or theological reasons, and others for social, cultural, or communal reasons, such as having Jewish friends or partners. Smaller numbers of black Jews immigrated to the United States from Jewish communities in Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, some black Jews are descendants of black people who converted to Judaism or who had children with white Jews several generations ago. In some families, Judaism goes back to the days of slavery, when black slaves sometimes adopted the religion of their white owners, a very small percentage of whom were Jewish.

Some discussions of…

Read or purchase the article here.

BBC World TV Interview Re Rachel Dolezal & Passing

Marcia Dawkins
2015-06-12

Marcia Dawkins, Assistant Professor of Arts and Humanities
The Minerva Schools at KGI, San Francisco, California

Dr. Dee chatted roadside with BBC World News about the firestorm raging around Rachel Dolezal, the white Spokane, Washington NAACP leader who allegedly passes as black.

César Vargas: How I Became Black

Okayafrica. Giving you true notes since 247,000 BC
2016-01-08

César Vargas

This is me my Junior year of high school.

During my first day of school in the United States I was told by a fellow classmate to watch out for the morenos. I was taken aback by the warning and in my bewilderment asked how to tell them apart. As a teenager trying to find his place in a new country, race was a difficult concept. I couldn’t tell people apart based on it. This gave me a disadvantage navigating 90s pre-gentrified Bed-Stuy. My high school, I.S. 33, was an all Black school with the exception of a few American-born Latinos—mostly Nuyoricans—and the bilingual class that I was placed in.

Sosua in the Dominican Republic where I was raised is a small tourist town with a very diverse population. Back then I was already exposed to white Americans, Europeans, and Black Haitians. All who, phenotypically speaking, looked like relatives since my family fell within the spectrum of Black to White. Which might be the reason why I couldn’t tell morenos apart from the rest of my classmates and family. Some of them were the same color as those morenos they were so apprehensive of.

My bilingual class was their punching bag. We were bullied relentlessly. For being foreigners. For speaking Spanish. For being different. That all stopped when two fresh-of-the-boat Dominican brothers that were brought to our class started fighting back. Both were as dark as the African American kids they fought. These two (Santiaguero city-slickers, it should be noted) emboldened the rest of us to do the same. So it was chaos for a couple of months.

Soon enough I understood why my classmates were fearful of morenos…

Read the entire article here.

Quicksand and Passing – Nella Larsen

The Writes of Woman: Reviews of books by female writers
2015-11-24

Naomi Frisby

Quicksand and Passing are two novellas packaged together and reissued by Serpent’s Tale in the UK. They both share the key theme of being a woman of colour in America early in the twentieth century but the two pieces explore ideas around this in different ways.

Helga Crane is twenty-three and a teacher at Naxos, ‘the finest school for Negroes anywhere in the country’. Helga’s out of favour at the school and urgently wishes to leave despite her engagement to a colleague. Her fiancé has ‘naturalized’, fitting into the school and its values. Helga, however, ‘…could neither conform, nor be happy in her unconformity’. She’s failed to impress his family too:

Negro society, she had learned, was as complicated and as rigid in its ramifications as the highest strata of white society. If you couldn’t prove your ancestry and connections, you were tolerated, but you didn’t “belong”. You could be queer, or even attractive, or bad, or brilliant, or even love beauty and such nonsense if you were a Rankin, or a Leslie, or a Scoville; in other words, if you had a family. But if you were just plain Helga Crane, of whom nobody has ever heard, it was presumptuous of you to be anything but inconspicuous and conformable…

Read the entire review here.

Why I’m Over The White-Washing Of ‘The Bachelor’ Every Season

Elite Daily
2016-01-05

KiMi Robinson
Los Angeles, California

I just cyber-stalked my ex and his new flings — except I never dated the guy, nor will I ever have that opportunity.

In other words, I went through all 28 contestant’s profiles from the upcoming season of “The Bachelor” to judge who I think will be the best fit for our Colorado sweetheart, Ben Higgins.

No matter how much I pride myself on being an independent, educated woman, I’m also a slave to this cruel franchise…

…Don’t get me wrong; I’m just as obsessed with the latter two couples as the next person, but I’m starting to get tired of the predictability of it all.

As a mixed-race child of Japanese and Caucasian parents, I’m eager to see things spiced up in the “Bachelor” franchise. In other words, when am I going to get to see an interracial couple?…

Read the entire article here.

