Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

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  • Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22

    Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22

    HarperCollins
    2011-03-15
    336 pages
    Trimsize: 6 3/4 x 9 1/4
    Paperback ISBN: 9780062009234; ISBN10: 0062009230
    eBook ISBN: 9780062078650; ISBN10: 0062078658

    MariNaomi

    From her father and mother’s interracial marriage to her own “you show me yours, I’ll show you mine” moments on the playground—from drug experimentation to sexual/identity questions—MariNaomi lays her inner life bare. Kiss & Tell is her funny and frank memoir in graphic form: a fresh and offbeat coming-of-age story unfolding against the colorful backdrop of San Francisco in the ’80s and ’90s. Through deft storytelling and charming illustration, MariNaomi carries us through first love and worst love, through heartbreak and bedroom experimentation, as she grows from misfit teen to young woman.

  • ‘Americanah’ Author Explains ‘Learning’ To Be Black In The U.S.

    ‘Americanah’ Author Explains ‘Learning’ To Be Black In The U.S.

    Fresh Air from WHYY
    National Public Radio
    2013-06-27

    Terry Gross, Host

    When the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was growing up in Nigeria she was not used to being identified by the color of her skin. That changed when she arrived in the United States for college. As a black African in America, Adichie was suddenly confronted with what it meant to be a person of color in the United States. Race as an idea became something that she had to navigate and learn.

    The learning process took some time and was episodic. Adichie recalls, for example, an undergraduate class in which the subject of watermelon came up. A student had said something about watermelon to an African-American classmate, who was offended by the comment.

    “I remember sitting there thinking, ‘But what’s so bad about watermelons? Because I quite like watermelons,’ ” Adichie tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross.

    She felt that her African-American classmate was annoyed with her because Adichie didn’t share her anger — but she didn’t have the context to understand why. The history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade was not taught to students in Nigeria. Adichie had yet to learn fully about the history of slavery — and its continuing reverberations — in the U.S.

    “Race is such a strange construct,” says Adichie, “because you have to learn what it means to be black in America. So you have to learn that watermelon is supposed to be offensive.”

    Adichie is a MacArthur Fellowship winner and author of the novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of A Yellow Sun. Her new novel, Americanah, explores this question of what it means to be black in the U.S., and tells the story of a young Nigerian couple, one of whom leaves for England and the other of whom leaves for America.

    The title, she says, is a Nigerian word for those who have been to the U.S. and return with American affectations.

    “It’s often used,” she says, “in the context of a kind of gentle mockery.”…

    Read the transcript here. Listen to the interview here. Download the interview here.

  • Racial Capitalism

    Racial Capitalism

    Harvard Law Review
    Volume 126, Number 8 (June 2013)
    pages 2151-2226

    Nancy Leong, Associate Professor
    University of Denver, Sturm College of Law

    Racial capitalism—the process of deriving social and economic value from racial identity—is a longstanding, common, and deeply problematic practice. This Article is the first to identify racial capitalism as a systemic phenomenon and to undertake a close examination of its causes and consequences.

    The Article focuses on instances of racial capitalism in which white individuals and predominantly white institutions use non-white people to acquire social and economic value. Our affirmative action doctrine provides much of the impetus for this form of racial capitalism. That doctrine has fueled an intense legal and social preoccupation with the notion of diversity, which encourages white individuals and predominantly white institutions to engage in racial capitalism by using non-white people to acquire social and economic value. An examination of these consequences is particularly timely given the Supreme Court’s recent grant of certiorari in Fisher v. University of Texas.

    Racial capitalism has serious negative consequences both for individuals and for society as a whole. The process of racial capitalism requires commodification of racial identity, which degrades that identity by reducing it to another thing to be bought and sold. Commodification also fosters racial resentment by causing non-white people to feel used or exploited by white people. And the superficial value assigned to non-whiteness within a system of racial capitalism displaces measures that would lead to meaningful social reform.

    In an ideal society, commodification of racial identity would not occur. Given the imperfections of our current society, however, the Article instead proposes a pragmatic approach of reactive commodification. Under this approach, we would discourage commodification of race. But if commodification did occur, we would identify it as commodification, call attention to its harms, and ensure that non-white individuals received compensation for the value derived from their racial identity. This approach would ultimately allow progress toward a society in which we successfully recognize and respect racial identity without engaging in racial capitalism.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    • INTRODUCTION
    • I. Valuing Race
      • A. Whiteness as Property
      • B. Diversity as Revaluation
      • C. The Worth of Non-Whiteness
    • II. A Theory of Racial Capital
      • A. Race as Marxian Capital
      • B. Race as Social Capital
      • C. Racial Capital
    • III. Critiquing Racial Capitalism
      • A. Commodification
      • B. Individual Harms
        • 1. Fractured Identity
        • 2. Performance Demands
        • 3. Economic Disadvantage
      • C. Social Harms
        • 1. Impoverished Discourse
        • 2. Racial Resentment
        • 3. Displaced Reform
    • IV. A Way Forward
    • CONCLUSION

