From the Golden Gate to the Green Mountains: A Hapa Educational Autobiography and Meta-Critical Reflection

Posted in Asian Diaspora, Dissertations, Identity Development/Psychology, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, United States on 2013-02-21 03:48Z by Steven

From the Golden Gate to the Green Mountains: A Hapa Educational Autobiography and Meta-Critical Reflection

University of Vermont
October 2012
65 pages

Noelle Brassey

A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate College of The University of Vermont In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Specializing in English

As a former UC Berkeley undergraduate and a University of Vermont graduate student, this is an educational autobiography of a self-identified Hapa, or mixed-race Asian American, through the lens of race and identity. Exploring what it means to be “white” and “privileged,” and realizing that these concepts—like identity—are fluid, this thesis adopts a dual methodology that includes personal narrative, as well as a meta-critical reflection. This thesis focuses on three memoirs: Bone Black and Wounds of Passion by bell hooks, and Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez, each of which explore themes of reclaiming voice and reconstructing identity with regards to race, class, and culture.

Read the entire thesis here.

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Identity Politics: the Mixed-race American Indian Experience

Posted in Articles, Campus Life, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Native Americans/First Nation, United States on 2013-02-21 03:38Z by Steven

Identity Politics: the Mixed-race American Indian Experience

Journal of Critical Race Inquiry
Volume 2, Number 1 (2012)
25 pages

Michelle R. Montgomery
University of Washington

This paper builds a Critical Race Theory approach to consider how mixed-race American Indian college students conform to, or resist, dominant black/non-black ideology. Current research on multiracials in the U.S. lacks the perspectives of mixed-race American Indians on the heightened disputes of “Indianness,” tribal enrollment, and tribal self-determination. Also under-explored is how mixed-race American Indian persons perceive themselves in racial terms, how they wish to be perceived, and how economic and historical perspectives inform their choices about racial self-identification. This paper provides an overview of the identity politics of mixed-race American Indians at a tribal college and highlights the need for tribal colleges to embrace a growing mixed-race population through self-determination education policies.

Read the entire article here.

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The Manifestation of Race in Everyday Communication Interactions in New Zealand

Posted in Communications/Media Studies, Dissertations, Media Archive, Oceania on 2013-02-21 02:25Z by Steven

The Manifestation of Race in Everyday Communication Interactions in New Zealand

Unitec New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand
October 2012
281 pages

Elizabeth S. Revell

A thesis submitted to the Department of Communication Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Communication

This thesis examines the manifestation of race in everyday communication interactions in New Zealand using an unconventional, experimental methodology. Experimenting with a partial collaborative autoethnographic approach that involved reflexive diaries, interviews, and focus groups as data collection methods, the author and nine other co-participants took part in a collaborative autoethnographic exercise, that required them to focus, reflect on, and discuss together their perceptions of the way race was manifested in their day-to-day experiences, over the period of a month. Co-participants were encouraged to write evocatively of their experiences. The author used her mixed-race identity as an autoethnographic analytical tool as a measure towards resolving her ‘double consciousness’ (Du Bois, 1903). Her own voice, thoughts, and stories of her lived experiences are woven into the study, alongside more traditional analysis. In carrying out this investigation, the author sought not only to generate knowledge in the traditional academic sense, but to facilitate a disruptive, emancipative and emotionally engaging conversation on racism in New Zealand, between herself, her co-participants, and readers.

In answering the main research question about the manifestation of race in everyday communication interactions in New Zealand, the author found that in public contexts in New Zealand, race as a topic is taboo and racists are social pariahs amongst Western, educated, middle-class members of society. Consequentially, race is often manifested in a variety of subtle ways in everyday communication interactions, and is difficult to identify and challenge. The subtle way in which race is manifested in everyday settings masks an undercurrent of prejudice and hostility. Whether or not these hidden tensions will emerge problematically in the future remains to be seen, as New Zealanders negotiate and manage their biculturalism and multiculturalism.

In terms of the significance of race in New Zealand, the author concluded that New Zealand’s racial and ethnic identity is changing (browning), and that the longstanding New Zealand European (White) majority is decreasing in proportion and dominance. Some New Zealand Europeans are consciously and subconsciously trying to assert their authority, refusing to let the idea that a ‘true’ New Zealander is ‘White’ go because of a) a subconscious belief in the superiority of White skin and/or Western culture, and b) insecurity around what will happen to them and their lifestyle, if non-White ethnic and non-Western cultural groups continue to gain in proportion to White, Western groups. As a result, some non-White individuals are experiencing being subtly and overtly ‘othered’, excluded, disrespected, and negatively stereotyped. Being subjected to everyday racism has resulted in some non-White New Zealanders having a fractured sense of identity, and others having adopted the racist worldview of Whites.

