Shaun King Is Not Rachel Dolezal: What the Media Gets Wrong About Race in America

Posted in Articles, History, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Slavery, United States on 2016-01-09 23:59Z by Steven

Shaun King Is Not Rachel Dolezal: What the Media Gets Wrong About Race in America

For Harriet
2015-08-29

Malaika Jabali

As they have in the past, the conservative truth spinners behind the online media outlet Breitbart News Network have initiated an attack against yet another person of color fighting for civil and human rights. The target this time is activist Shaun King, who has been vocal about the police abuse that has permeated our consciousness for over a year. In likening Shaun King to Rachel Dolezal, the network accused King of lying about being half black in order to receive a “Sons of Oprah” scholarship to attend Morehouse College, a historically Black college and university.

There are some obvious logical deficiencies we could point to as to why BNN needs to have a seat. For starters, few Black people could look at Shaun King and identify him as being a completely white man. Race construction involves a composite of man-made ideas, but phenotype is a key feature among them. Plenty of African-Americans and Black people throughout the Diaspora have light-skinned relatives who look like King. While some may have taken a double take, we accepted his identity and let him do him. Even when Rachel Dolezal’s family revealed that she was lying about her race, many Black Americans were more amused than betrayed and took to Twitter to share in a collective laugh

…Blackness didn’t originate with my ancestors’ feelings about how they wanted to self-identify. It was created over a period of centuries through very specific, deliberate constructions in European and white American schools of biology, phrenology, philosophy, anthropology, and political and legal systems to uphold the intrinsic superiority of whiteness and corresponding black inferiority…

Read the entire article here.

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What’s the Difference with “Difference”?

Posted in Communications/Media Studies, Live Events, Media Archive, United States on 2016-01-09 20:48Z by Steven

What’s the Difference with “Difference”?

University of Washington
Kane Hall, Room 120
4069 Spokane Lane
Seattle, Washington 98105
2016-01-14, 19:30 PST (Local Time)

Ralina L. Joseph, Associate Professor
Department of Communication
(also adjunct associate professor in the Departments of American Ethnic Studies and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies)
University of Washington

Language is power. The words we use and the names we say count, both individually and institutionally. This is particularly true when it comes to minoritized, identity-based nomenclature, such as the language of a racialized and gendered naming. The movement from “colored” to “negro” to “black” to “African-American” signifies important historical shifts in the state and community-naming processes. In other words, the words we use matter in terms of how we assess, frame, and ultimately understand difference.

But what about the naming of “difference” itself? Difference is a term that late 20th and early 21st century scholars of race, gender, and sexuality have claimed and yet left largely untheorized. We use the word difference almost reflexively. Difference replaces—or rather revises—diversity, multiculturalism, or a long-connected string of descriptors such as race, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, and ability. But what does this shift in language mean and why is it significant for the ways in which we assess, inhabit, and perhaps even change our world? Does a change to “difference” lead to a change in identity and inequality?

Registration opens December 2015.

You do not need to be an alum of the University of Washington to attend or register.

For more information, click here.

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‘Here Comes Honky!’: Why I Married a White Guy

Posted in Articles, Autobiography, Media Archive, Native Americans/First Nation, United States on 2016-01-09 20:14Z by Steven

‘Here Comes Honky!’: Why I Married a White Guy

Indian Country Today Media Network
2016-01-06

Terese Mailhot

When my sister’s dates pulled into our driveway my mother would yell, “Here comes Honky!” My sister was always livid, embarrassed, but still, she went out with white men most of her adult life. I always thought she was a traitor. I thought someday my Indian prince would come: the son of an activist in braids, with a mind full of theory and a stoic wisdom. But surprisingly I fell in love with a white man, with dusty blond hair and blue eyes.

I was always told we were a dying breed. “Meet a Native man,” my mother said. Blood quantum is important where I’m from. Land rights, healthcare, housing, and assistance all deal with blood quantum and how Indian one is ‘officially.’ Besides that, marrying Native was always what I dreamed of.

For generations Native women could not govern their own bodies, because white men and officials dictated we were their wards. We were subject to exploitation, objectification, and degradation at the hands of white people. Why would I ever want to give my body or love to a white man, a man who could never understand my grief or lineage?…

Read the entire article here.

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President Barack Obama: A More Perfect Union

Posted in Barack Obama, Books, Media Archive, Monographs, Politics/Public Policy, United States on 2016-01-09 01:53Z by Steven

President Barack Obama: A More Perfect Union

Routledge
2010
272 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9781594514777