    …This Article is the first to identify racial capitalism as a systemic phenomenon and the first to describe the way that non-whiteness, in particular, is capitalized. Of course, assigning value to race is nothing new for America. Whiteness has been a source of value throughout our history, conferring power and privilege on the possessor. Courts have recognized the value of whiteness—for example, they have held that calling a white person “black” constitutes defamation and therefore qualifies for legal redress. Litigants have also acknowledged the value of whiteness—for example, in Plessy v. Ferguson, Homer Plessy referred to his racial identity as the “most valuable sort of property.” And scholars have examined the value of whiteness—for example, Cheryl Harris’ acclaimed work Whiteness as Property posits that whiteness is a kind of “status property” that can be both analogized to conventional forms of property and literally converted to those forms…

    Read the entire article here.

  • A Nation of Mutts

    A Nation of Mutts

    The New York Times
    2013-06-28

    David Brooks

    Over the past few decades, American society has been transformed in a fit of absence of mind. First, we’ve gone from a low immigrant nation to a high immigrant nation. If you grew up between 1950 and 1985, you grew up at a time when only about 5 percent or 6 percent of American residents were foreign born. Today, roughly 13 percent of American residents are foreign born, and we’re possibly heading to 15 percent.

    Moreover, up until now, America was primarily an outpost of European civilization. Between 1830 and 1880, 80 percent of the immigrants came from Northern and Western Europe. Over the following decades, the bulk came from Southern and Central Europe. In 1960, 75 percent of the foreign-born population came from Europe, with European ideas and European heritage.

    Soon, we will no longer be an outpost of Europe, but a nation of mutts, a nation with hundreds of fluid ethnicities from around the world, intermarrying and intermingling. Americans of European descent are already a minority among 5-year-olds. European-Americans will be a minority over all in 30 years at the latest, and probably sooner…

    …Soon there will be no dominant block, just complex networks of fluid streams — Vietnamese, Bengalis, Kazakhs. It’s a bit like the end of the cold war when bipolar thinking had to give way to a radically multipolar mind-set.

    Because high immigration is taking place at a time of unprecedentedly low ethnic hostility, we’re seeing high rates of intermarriage. This creates large numbers of hybrid individuals, biracial or triracial people with names like Enrique Cohen-Chan. These people transcend existing categories and soften the social boundaries between groups.

    This won’t lead to a bland mélange America but probably a move to ethnic re-orthodoxy. As Alvaro Vargas Llosa points out in his book, “Global Crossings,” the typical pattern is that the more third-generation people assimilate, the more they also value their ethnic roots. We could soon see people with completely unaccented English joining Chinese-American Federations and Honduran-American Support Networks…

    Read the entire opinion piece here.

  • ‘One Drop of Love’ (Theatre Review)

    ‘One Drop of Love’ (Theatre Review)

    The Chic of Domesticity: A Woman-to-Women Conversation on All Facets of Life – Fashion – Politics – Religion – Style – Travel
    2013-06-29

    Jennifer Vaughn-Estrada

    Plans free for tomorrow evening? I recommend catching the final performance of One Drop of Love: A Daughter’s Search for Her Father’s Racial Approval at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Race is an uncomfortable, and often confusing, subject for us “mixies,” and Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, co-founder of the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival, addresses it head on in this one-woman play about identities, stereotypes, and family frustrations…

    Read the entire review here.

  • Obama hails Mandela ‘inspiration’ in South Africa visit

    Obama hails Mandela ‘inspiration’ in South Africa visit

    BBC News
    2013-06-29

    US President Barack Obama has praised Nelson Mandela as “an inspiration to the world” while visiting South Africa.

    The US leader, who was speaking in Pretoria after talks with President Jacob Zuma, does not intend to visit the 94-year-old, who has been critically ill for nearly a week.

    But he met the Mandela family in private and spoke by telephone to his wife, Graça Machel.

    Riot police clashed with anti-Obama protesters in Soweto.

    The American leader was in Soweto to deliver a speech to young African leaders at the University of Johannesburg.

    According to Mr Zuma, Mr Mandela remains “stable but critical”, and he added that he had “every hope that he will be out of hospital soon”.

    However, South Africa’s last apartheid president and the man jointly awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr Mandela, FW de Klerk, is to cut short a visit to Europe due to Mr Mandela’s poor health, his foundation said in a statement…

    …Mrs Machel, who remains by Mr Mandela’s side in the hospital in Pretoria, said after their phone call that she had conveyed their “messages of strength and inspiration” to her husband.

    Mr Zuma said that as the first black leaders of their respective countries, Mr Obama and Mr Mandela were “bound by history” and so “carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa and in the diaspora who were previously oppressed”…

    Read the entire article here.

  • Miracle Fruit

    Miracle Fruit

    Tupelo Press
    2003
    86 pages
    9.1 x 6 x 0.3 inches
    Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9710310-8-1

    Aimee Nezhukumatathil

    As three worlds collide, a mother’s Philippines, a father’s India, and the poet’s contemporary America, the resulting impressions are chronicled in this collection of incisive and penetrating verse. The writer weaves her words carefully into a wise and affecting embroidery that celebrates the senses while remaining down-to-earth and genuine.