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition

Wiley
December 2015
832 pages
7.2 x 1.7 x 9.6 inches
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1119084303

Derald Wing Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education
Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York

David Sue, Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington

The standard bearing guide for multicultural counseling courses now enhanced with research-based, topical, and pedagogical refinements

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition is the new update to the seminal work on multicultural counseling. From author Derald Wing Sue – one of the most cited multicultural scholars in the United States – this comprehensive work includes current research, cultural and scientific theoretical formations, and expanded exploration of internalized racism. Replete with real-world examples, this book explains why conversations revolving around racial issues remain so difficult, and provides specific techniques and advice for leading forthright and productive discussions. The new edition focuses on essential instructor and student needs to facilitate a greater course-centric focus.

In response to user feedback and newly available research, the seventh edition reflects:

• Renewed commitment to comprehensiveness. As compared to other texts in the field, CCD explores and covers nearly all major multicultural counseling topics in the profession. Indeed, reviewers believed it the most comprehensive of the texts published, and leads in coverage of microaggressions in counseling, interracial/interethnic counseling, social justice approaches to counseling, implications of indigenous healing, the sociopolitical nature of counseling, racial identity development, and cultural use of evidence-based practice.
• Streamlined Presentation to allow students more time to review and analyze rather than read more detailed text
• New advances and important changes, such as expanded coverage of internalized racism, cultural humility, expansion of microaggression coverage to other marginalized groups, social justice/advocacy skills, recent research and thinking on evidence-based practice, and new approaches to work with specific populations.
• Most current work in multicultural mental health practice including careful consideration of the multicultural guidelines proposed by the American Psychological Association and the draft guidelines for Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) (2015) from the American Counseling Association’s Revision Committee.
• Expanded attention to the emotive nature of the content so that the strong emotive reaction of students to the material does not prevent self-exploration (a necessary component of cultural competence in the helping professions).
• Strengthened Pedagogy in each chapter with material to facilitate experiential activities and discussion and to help students digest the material including broad Chapter Objectives and more specific and oftentimes controversial Reflection and Discussion Questions. Every chapter opens with a clinical vignette, longer narrative, or situational example that previews the major concepts and issues discussed in the chapter. The Chapter Focus Questions serve as prompts to address the opening ‘course objectives,’ but these questions not only preview the content to be covered, but are cast in such a way as to allow instructors and trainers to use them as discussion questions throughout the course or workshop. We have retained the ‘Implications for Clinical Practice’ sections and added a new Summary after every chapter. Instructor’s Handbook has been strengthen and expanded to provide guidance on teaching the course, anticipating resistances, overcoming them, and providing exercises that could be used such as case studies, videos/movies, group activities, tours/visits, and other pedagogy that will facilitate learning.
• Easier comparison between and among groups made possible by updating population specific chapters to use common topical headings (when possible).

