Mixed Race Studies – Page 33 – Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

All mixed up: Multiracial students at CVHS say they don’t fit in one box

2022-02-21

All mixed up: Multiracial students at CVHS say they don’t fit in one box

The Upstream: The Student-Run News Site of Carnegie Vanguard High School
Houston, Texas

2022-02-02

Sofia Hegstrom, Contributing Writer

Noah Mohamed, Staff Writer

Senior Xen Villareal identifies as mixed-race indigenous and is one-quarter Black.
Photo courtesy of Xen Villareal

My eyebrows furrowed as I stared blankly at the question in front of me. My pencil hovered hesitantly over the scholarship form, which posed the question- What is your race?, followed by a bolded phrase: Please select one answer.

This is perhaps one of the most universal experiences for Multiracial Americans. After all, the official census only allowed checking more than one box in the year 2000. However, only recently has this become the norm. And while something like being forced to check the ‘other’ box on an occasional survey may seem trivial, it is indicative of the larger erasure and invalidation of Multiracial identity.

Junior Muna Jallad understood she was bi-racial when she was first asked to fill out school enrollment forms.

“In middle school when I was filling out forms and when they would say check only one race I’d be like, ‘What do I do here? Other? do I put White, do I put Asian?’ so I feel it kind of clicked then,” said Jallad.

Xen Villareal, who identifies as mixed-race indigenous and is one-quarter Black, also grew up confused about his race…

Read the entire article here.
Mitski Doesn’t Bother With Labels. She Prefers Excellence

2022-02-21

Mitski Doesn’t Bother With Labels. She Prefers Excellence

Westworld
2017-07-14

Tom Murphy

Mitski Ebru Yildiz

Mitski Miyawaki, who performs with her band under her first name, grew up in a biracial, multicultural household. During her childhood, Mitski lived in Japan, Malaysia, China, Turkey and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But it wasn’t until she returned to the U.S. that she had a racial designation imposed on her.

“I discovered I was an Asian American when I arrived in the U.S.,” says Mitski. “I didn’t identify as that before I came here. People started calling me that, and I started being treated in a specific way.”

In the U.S., Mitski was regularly asked what most biracial people – her being half Japanese and half Caucasian American – are asked at least once in their lives: “What ARE you?” Mitski doesn’t particularly identify with American or Japanese culture, and her parents didn’t encourage her to choose or adopt either.

“I think growing up the way I did has made me a lot more objective, and that’s important in the process of writing and trying to look at subjective matter that way,” observes Mitski. “Being an outsider at the time nurtured my eye as a writer.”…

Read the entire article here.
My Heritage Is Mixed Race. Chances Are Decent That Yours Is, Too

2022-02-21

My Heritage Is Mixed Race. Chances Are Decent That Yours Is, Too

The Daily Beast
2019-09-09

Sophia A. Nelson

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty

Many African-Americans like me have some white blood in our veins. And of course it stands to reason that the opposite is true. We must tell these stories.

My great grandfathers were white men. Both of them loved and married black women at great peril to themselves and all they possessed. Miscegenation laws in America forbade interracial marriage until the landmark Loving vs. Virginia case of 1967 (the year I was born). So, if they wanted to marry the women they loved, they could not remain in the deep South. They had to flee to border states or free states in order to marry and survive.

My paternal great grandfather, Joseph Bardsley Nelson, was an Irishman from North Carolina. He met and fell in love with a mixed race (African American and Cherokee) woman named Ida from South Carolina. How they crossed paths is unknown, but “pop,” as we called him, was a soldier in World War I, and likely underwent basic training in South Carolina. Word of their forbidden relationship spread in the community, and family oral history says they had to flee in the night and make their way to Philadelphia and then to New Jersey, where they lived until they died.

Pop worked along with his brother Elliot as a bricklayer for the famous Kelly family in Philadelphia. Yes, that Kelly family (as in Grace Kelly). Great grandmother Ida was a seamstress and homemaker. She had two children, my paternal grandmother Dora and her brother, Bardsley. Nana, as we called her, could “pass” for white; her brother Joe looked more Indian and could not…

Read the entire article here.
Why Chinese Americans Are Talking About Eileen Gu

2022-02-21

Why Chinese Americans Are Talking About Eileen Gu

The New York Times
2022-02-18

Ashley Wong

Whether or not they agreed with her choices, many Chinese Americans said Eileen Gu’s comments about her identity resonated with them. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The critical crossfire Ms. Gu has faced has implications that go far beyond the Olympic slopes, Chinese Americans say. And some see themselves in the duality she has embraced.

When it comes to Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old Olympic gold medalist freestyle skier who was born in San Francisco but competed for China, Chinese Americans have lots of opinions.

There are those who love her, moved by her ability to soar over treacherous slopes with ease. Others are inspired by her efforts to navigate the uneasy political tension between two countries and cultures. Some believe she chose to represent China simply to cash in on the lucrative opportunities it has afforded her.

But like her or not, many Chinese Americans interviewed in the New York region this week agreed on one thing: When Ms. Gu says, as she often does, “When I’m in the U.S., I’m American, but when I’m in China, I’m Chinese,” it resonates with them.

“I think what I’m seeing is somebody who isn’t afraid to love her identities and share that with people,” said Sarah Belle Lin, 28, a Harlem resident. “I think it’s so brave, actually, for her to speak about that on a public platform.”…

Read the entire article here.
The U.S. census sees Middle Eastern and North African people as white. Many don’t

2022-02-21

The U.S. census sees Middle Eastern and North African people as white. Many don’t

National Public Radio
2022-02-17

Hansi Lo Wang, Correspondent, National Desk

Federal government standards require the U.S. census to count people with roots in the Middle East or North Africa as white. But a new study finds many people of MENA descent do not see themselves as white, and neither do many white people.
OsakaWayne Studios/Getty Images

There’s a reality about race in the U.S. that has confounded many people of Middle Eastern or North African descent.

