Not-Black by Default

Posted in Articles, Barack Obama, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States on 2010-05-25 02:16Z by Steven

Not-Black by Default

The Nation
Diary of a Mad Law Professor
2010-04-21

Patricia J. Williams, James L. Dohr Professor of Law
Columbia University

Most people who appear phenotypically “black” don’t play around when the government asks them to report their race.

Last week, Melissa Harris-Lacewell wrote an insightful column, “Black by Choice,” about President Obama’s having checked the box marked “Black, African American or Negro” on his Census form. As she notes, despite the way his complex heritage both disrupts “standard definitions of blackness” and creates “a definitional crisis for whiteness,” in American culture “having a white parent has never meant becoming white” if one also has an African-descended parent…

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America’s Mixed-Race Kids Examine Their Identity

Posted in Articles, Arts, New Media, Social Science, United States on 2010-05-25 00:42Z by Steven

America’s Mixed-Race Kids Examine Their Identity

Voice of America News
2010-05-05

Faiza Elmasry
Washington, DC

Photographs celebrate richness and beauty of multiracial society

At least seven million Americans identify themselves as belonging to more than one race, and interest is rapidly growing in issues of multi-racial identity.

In his new book, “Mixed: [Portraits of Multiracial Kids],” writer and artist Kip Fulbeck presents a collection of portraits celebrating the faces of mixed-race children.

Kip Fulbeck grew up in a multi-racial family.

His father was English, Irish and Welsh. He had a Chinese mother and Chinese step-siblings. At home, he says, he was considered the white kid, but at school he was the Asian kid. Exploring the multi-racial identity has inspired Fulbeck’s works, including his recent photography book…

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