Offering the perfect blend of theory and practice, this classic text helps readers overcome the discomfort associated with discussions of race, provides real-world examples of how to discuss diversity and difference openly and honestly, and closely examines the hidden and unwritten rules that dictate many aspects of diversity in today’s world.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• About the Authors
• Section One the Multiple Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
  • Part I: The Affective and Conceptual Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
    • Chapter 1 Obstacles to Cultural Competence: Understanding Resistance to Multicultural Training
      • Emotional Self-Revelations and Fears: Majority Group Members
      • Emotional Invalidation versus Affirmation: For Marginalized Group Members
      • A Word of Caution
      • Recognizing and Understanding Resistance to Multicultural Training: For Trainees and Trainers
      • Cognitive Resistance—Denial
      • Emotional Resistance
      • Behavioral Resistance
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 2 The Superordinate Nature of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
      • Culture Universal (Etic) versus Culture Specific (Emic) Formulations
      • The Nature of Multicultural Counseling Competence
      • A Tripartite Framework for Understanding the Multiple Dimensions of Identity
      • Individual and Universal Biases in Psychology and Mental Health
      • The Impact of Group Identities on Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • What Is Multicultural Counseling/Therapy?
      • What Is Cultural Competence?
      • Cultural Humility and Cultural Competence
      • Social Justice and Cultural Competence
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 3 Multicultural Counseling Competence for Counselors and Therapists of Marginalized Groups
      • Counselors from Marginalized Groups Working with Majority and Other Marginalized Group Clients
      • The Politics of Interethnic and Interracial Bias and Discrimination
      • The Historical and Political Relationships between Groups of Color
      • Differences between Racial/Ethnic Groups
      • Counselors of Color and Dyadic Combinations
      • Summary
      • References
  • Part II The Political Dimensions of Mental Health Practice
    • Chapter 4 The Political and Social Justice Implications of Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • The Education and Training of Mental Health Professionals
      • Definitions of Mental Health
      • Counseling and Mental Health Literature
      • Need to Treat Social Problems—Social Justice Counseling
      • The Foci of Therapeutic Interventions: Individual, Professional, Organizational and Societal
      • Social Justice Counseling
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 5 Impact of Systemic Oppression
      • Therapist Credibility and Client Worldviews
      • The Rest of the Story
      • Therapist Credibility and Attractiveness
      • Formation of Individual and Systemic Worldviews
      • Formation of Worldviews
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 6 Microaggressions in Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • Contemporary Forms of Oppression
      • Evolution of the “Isms”: Microaggressions
      • The Dynamics and Dilemmas of Microaggressions
      • Therapeutic Implications
      • Summary
  • Part III The Practice Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling/Therapy
    • Chapter 7 Barriers to Multicultural Counseling and Therapy: Individual and Family Perspectives
      • Identifying Multicultural Therapeutic Issues
      • Generic Characteristics of Counseling/Therapy
      • Culture-Bound Values
      • Class-Bound Values
      • Language Barriers
      • Patterns of “American” Cultural Assumptions and Multicultural Family Counseling/Therapy
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 8 Culturally Appropriate Intervention Skills and Strategies
      • Cultural Expression of Mental Disorders
      • Communication Styles
      • Sociopolitical Facets of Nonverbal Communication
      • Counseling and Therapy as Communication Style
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 9 Multicultural Evidence-Based Practice
      • Evidence-Based Practice and Multiculturalism
      • Evidence-Based Practice and Diversity Issues in Therapy
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 10 Non-Western Indigenous Methods of Healing: Implications for Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
      • Legitimacy of Culture-Bound Syndromes: Nightmare Deaths and the Hmong Sudden Death Phenomenon
      • The Principles of Indigenous Healing
      • Conclusion
      • Summary
      • References
  • Part IV Racial/Cultural Identity Development in Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
    • Chapter 11 Racial/Cultural Identity Development in People of Color: Therapeutic Implications
      • Racial Awakening
      • Racial/Cultural Identity Development Models
      • A Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model
      • Therapeutic Implications of the R/ CID Model
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 12 White Racial Identity Development: Therapeutic Implications
      • What Does It Mean to Be White?
      • The Invisible Whiteness of Being
      • Understanding the Dynamics of Whiteness
      • Models of White Racial Identity Development
      • The Process of White Racial Identity Development: A Descriptive Model
      • Developing a Nonracist and Antiracist White Identity
      • Summary
• Section Two Multicultural Counseling and Specific Populations
  • Part V Understanding Specific Populations
    • Chapter 13 Culturally Competent Assessment
      • Therapist Variables Affecting Diagnosis
      • Cultural Competence and Preventing Diagnostic Errors
      • Contextual and Collaborative Assessment
      • Infusing Cultural Competence into Standard Clinical Assessments
      • References
  • Part VI Counseling and Therapy with Racial/Ethnic Minority Group Populations
    • Chapter 14 Counseling African Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 15 Counseling American Indians and Alaska Natives
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • Alcohol and Substance Abuse
      • References
    • Chapter 16 Counseling Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 17 Counseling Latinos
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 18 Counseling Individuals of Multiracial Descent
      • Multiracialism in the United States
      • Specific Challenges
      • A Multiracial Bill of Rights
      • Multiracial Strengths
      • References
  • Part VII Counseling and Special Circumstances Involving Racial/Ethnic Populations
    • Chapter 19 Counseling Arab and Muslim Americans
      • Arab Americans
      • Muslim Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 20 Counseling Jewish Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 21 Counseling Immigrants and Refugees
      • Challenges and Strengths
      • Counseling Refugees
      • References
  • Part VIII Counseling and Therapy with Other Multicultural Populations
    • Chapter 22 Counseling LGBT Individuals
      • Understanding Sexual Minorities
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 23 Counseling Older Adult Clients
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges of Older Adults
      • References
    • Chapter 24 Counseling Women
      • Specific Challenges
      • Embracing Gender Strengths
      • References
    • Chapter 25 Counseling and Poverty
      • Demographics: Who Are the Poor?
      • Strengths of People Living in Poverty
      • Suggested Guidelines for Counselors
      • References
    • Chapter 26 Counseling Persons with Disabilities
      • Understanding Disabilities
      • The Americans with Disabilities Act
      • Specific Challenges
      • Supports for Individuals with Disabilities
      • Counseling Issues with Individuals with Disabilities
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index