In terms of resolving the dialectic of her mixed-race identity, the closure the author had hoped for was not achieved. Instead, she became more conscious of her own racist beliefs and actions, and convinced of the importance of continuing to challenge them.

Table of Contents

  • ABSTRACT
  • DECLARATION
  • CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  • TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
    • MY “DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS”: A PERSONAL NARRATIVE
      • First thing’s first: Who I am
      • But: The dreaded question
      • Fleshing out the issue
      • Defining my research topic
    • WIDER SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
    • RESEARCH PURPOSE
    • CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS
      • “Race”
      • “Everyday communication interaction”
    • METHODOLOGY: A PARTIAL COLLABORATIVE AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH
    • THESIS OUTLINE
  • CHAPTER 2: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXT
    • CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS
      • Concept 1: ‘Race’
      • Concept 2: ‘Everyday communication interaction’
    • CONTEXT
      • Multiculturalism and biculturalism in New Zealand
      • Recent signs of ethnic ‘unease’ in multicultural New Zealand
      • Use of the term ‘race’ in New Zealand
  • CHAPTER 3– LITERATURE REVIEW
    • RACE IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES
      • The critical turn in communication studies
    • THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
      • Critical Theory
      • General theories of race and racism
      • Theories and concepts from sociology (on the everyday social construction of race)
      • Theories and concepts from social psychology (on contemporary racism)
    • A REVIEW OF RELEVANT RESEARCH
      • …on race and the everyday
      • …on race and the everyday in New Zealand
  • CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH DESIGN
    • SITUATING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY ONTOLOGICALLY AND EPISTEMOLOGICALLY
    • METHODOLOGY
      • A qualitative approach
      • Ethnography
      • Autoethnography
      • Partial collaborative autoethnography
      • Co-participant selection
    • DATA COLLECTION METHODS
      • Solicited reflexive diaries
      • Semi-structured interviews
      • Semi-structured focus groups (briefing and debriefing sessions)
    • METHODS OF ANALYSIS
      • Thematic analysis
      • Analysis and discussion in autoethnography
      • ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
  • CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS
    • PARTICIPANT POSITIONALITIES
      • Liz:
      • Ameera:
      • Yasmin:
      • Rachel:
      • Timothy:
      • Heather:
      • Lana:
      • Luke:
      • Zane:
      • Natalie:
    • EMERGENT THEMES
      • Theme 1: Everyday living in a multicultural society
        • 1a. NZ European dominance is eroding
        • 1b. New Zealanders are managing this change well
        • 1c. New Zealanders are not managing this change well
        • Concluding notes for theme one
      • Theme 2: References to ‘racisms’ past
        • 2a. Ethnic inequality and redistribution
        • 2b. Crying race
        • 2c. Old racist attitudes
        • 2d. The declining significance of race?
        • Concluding notes for theme two
      • Theme 3: Everyday awareness and negotiation of social hierarchy
        • 3a. White superiority
        • 3b. Negotiating the social ladder
        • 3c. Legitimacy
        • Concluding notes for theme three
      • Theme 4: Conversational tact – Everyday speech conventions
        • 4a. Racialised ‘neutral’ terms
        • 4b. Racial stereotyping
        • 4c. Censoring
        • Concluding notes for theme four
      • Theme 5: Everyday emotional reactions to races
        • 5a. Anger/cumulative anger towards a race
        • 5b. Disgust
        • 5c. Instant connection
        • 5d. Comfort/discomfort
        • 5e. Fear
        • 5f. Romantic attraction/indifference/repulsion
        • Concluding notes for theme five
      • Theme 6: Reacting to everyday racism
        • 6a. Emotional reactions to everyday racism
        • 6b. Dealing with everyday racism
        • Concluding notes for theme six
      • Theme 7: “Race matters to me because I look different”
        • Concluding notes for chapter seven
    • OVERALL CONCLUSION
  • CHAPTER 6 – DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
    • THEMATIC DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
      • Theme 1: Everyday living in a multicultural society
      • Theme 2: References to ‘racisms’ past
      • Theme 3: Social status
      • Theme 4: Conversational tact – Everyday speech conventions
      • Theme 5: Emotional reactions to races
      • Theme 6: Reacting to everyday racism
      • Theme 7: “Race matters to me because I look different”
    • HOW IS RACE MANIFESTED IN EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION INTERACTIONS IN NEW ZEALAND?
    • THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE IN NEW ZEALAND
  • CHAPTER 7: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
    • RESOLVING MY MIXED-RACE DIALECTIC
    • LIMITATIONS
    • RECOMMENDATIONS
    • SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
  • REFERENCES
  • APPENDICES
    • APPENDIX A: PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FORM
    • APPENDIX B: PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM
    • APPENDIX C: PROCEDURAL EXPLANATIONS
    • APPENDIX D: GUIDELINE SHEET FOR DIARIES
    • APPENDIX E: EXTRACT FROM A PARTICIPANT’S REFLEXIVE RESEARCH DIARY
    • APPENDIX F: DEBRIEFING SESSION MAIN CO-PARTICIPANT SHEET
    • APPENDIX G: DEBRIEFING SESSION CO-PARTICIPANT SHEET