The federal government officially categorizes people with origins in Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and other countries in the MENA region as white.

But that racial identity has not matched the discrimination in housing, at work and through other parts of daily life that many say they have faced.

Younger people of MENA descent have “had a plethora of different experiences that made them feel that some of their experiences were actually closer to communities of color in the U.S.,” says Neda Maghbouleh, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, who has conducted research on the topic.

The paradox has been hard to show through data…

Read the entire article here.
Which skin color emoji should you use? The answer can be more complex than you think

2022-02-21

Which skin color emoji should you use? The answer can be more complex than you think

National Public Radio
2022-02-09

Alejandra Marquez Janse

Asma Khalid, White House Correspondent

Patrick Jarenwattananon, Host of NPR Music’s A Blog Supreme

Choosing a skin tone emoji can open a complex conversation about race and identity for some.
Catie Dull/NPR

Heath Racela identifies as three-quarters white and one-quarter Filipino. When texting, he chooses a yellow emoji instead of a skin tone option, because he feels it doesn’t represent any specific ethnicity or color.

He doesn’t want people to view his texts in a particular way. He wants to go with what he sees as the neutral option and focus on the message.

“I present as very pale, very light skinned. And if I use the white emoji, I feel like I’m betraying the part of myself that’s Filipino,” Racela, of Littleton, Mass., said. “But if I use a darker color emoji, which maybe more closely matches what I see when I look at my whole family, it’s not what the world sees, and people tend to judge that.”

In 2015, five skin tone options became available for hand gesture emojis, in addition to the default Simpsons-like yellow. Choosing one can be a simple texting shortcut for some, but for others it opens a complex conversation about race and identity…

Read the entire story here.
Wishaw twins open up on racism and urge people to support Black Lives Matter protest

2022-02-21

Wishaw twins open up on racism and urge people to support Black Lives Matter protest

Daily Record
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
2020-06-10

Michael Pringle, Reporter

Wishaw twins Aleisha and Lauryn Omeike (Image: Stuart Vance/Wishaw Press)

Aleisha and Lauryn Omeike have spoken out about the racism they endured as children and called for better education on the matter in Scottish schools, as the BLM movement gathers momentum with protests in cities across the world.

Craigneuk twins who grew up wishing they were white are urging more people to support the Black Lives Matter movement and help change racist attitudes.

Aleisha and Lauryn Omeike have spoken out about the racism they endured as children and called for better education on the matter in Scottish schools, as the BLM movement gathers momentum with protests in cities across the world.

The mixed-race 19-year-olds’ dad Steve is Nigerian and their mum Pamela is Scottish.

They have revealed they wanted to be white so they didn’t have to be different while growing up in Wishaw.

“I blew out my seventh birthday candles and wished to be white so I wouldn’t have to face constant abuse and being attacked because of the colour of my skin,” Lauryn said.

“It was just so I wouldn’t be different anymore…

Read the entire article here.
On Reading Dialect in Harper’s ‘Iola Leroy’

2022-02-20

On Reading Dialect in Harper’s ‘Iola Leroy’

The Dickens Project
2021-12-08

A roundtable conversation with Brigitte Fielder (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Eric Gardner (Saginaw Valley State University), Jennifer James (George Washington University), Derrick R. Spires (Cornell University), and Richard Yarborough (University of California, Los Angeles).

We staged this conversation with expert scholars in nineteenth-century African American literary studies in order to give viewers a glimpse into the ongoing conversations about Black dialect in US literature, African American literature, and [Frances E. W.] Harper’s novel. This glimpse appears in the form of a roundtable discussion with teacher-scholars who have written about Harper, taught her work, and engaged deeply in conversations on this complex topic with students, colleagues, and the broader public.

Watch the discussion (01:06:07) here.
Poland’s multicultural music landscape: from Afro-Polish folk to Polish jazz from Peru

2022-02-20

Poland’s multicultural music landscape: from Afro-Polish folk to Polish jazz from Peru

Notes From Poland
2022-02-17

Zula Rabikowska

Poland is often depicted as an ethnically homogeneous country, and in some senses it is. Contemporary Polish identity, however, is more complex and diverse than is often represented in the media, and the markers of Polishness are changing.

Historically, Poland was a multicultural country, with a third of its population composed of minorities. That rich legacy is still reflected in contemporary culture, from food to literature and art.

Though the death, destruction and displacement of World War Two ended that ethnic diversity, the postwar era was marked by migrations from fellow communist countries, in particular Vietnam. And in recent years, Poland has recorded one of Europe’s highest rates of immigration…

Read the entire article here.
Beyonce and Zendaya in talks to team up to remake the 1959 film Imitation Of Life – with superstar singer as producer

2022-02-20

Beyonce and Zendaya in talks to team up to remake the 1959 film Imitation Of Life – with superstar singer as producer

The Sun
London, United Kingdom
2022-02-17

Simon Boyle, Executive Showbiz Editor

THEY are two of the most in-demand people in showbiz and Beyonce and Zendaya are now in talks to team up.

I hear both have had early discussions about creating a remake of movie classic Imitation Of Life.

The groundbreaking 1934 film, remade in 1959 starring Lana Turner, grapples with questions of race, class and gender as an aspiring white actress takes in an African-American widow whose mixed-race daughter longs to pass as white…

Read the entire article here.

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