Multiracial in a Monoracial World: Interaciality Informing Academic Work

University of Michigan Hatcher Graduate Library
Gallery (Room 100)
913 S University Ave
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
2015-10-26

Martha Jones, Prof. of History and Afroamerican & African Studies, co-director of the Michigan Law Program in Race, Law & History. Dr. Jones’ scholarly interests include the history of race, citizenship, slavery, and the rights of women in the United States and the Atlantic world.

Edward West, Thurnau Prof. of Art and Design. Professor West’s photographs and writing examine the lives and experiences of multiracial people around the world. His recent exhibit and publication, So Called, drew from his travels around the world photographing multiracial people.

Mark Kamimura-Jimenez, Director, Graduate Student Success, Rackham Graduate School, Lecturer, Oakland University. Dr. Kamimura-Jimenez’s research examines the college experience for multiracial students.

What Does it Mean to be Multiracial in a Monoracial World? Part of a year-long series of events that explore what it means to be multiracial in a monoracial world. This faculty panel includes: Martha Jones, Prof. of History and Afroamerican & African Studies, co-director of the Michigan Law Program in Race, Law & History. Dr. Jones’ scholarly interests include the history of race, citizenship, slavery, and the rights of women in the United States and the Atlantic world. Edward West, Thurnau Prof. of Art and Design. Professor West’s photographs and writing examine the lives and experiences of multiracial people around the world. His recent exhibit and publication, So Called, drew from his travels around the world photographing multiracial people. Mark Kamimura-Jimenez, Director, Graduate Student Success, Rackham Graduate School, Lecturer, Oakland University. Dr. Kamimura-Jimenez’s research examines the college experience for multiracial students.

Watch the entire video (01:34:22) here.

The Free State of Jones Movie to be released May 13, 2016

Renegade South: Histories of Unconventional Southerners
2016-01-05

Vikki Bynum, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History
Texas State University, San Marcos

The Free State of Jones Movie poster

Victoria E. Bynum is author of the book The Free State of Jones, Movie Edition: Mississippi’s Longest Civil War from which the move is based.

Race, Power, and the Obama Legacy

Routledge
2015-10-09
174 pages
Hardback ISBN: 9781612058788
Paperback ISBN: 9781612058795

Pierre Wilbert Orelus, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction
New Mexico State University

This book critically examines Obama’s presidency and legacy, especially in regard to race, inequality, education, and political power. Orelus depicts an “interest convergence factor” that led many White liberals and the corporate media to help Obama get elected in 2008 and 2012. He assesses Obama’s political accomplishments, including parts of his domestic policies that support gay rights and equal pay for women. Special attention is given to Obama’s educational policies, like Race to the Top, and the effects of such policies on both the learning and academic outcome of students, particularly linguistically and culturally diverse students. In a race and power framework, Orelus relates domestic policies to the effects of Obama’s foreign policies on the lives of people in poorer countries, especially where innocent children and women have been killed by war and drone strikes authorized by Obama’s administration. The author invites readers to question and transcend the historical symbolism of Obama’s political victory in an effort to carefully examine and critique his actions as reflected through both his domestic and foreign policies.

Table of Contents

• Foreword by Mike Cole
• Introduction by Curry Malott
• 1. Race, Power, Obama’s Presidency and Legacy
• 2. Obama Dancing with Voucher Capitalism and White Hegemony
• 3. Obama Caught at the Crossroad of Black Masculinity and White Patriarchy
• 4. Obama: A Black Face of the US Imperialist and Neocolonial Power?
• 5. Obama Trapped in Professor Luis Gates’s and Sgt. Crowley’s Racial Storm
• 6. Beyond Obama’s Historical Symbolism: A Conversation with Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• 7. Obama’s Foreign Policy and Its Implications for His legacy
• Afterword by Paul R. Carr