Read the entire thesis here.

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Five times more ‘G.I. babies’ than previously thought

Posted in Asian Diaspora, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science on 2013-02-21 01:30Z by Steven

Five times more ‘G.I. babies’ than previously thought

The Phillipine Star
Manila, Philippines
2012-12-17

Jarius Bondoc

There are five times more American “G.I. babies” in the Philippines than previously thought — and they continue to multiply. This is according to a recent study by a visiting American social researcher and professor in Angeles City, Pampanga. Such finding categorizes military-origin Filipino Amerasians as a social diaspora. For, they forcibly are stripped of their citizenship, dispersed in slums, and suffer discrimination.
 
The number of abandoned offspring of US military servicemen could be 250,000 or more, analysis by P.C. Kutschera, PhD, shows. Their ranks are “expanding slowly but exponentially,” he says. He considers Filipino Amerasians born not only during the Vietnam War. Counted as well are those sired since American Occupation and Commonwealth years, to the present joint US-Philippine military exercises. Meaning, Filipino Amerasians are not only in their thirties or forties, but can also be geriatrics and newborns.
 
Previously the Filipino Amerasians were estimated to run to about 52,000. Most studies considered only the height of the Vietnam War in 1968-1975. At the time the US used the sprawling Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Subic Naval Base in Zambales as launch pads for military operations across the South China Sea. Close to 100,000 US military personnel were stationed in those largest air and naval bases outside mainland America, and in 19 smaller facilities throughout the Philippines. The Philippine Senate evicted the bases in 1992…

…Kutschera presented his research last October to the 9th International Conference on the Philippines, held at the Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University in East Lansing. (Full text at http://www.amerasianresearch.org; coauthored by Marie A. Caputi, PhD, a professor at Walden University, Minnesota.) The paper, “The Case for Categorization of Military Filipino Amerasians as Diaspora,” amplifies Kutschera’s 2010 doctoral dissertation. That earlier work is on psychosocial risk and mental disorder due to stigmatization and discrimination of Amerasians in Angeles City outside Clark Air Base…

Read the entire article here.

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Colorism: The War at Home

Posted in Articles, Interviews, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2013-02-20 21:30Z by Steven

Colorism: The War at Home

Ebony Magazine
News & Views
2013-02-20

Chris Williams

Dr. Yaba Blay discusses the history of ‘the color complex’ and how we can work to destroy it

The “color complex” has remains a source of great controversy and pain in the African American community and across much of the African Diaspora. As one of the leading voices and scholars on Black racial identity, Drexel University assistant teaching professor of Africana Studies Yaba Blay continues her arduous, groundbreaking work on the topic. Her (1)ne Drop Project has been featured on CNN’s Black in America series and expanded the discussion around how Blackness is defined in today’s society.

EBONY recently sat down with Dr. Blay to delve into the history behind colorism and how it has helped to shape Black racial identity in the United States.

EBONY: In the Black community, we seem to continue the tradition of lighter skin and straighter hair being ‘better.’ Why is the train of thought still prevalent in our collective mindset?

