Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

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Category: Barack Obama

  • Mixed-Race Celebrities on Race, in their Own Words

    Mixed-Race Celebrities on Race, in their Own Words Time Magazine: Healthland 2011-02-15 Meredith Melnick, Reporter and Producer Who Are You? If biracial and multiracial celebrities have anything in common, it is that they are often asked to explain themselves. That may sound familiar to any person of mixed ancestry for whom questions like “What are…

  • Determining the (In)Determinable: Race in Brazil and the United States

    Determining the (In)Determinable: Race in Brazil and the United States Michigan Journal of Race & Law Volume 14, Issue 2 (Spring 2009) pages 143-195 D. Wendy Greene, Assistant Professor of Law Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama Recently, the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Mato Grasso du Sol have implemented…

  • Why Do We Consider Obama to Be Black?

    Why Do We Consider Obama to Be Black? New America Media Commentary 2008-10-25 Ronald Takaki (1939-2009), Emeritus Professor of Ethnic Studies University of California, Berkeley A historical look at the the persistence of the “one drop” rule. Editor’s Note: Historian and scholar Ronald Takaki uncovers the origins of the “one drop” rule that was key…

  • Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above

    Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above The New York Times 2011-01-29 Susan Saulny, National Correspondent Race Remixed: A New Sense of Identity. Articles in this series will explore the growing number of mixed-race Americans. COLLEGE PARK, Md.—In another time or place, the game of “What Are You?” that was played…

  • Why Obama is African American, Not Biracial

    Why Obama is African American, Not Biracial New America Media Commentary 2008-12-18 Earl Ofari Hutchinson Here’s the ‘What is President-elect Barack Obama—black, biracial or multiracial?’ quiz. If he did not have one of the world’s most recognizable names and faces, he would fume at being turned away from restaurants, bypassed by taxis, racially profiled by…

  • Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

    “Dreams from My Father” tells the story of Obama’s struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African father and white American mother—a struggle that takes him from the American heartland to the ancestral home of his great-aunt in the tiny African village of Alego.

  • The Hapa Project: How multiracial identity crosses oceans

    The Hapa Project: How multiracial identity crosses oceans UH Today University of Hawai`i Spring 2007 Alana Folen and Tina Ng Hawai`i—often overlooked as nothing more than a scenic paradise—recently started to live up to its “melting pot” reputation when a U.S. senator representing Illinois formally announced his presidential candidacy. With personal ties to Hawai`i, Sen.…

  • Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race

    Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race The New York TImes 2008-03-31 Mireya Navarro Jenifer Bratter once wore a T-shirt in college that read “100 percent black woman.” Her African-American friends would not have it. “I remember getting a lot of flak because of the fact I wasn’t 100 percent black,” said Ms. Bratter,…

  • He’s Black, Get Over It

    He’s Black, Get Over It The American Prospect 2008-12-05 Adam Serwer We may not have chosen to be a hybrid people, anymore than we chose to come here in the first place, but that’s what we are now. And it’s a beautiful thing. In a provocatively titled op-ed for The Washington Post last Sunday, Marie…

  • He’s Not Black

    He’s Not Black The Washington Post 2008-11-30   Marie Arana He is also half white. Unless the one-drop rule still applies, our president-elect is not black. We call him that—he calls himself that—because we use dated language and logic. After more than 300 years and much difficult history, we hew to the old racist rule:…