John K. Wilson

Barack Obama’s “improbable quest” has become a fact of American life and a benchmark in American history. Striving now toward “a more perfect union,” Obama and the nation confront obstacles unforeseen at the outset of the 2008 electoral campaign. John K. Wilson tracks the sweep of this progress from the beginning of Obama’s political career through his move into the White House. With his critical journalistic eye and his sympathetic “native son” perspective, Wilson shows us a side of Obama we haven’t seen as well as a view of the media we need to understand-even more now as the Obama administration begins to govern. The paperback edition of this popular book includes a new introduction, updates throughout, and two new chapters on the electoral victory and the transition from campaigning into governing. New photos and new insights include a focus on the continued importance of race in American politics.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction to the Paperback Edition
  • Chapter 1: Generation Obama: The Youth Movement for Barack
  • Chapter 2: Are You Experienced? Obama and the Media
  • Chapter 3: Race and the President: Is Obama Black Enough?
  • Chapter 4: The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy: The Conservative Attack on Obama
  • Chapter 5: Why Leftists Hate A Liberal: The Far Left Attacks on Obama
  • Chapter 6: “This Is My House, Too”: Obama and the Liberal God
  • Chapter 7: From Quest to Reality: Politics and Policy in an Obama Administration
  • Chapter 8: The Victory: Barack Obama’s Improbable Triumph
  • Chapter 9: The Obama Administration: Turning Hope into Change Conclusion: Obama’s Hopes and Dreams
  • Notes
  • Index
  • About the Author
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Racial Realities and Post-Racial Dreams: The Age of Obama and Beyond

Posted in Barack Obama, Books, Economics, Media Archive, Monographs, Philosophy, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States on 2016-01-08 03:17Z by Steven

Racial Realities and Post-Racial Dreams: The Age of Obama and Beyond

Broadview Press
2016-01-05
190 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9781554813162

Julius Bailey, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio

Racial Realities and Post-Racial Dreams is a moral call, a harkening and quickening of the spirit, a demand for recognition for those whose voices are whispered. Julius Bailey straddles the fence of social-science research and philosophy, using empirical data and current affairs to direct his empathy-laced discourse. He turns his eye to President Obama and his critics, racism, income inequality, poverty, and xenophobia, guided by a prophetic thread that calls like-minded visionaries and progressives to action. The book is an honest look at the current state of our professed city on a hill and the destruction left on the darker sides of town.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword by Rev. Dr. Michael L. Pfleger
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: “I, Too, Sing America”
  • Chapter 1: “I Can’t Breathe!” “So What! F??? Your Breath”
  • Chapter 2: Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America
  • Chapter 3: Racism: The Long March to Freedom and the New Jim Crow
  • Chapter 4: Xenophobia: America Inside Out
  • Chapter 5: Poverty: A Load Too Heavy to Bear
  • Chapter 6: Income Inequality: The Unbridgeable Gap
  • Chapter 7: Repositioning the Moral Arc
  • Works Cited
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Al Sharpton says some criticism of de Blasio is related to his mixed race family

Posted in Articles, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, United States on 2016-01-08 03:12Z by Steven

Al Sharpton says some criticism of de Blasio is related to his mixed race family

The New York Daily News
2016-01-05

Jennifer Fermino, City Hall Bureau Chief

The Rev. Al Sharpton thinks that some of Mayor de Blasio’s woes stem from his mixed race family.

Speaking Tuesday morning at an interfaith breakfast, Sharpton said that de Blasio, whose wife is black and has two mixed-race kids, and President Obama have upset the status quo.

“We elected a President of a different race, and a different bent. And not long after this city elected a mayor, after years of developers and others setting the tone in this city, that set a different tone in New York,” said Sharpton.

“And when many looked up and saw an African-American family in the White House, and a biracial family in Gracie Mansion at the same time, they tried to trump them.”

The comment — and veiled barb at White House contender Donald Trump — drew laughter from the crowd, which included many faith leaders as well as de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray.

“God always has the prophets for the time in which they live,” said Sharpton.

“You’re in the age of Obama. You’re in the age of de Blasio. Put away your sermons from the age of Nixon.”…

Read the entire article here.

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The Story of French New Orleans: History of a Creole City

Posted in Books, History, Louisiana, Media Archive, Monographs, United States on 2016-01-08 02:24Z by Steven

The Story of French New Orleans: History of a Creole City

University Press of Mississippi
January 2016
208 pages (approx.)
1 map, bibliography, index
6 x 9 inches
Hardcover ISBN: 9781496804860

Dianne Guenin-Lelle, Professor of French
Albion College, Albion, Michigan

Why New Orleans is considered America’s distinctly French city

What is it about the city of New Orleans History, location, and culture, continue to link it to France while distancing it culturally and symbolically from the United States. This book explores the traces of French language, history, and artistic expression that have been present there over the last three hundred years. This volume focuses on the French, Spanish, and American colonial periods to understand the imprint that French socio-cultural dynamic left on the Crescent City.

The migration of Acadians to New Orleans at the time the city became a Spanish dominion and the arrival of Haitian refugees when the city became an American territory oddly reinforced its Francophone identity. However, in the process of establishing itself as an urban space in the antebellum south, the culture of New Orleans became a liability for New Orleans elite after the Louisiana Purchase.

New Orleans and the Caribbean share numerous historical, cultural, and linguistic connections. The book analyzes these connections and the shared process of creolization occurring in New Orleans and throughout the Caribbean Basin. It suggests “French” New Orleans might be understood as a trope for unscripted “original” Creole social and cultural elements. Since being Creole came to connote African descent, the study suggests that an association with France in the minds of whites allowed for a less racially-bound and contested social order within the United States.