Yaba Blay: I definitely think it’s something we’ve internalized. Historically, just through observation we’ve seen that people with more European aesthetics and phenotypes were getting more privileges in this society. And again, for me, it’s really about us thinking about the framework from which we’re operating, like where are these ideas coming from and being able to acknowledge that they operate from outside of our community. These are conceptualizations that have been projected onto us and we see those things being affirmed in our society. It’s been called “the White ideal.” So—it constructs a spectrum of sorts where if I look at you and I can see that you potentially have European blood, I can assume that in comparison to someone who has darker skin, kinkier hair, and a more African phenotype that you’re better than them. It’s the idea that European genetics are your saving grace…

Read the entire interview here.

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Brazilian Telenovelas and the Myth of Racial Democracy

Posted in Books, Brazil, Caribbean/Latin America, Communications/Media Studies, Media Archive, Monographs, Social Science on 2013-02-20 20:59Z by Steven

Brazilian Telenovelas and the Myth of Racial Democracy

Lexington Books
March 2012
136 pages
Size: 6 1/2 x 9 1/2
Hardback ISBN: 978-0-7391-6964-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-7391-6965-0

Samantha Nogueira Joyce, Assistant Professor in Communication Studies
Indiana University, South Bend

Brazilian Telenovelas and the Myth of Racial Democracy, by Samantha Nogueira Joyce, examines what happens when a telenovela directly addresses matters of race and racism in contemporary Brazil. This investigation provides a traditional textual analysis of Duas Caras (2007-2008), a watershed telenovela for two main reasons: It was the first of its kind to present audiences with an Afro-Brazilian as the main hero, openly addressing race matters through plot and dialogue. Additionally, for the first time in the history of Brazilian television, the author of Duas Caras kept a web blog where he discussed the public’s reactions to the storylines, media discussions pertaining to the characters and plot, and directly engaged with fans and critics of the program.

Joyce combines her investigation of Duas Caras with a study of related media in order to demonstrate how the program introduced novel ideas about race and also offered a forum where varying perspectives on race, class, and racial relations in Brazil could be discussed. Brazilian Telenovelas is not a reception study in the traditional sense, it is not a story of entertainment-education in the strict sense, and it is not solely a textual analysis. Instead, Joyce’s text is a study of the social milieu that the telenovela (and especially Duas Caras) navigates, one that is a component of a contemporary progressive social movement in Brazil, and one that views the text as being located in social interactions. As such, this book reveals how telenovelas contribute to social change in a way that has not been fully explored in previous scholarship.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter I – Episode 1: And Let There be White
  • Chapter II – Black Flows: Duas Caras / The Legacy of Whitening and Racial Democracy
  • Chapter III – “My Little Whitey” / “My Big, Delicious Negro:” Telenovelas, Duas Caras, and the Representation of Race
  • Chapter IV – Deu no Blogão! (“It was in the Big Blog!”): Writing a Telenovela, a Blog, and a Metadiscourse
  • Chapter V – Duas Caras as a New Approach to Social Merchandising
  • Chapter VI – Conclusions
  • References
  • About the Author
  • Index
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Critical Mixed Race Studies Website is Launched

Posted in New Media on 2013-02-20 16:05Z by Steven

Critical Mixed Race Studies Website is Launched

Critical Mixed Race Studies Website
2013-02-20

Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media and Design
DePaul University

The new Critical Mixed Race Studies website has been launched!

Critical Mixed Race Studies is the transracial, transdisciplinary, and transnational critical analysis of the institutionalization of social, cultural, and political orders based on dominant conceptions of race. CMRS emphasizes the mutability of race and the porosity of racial boundaries in order to critique processes of racialization and social stratification based on race. CMRS addresses local and global systemic injustices rooted in systems of racialization.

Visit the site here.

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Interview with PhD Student Karla Lucht: Children’s Literature about Mixed-Race Asian Americans/Canadians

Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Canada, Interviews, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, United States on 2013-02-20 04:40Z by Steven

Interview with PhD Student Karla Lucht: Children’s Literature about Mixed-Race Asian Americans/Canadians

The Center for Children’s Books
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
February 2013

Tad Andracki, CCB Outreach Coordinator

“Everyone deserves to see themselves represented in a book. And a good book at that.”

GSLIS doctoral student Karla Lucht visited the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia as part of the iSchool Doctoral Student Exchange Program in November 2012. The CCB decided to meet with Karla to discuss her trip and her research. Lucht describes her research as looking at the representations of mixed-race Asian Americans and Canadians in youth literature with a critical race theory lens.