  • ‘Soy Yo!’: Play explores being multi-racial in a world where race matters

    ‘Soy Yo!’: Play explores being multi-racial in a world where race matters

    St. Louis Beacon
    2013-06-26

    Nancy Fowler

    Parents, can you even imagine being accused of kidnapping your own children? It happened to Shari LeKane-Yentumi of University City.

    The reason was race. She’s white, her husband’s black. Their three children are both; and in our society, “both” often reads: black.

    It was the mid-1990s. LeKane-Yentumi opened her door to the accusing faces of state officials. Someone had seen a white woman shepherding a black toddler and baby across a grocery-store parking lot on Lindell in St. Louis City, and called the authorities.

    “It was reported that I had children who were not mine,” LeKane-Yentumi said. “And I was investigated.”

    A review of birth certificates and other documentation settled that situation. But the demoralizing incident put LeKane-Yentumi on alert whenever she left the inclusiveness of her own community.

    Being multi-racial—with African, Caribbean, European and Native American heritage—also forces the Yentumi children, now young adults, to deny much of their identity when they have to check a single box.

    LIke the loose translation of “Soy Yo!,” an upcoming local play about being multi-racial, the Yentumi children believe, “I Am Me.” They and their friends, who are mostly multi-racial, reject narrow definitions of “black,” “white” and other such categories.

    “They aren’t as strict about how they want to define race,” LeKane-Yentumi said. “And they don’t want to be defined by it.”…

    Read the entire article here.

  • Solo Show at 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival Examines Notions of Racial Identity

    Solo Show at 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival Examines Notions of Racial Identity

    Contact: Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni
    Email: onedropoflove@gmail.com
    Website: http://www.onedropoflove.com/
    May 2013

    (Los Angeles, Calif.) — When actress and playwright Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni married the love of her life in 2006, her father did not walk her down the aisle. In fact, he declined to attend the wedding altogether.

    Seeking to understand why he chose not to participate, DiGiovanni began a trek through family history — and time and space — that ultimately led to her M.F.A. thesis project: the multimedia one-woman play, “One Drop of Love: A Daughter’s Search for Her Father’s Racial Approval.”

    DiGiovanni will perform the hour-long show on Friday, June 21st at 2:30 p.m., Friday, June 28th at 4:15 p.m. and Sunday, June 30th at 6:00 p.m. at the Lounge Theatres (www.hollywoodfringe.org/venues/11). The cost of the two Friday perrformances is $12 per ticket. The Sunday show is a fundraiser for MASC – Multiracial Americans of Southern California (www.mascsite.org) – all proceeds ($15 per ticket) will go to MASC. This show is also a Los Angeles celebration of Loving Day (www.lovingday.org).

    Incorporating filmed images, photographs, and animation DiGiovanni tells the story of how the notion of race came into existence in the United States, and its effects on her relationship with her father. To tell her story, DiGiovanni travels back in time to the first US census in 1790, to cities across the United States, and to West and East Africa, where both father and daughter spent time in search of their racial roots. A leading activist on issues related to mixed cultures and ethnicities, DiGiovanni is an actor, comedian, producer, and educator. She developed “One Drop of Love” as the thesis project for her Master of Fine Arts degree in film, television, and theater from California State University Los Angeles. She will use footage from her performances—the most recent was at the University of California, Santa Barbara—to produce a documentary film. DiGiovanni, who appeared in the Academy Award-winning film “Argo,” is also the co-creator, co-producer, and co-host of the award-winning weekly podcast Mixed Chicks Chat, and co-founder and co-producer of the Mixed Roots Fm & Literary Festival®.

    Read the entire press release here.

  • Rare Visit Underscores Tangles in Obama’s Ties to Africa

    Rare Visit Underscores Tangles in Obama’s Ties to Africa

    The New York Times
    2013-06-26

    Michael D. Shear, Nicholas Kulish and Lydia Polgreen

    DAKAR, Senegal — As a freshman senator from Illinois, Barack Obama told a packed auditorium in Kenya’s capital, “I want you all to know that as your ally, your friend and your brother, I will be there in every way I can.”

    But he will not be there. President Obama, who Wednesday began his second trip to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, will skip his father’s homeland once again, a reflection of the many challenges that his administration has faced in trying to make a lasting imprint across the continent.

    Despite decades of American investment to promote stability in the volatile region of East Africa, Kenya just elected a president indicted by the International Criminal Court, accused of bankrolling death squads driven by ethnic rivalry. It was the outcome that Washington had desperately tried to avoid, and Mr. Obama’s advisers determined that a photo op of the American president shaking hands with a man awaiting trial was not one they needed.

    “It just wasn’t the best time for the president to travel to Kenya at this point,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser.

    For Africans across the continent, the election of an African-American president signaled a transformative moment in their relationship with the United States, one that would usher in a special understanding of their hopes and needs…

    Read the entire article here.