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BOOK REVIEW – Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World

Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Book/Video Reviews, Family/Parenting, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2016-01-06 02:22Z by Steven

BOOK REVIEW – Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World

Mixed Roots Stories
2015-12-10

Chandra Crudup, PhD, MSW

Sharon H. Chang’s inaugural book, Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World, lays out a blue print that outlines the history of white supremacy and how it has corrupted the way people treat each other, specifically Mixed Race/Multiracial and Multiracial Asian individuals. She develops an important foundation that provides a glimmer of hope for moving forward toward improving our future world, despite the powerful suppressive system before us.

The title might make you think it is a parenting book, and it is (or could be), but it so much more! The language/verbiage used in the book makes this potentially academic/research strong book accessible for those who might have the most questions…parents. Though this book has a focus on multiracial Asian children, it is not just a book for parents of multiracial Asian children. It is a book for all children of color…and even for parents of white children! This book is for anyone who comes in contact with children in any way. This means if you are a teacher/educator, a child care worker, do research with children or on race and intersectionaility…or if you are a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or once was a child. This book is for everyone!…

Read the entire review here.

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Multiracial Identity Recognition – Why Not? A Comparison Between Multiracialism in the United States and Brazil

Posted in Brazil, Caribbean/Latin America, Census/Demographics, Dissertations, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States on 2016-01-05 19:08Z by Steven

Multiracial Identity Recognition – Why Not? A Comparison Between Multiracialism in the United States and Brazil

University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2015
143 pages

Ana Carolina Miguel Gouveia

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a LLM Master degree in Law Graduate Studies in Law

Scholars debate the importance of multiracial identity recognition as the increasing number of self-identified multiracial individuals challenges traditional racial categories. Two reasons justify the count of multiracial individuals on censuses. One is the right to self-identification, derived from personal autonomy. The other is social: the category allows governments to accurately assess affirmative action programs’ results and society’s acceptance of multiracialism. Critical Race Theory and Critical Mixed-Race Studies serve as basis for my analysis over multiracial identity formation and its recognition. Comparing multiracialism in America and Brazil, I verify that both countries are in different stages regarding categorization and social acceptance of multiracial identity. Neither uses multiracial data for social programs, though. I conclude that the growth of mixed-race individuals makes the identification of race-based social programs’ beneficiaries difficult, which demands the use of diverse criteria. Moreover, official recognition can serve to improve the way society deals with race.

Read the entire thesis here.

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From the Archives: Adrian Piper’s “Blacks, Whites and Other Mythic Beings”

Posted in Articles, Arts, Identity Development/Psychology, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Philosophy, United States on 2016-01-05 01:58Z by Steven

From the Archives: Adrian Piper’s “Blacks, Whites and Other Mythic Beings”

Art in America
2015-05-29 (Orignially published November 2001)

Eleanor Heartney

Adrian Piper, the uncompromising Berlin-based American artist and philosopher whose work applies the rigorous strictures of conceptual art to questions of race and identity, was awarded a Golden Lion award at the 56th Venice Biennale earlier this month. Piper received the honor for her participation in “All the World’s Futures,” where she showed The Probable Trust Registry. The piece asks participants to pledge to live by one or more of the following tenets: “I will mean everything I say”; “I will do everything I say I will do”; and “I will always be too expensive to buy.”

In this A.i.A. article from the November 2001 issue, reproduced below, contributing editor Eleanor Heartney reflects on Piper’s tendency “to favor the confrontational over the conciliatory” on the occasion of several traveling retrospectives of her work.

Blacks, Whites and Other Mythic Beings

By Eleanor Heartney

Adrian Piper has long pursued twin careers in art and philosophy. In response to a traveling retrospective, the author ponders the artistic consequences—and seeming contradictions—of Piper’s analytical observations about race.

Does race exist? Henry Louis Gates, Jr., among others, believes not. Labeling race a biological myth, the Harvard scholar has added that from a social and political perspective, race is best understood as a metaphor for something else and not an essence or a thing in itself. [1]

Adrian Piper’s career has been, in one sense, an exploration of this theory. As a light-skinned black woman who, she points out in works like Colored (1988) and My Calling (Cards), 1986-90, could easily pass for white, Piper questions the validity of racial categorization and examines the prevalence of social stereotyping. If race cannot be defined by science or be determined by a person’s visual appearance, she asks, why does it continue to retain such a powerful hold on the human psyche? And what, if anything, can be done to expose its artificiality in a way that will destroy its power?

Many artists have explored the subject of race in recent years, but Piper has been conducting her inquiry from a rather uncommon position. For the last quarter century she has pursued parallel careers as a visual artist with an extensive international exhibition history and as a professor of philosophy, currently on the faculty of Wellesley College. If autobiography provided the starting point for her exploration of race and racism, philosophy has shaped the form of her inquiries. But in the process, the application of abstract philosophical principles to this seemingly intractable social problem produces certain contradictions which suggest that even Piper is not immune to the insidious fictions of race…

Read the entire article here.

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