Why do you see your research as important to the field of youth services and children’s literature? Why is it important?

To start with, there’s a gap in this research with lots of underrepresented groups, but with mixed-race people especially. Everyone deserves to see themselves represented in a book… and a good book at that. In the past, we’ve seen some books about mixed-race people, but a lot of them weren’t good. I’m trying to fill in those gaps.

What are some challenges you see in your particular field of research? What are some opportunities?

One primary challenge is just finding titles, especially using subject headings. The Library of Congress Subject Heading that’s closest to my work is Racially Mixed People–Fiction, which isn’t very descriptive. I’ve been sifting through books with that heading. I’m also trying other keywords—adoption, immigration, multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural–and then looking at the books to see if they have the content I’m interested in.

Another problem is that, especially in the late 1980s and the 90s, a lot of the YA books on this topic are a bit problematic and poorly written. You find books that really invest in Othering a character’s Asian side and putting whiteness on a pedestal. In those books, the character vists the Asian side of the family, and it’s always a big problem–the Asianness is “too weird” or something…

Read the entire interview here.

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Mixed feelings

Posted in Articles, Arts, Media Archive, Social Science on 2013-02-20 04:28Z by Steven

Mixed feelings

NOW.
2012-06-30

NOW is the online source for news, features, analysis and much more, covering Lebanon, the Lebanese diaspora and the Middle East.

“The people photographed are so beautiful they make you feel like having mixed race babies,” said Kevork Baboyan, one of many attendees at Wednesday’s opening of the photography exhibition, Mixed Feelings.

Over the years, racism has slowly but steadily started to raise eyebrows in Lebanon, a country that is infamous for abusing migrant domestic workers and discriminating against refugees and other groups of society. Rarely, however, has anyone addressed racism between Lebanese until Lebanese-Nigerian activist Nisreen Kaj sought – in collaboration with Beirut-based Polish photographer Marta Bogdanska — to explore the concepts of race and identity.

“Living in Beirut as a black Lebanese has [clearly highlighted] the hierarchy of skin color and ethnicity in the country,” Kaj told NOW Extra. “This reality has gotten under my skin, which is only a figure of speech, for it is in fact about the surface, about the skin, about the way we perceive identity, race, and ethnicity.”

Opening at Hamra’s Dar al-Musawwir, the launch combined images and interviews of some 30 Lebanese from African and Asian descent and was produced in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Middle East Office…

…When asked whether racism was more prevalent in Lebanon as compared to other Arab nations, Khoury said it was “particularly [widespread] here, but this is exhibit is a start.”

“They see my car keys and can’t believe I own a car… so [people at the supermarket] follow me to see whether or not it’s actually possible,” said Khoury’s mother laughingly, recounting the incident with equal humor and frustration…

Read the entire article here.

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Possibilities Abound in a Nation That Is Diverse, CNN Journalist Says

Posted in Articles, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2013-02-20 04:12Z by Steven

Possibilities Abound in a Nation That Is Diverse, CNN Journalist Says

Yale News
2009-11-20

Susan Gonzalez

When CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien was growing up, her mother in­structed her never to let anyone tell her that she wasn’t black or Hispanic because of her mixed ethnic and racial heritage.

So, when she was asked to identify her race on official forms, O’Brien — the daughter of a black Cuban mother and an Irish-Australian father — refused to check just one box, even when making a single selection was required, she told a packed auditorium in the Law School’s Levinson Auditorium during her Poynter Fellowship Lecture on Nov. 10.

America’s value lies in its diversity, O’Brien said, and that mixture of races and ethnicities should never be viewed as a “problem.”…

…Likewise, when O’Brien — also a Harvard graduate — was first applying for jobs as a journalist, one news director told her that there was only one spot open for a black person but that she wasn’t dark enough to qualify. Another news director asked if she would consider changing her name because it was too difficult to pronounce. On both occasions, her mother pointed out that these were jobs her daughter wouldn’t want anyway.

O’Brien said that her parents served as examples of perseverance who encouraged their children to look beyond challenges and focus on possibilities, instilling in them this message: “Dream and do what you want; push and achieve what you want; go and get what you want.”

Her own children, the journalist said, have become so used to diversity in their lives that they were shocked to discover that Barack Obama is America’s first black president.

“Diversity to me is an opportunity to think differently and to see differently,” she told her audience…

Read the entire article here.

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