Divided To The Vein: A Journey into Race and Family

Posted in Autobiography, Books, Media Archive, Monographs on 2013-02-18 17:48Z by Steven

Divided To The Vein: A Journey into Race and Family

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
1996
320 pages
Hardcover ISBN-10: 0151931070; ISBN-13: 978-0151931071

Scott Minerbrook

Scott Minerbrook’s parents hail from opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. His father was a pampered only child born into Chicago’s aspiring black bourgeoisie, while his mother was an idealistic girl from a large family of poor white Missouri farmers. Minerbrook grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, in a world that was fighting the grim realities of racial separatism and willful ignorance with the ideals of equality and integration. At home, his parents fought each other and a host of personal demons, even as they raised four boys, excelled in their careers, and moved from Chicago, to Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and finally to the leafy suburbs of Connecticut. Minerbrook completed his schooling at Harvard’s burgeoning African-American studies department and went on to raise a family of his own. But by the time he reached his late thirties, he was no longer satisfied with living an emotional half-life, rejecting and rejected by so much of his flesh and blood. He set out for his mother’s hometown in the Botheel of Missouri, determined to claim the white relatives who had refused to recognize his existence. Despite their desire to “keep things just as they are”, he knew that bringing down the daunting barrier called race was essential to his humanity and to theirs. In the course of his journey, Minerbrook takes a hard look at his upbringing and the lives of his parents. He digs deep to explore the meaning of family, the roots of identity, and the reasons why we lay so many basic human problems at the door of race. Lyrically written, painfully honest, psychologically and socially astute, this powerful memoir challenges us all to confront the divisive cult of race and to move beyond it.

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The Dust of Life: America’s Children Abandoned in Vietnam

Posted in Asian Diaspora, Books, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Monographs on 2013-02-18 03:29Z by Steven

The Dust of Life: America’s Children Abandoned in Vietnam

University of Washington Press
1999
160 pages
notes, glossary, bibliog., index
Paperback ISBN: 9780295978369

Robert S. McKelvey, M.D., Professor
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Oregon Health & Science University

The Dust of Life is a collection of vivid and devastating oral histories of Vietnamese Amerasians. Abandoned during the war by their American fathers, discriminated against by the victorious Communists, and ignored for many years by the American government, they endured life in impoverished Vietnam. Their stories are sad, sometimes tragic, but they are also testimonials to the strength of human resiliency.

Robert S. McKelvey is a former marine who served in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Now a child psychiatrist, he returned to Vietnam in 1990 to begin the long series of interviews that resulted in this book. While allowing his subjects to speak for themselves, McKelvey has organized their narratives around themes common to their lives: early maternal loss, the experience of prejudice and discrimination, coping with adversity, dealing with shattered hopes for the future, and, for some, adapting to the alien environment of the United States.

While unique in many respects, the Vietnamese Amerasian story also illustrates themes that are tragically universal: neglect of the human by-products of war, the destructiveness of prejudice and racism, the pain of abandonment, and the horrors of life amidst extreme poverty, hostility, and neglect.

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Ten Thousand Sorrows

Posted in Asian Diaspora, Autobiography, Books, Media Archive, Monographs on 2013-02-18 03:04Z by Steven

Ten Thousand Sorrows

Bantam Books
2000
240 pages
Paperback ISBN-10: 0553812645; ISBN-13: 978-0553812640

Elizabeth Kim

‘I don’t know how old I was when I watched my mother’s murder, nor do I know how old I am today.’

The illegitimate daughter of a peasant and an American GI, Elizabeth Kim spent her early years as a social outcast in her village in the Korean countryside. Ostracized by their family and neighbours, she and her mother were regularly pelted with stones on their way home from the rice fields. Yet there was a tranquil happiness in the intense bond between mother and daughter. Until the day that Elizabeth’s grandfather and uncle came to punish her mother from the dishonour she had brought on the family, and executed her in front of her daughter.

Elizabeth was dumped in an orphanage in Seoul. After some time, she was lucky enough to be adopted by an American couple. But when she arrived in America she found herself once again surrounded by fanaticism and prejudice.

Elizabeth’s mother had always told her that life was made up of ten thousand joys as well as ten thousand sorrows, and, supported by her loving daughter, and by a return to her Buddhist faith, she finally found a way to savour those joys, as well as the courage to exorcise the demons of her past.

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Mixed-Race Studies: Misstep or the next step for Ethnic Studies in a blending nation?

Posted in Articles, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2013-02-18 03:01Z by Steven

Mixed-Race Studies: Misstep or the next step for Ethnic Studies in a blending nation?

Portland State University McNair Research Journal
Volume 7, 2013
25 pages

Jennifer E. Robe
Portland State University

In January of 2011, The New York Times reported that 2010 U.S. Census data shows that younger generations are self-reporting their racial identity as multiracial or mixed-race in higher numbers than ever before1. Classes in higher education that engage with race and ethnicity, often but not always as part of Ethnic Studies programs in universities, discuss and critique the categorizations of race and ethnicity. However, there is a social, political and economic power and privilege that groups have in being recognized as part of a categorized racial and/or ethnic group that mixed-race or multiracial identified individuals do not have when their identity is underrepresented or unrepresented. There is a very small number (under ten) universities in the U.S. that offer courses or programs that focus their study on a mixed-race identity. The potential problem in this change is a growing mixed-race identified population is the possibility that a growing number of students in classes that will not find a curriculum that centers on their racial experiences. That is the question I will address – are the racial experiences and understandings of mixed-race identified people being addressed in classes that engage with and critique race? I survey a small sample of students currently enrolled in classes which engage with race and ethnicity at Oregon universities about their racial experiences to find out if they see mixed-race studies as having a place in the future of “Ethnic Studies” classes in higher education.

Introduction

Race is not as simple as checking a box or a category on a form. Race is an identity, a lifetime of experiences; it is complex, fluid and a piece of one‘s self that holds many contradictions. I am writing from the standpoint that racism is real, and I will not be constructing an argument which seeks to support nor challenge the existence of institutional racism in the United States and globally. However, in the pursuit of knowledge, which is ideally a fundamental piece of higher education, it is my intention to analyze the examination of race in university classrooms where the curriculum centers upon the discussion and critique of race and ethnicity. In this essay I will first explain how racial categorizations came into use, the history that surrounds those parameters of race, the institutional inequity that has accompanied racial categorizations and the fluctuation of those categories up until the present time. I argue that racial categorizations do not accurately document racial identities and experiences and also that higher education is the platform by which we can effectively critique ongoing racial and ethnic categorization. Ideally it is also a place where space is created for students to learn and explain their own racial experiences and histories.

Despite the ambiguity of racial and ethnic identifications (which I discuss in detail later on) many academic programs have been set up to teach the experiences and histories of groups of people, such as Black and African-American Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, Native and Indigenous Nations Studies, Asian Studies etc. Currently there are some (very few) universities that are beginning to include classes on Mixed-Race Studies as well. My field research is a survey with 49 students in Oregon universities currently enrolled in classes that critically engage with the subject of race and ethnicity.

What I explore in my research is if students view these classes (where curriculum centers on a mixed-race or multiracial identity) as having a place in higher education and whether or not the study would be helpful or counterproductive in the debate around the usefulness of racial and ethnic categorizations. Radical political, racially-based movements of the 1950s through the 1970s fought to create visibility of racial groups in efforts to discuss the very real oppression and racial inequality they were experiencing because of their race. One of the things they shared was a demand for the right to an education that taught their own racial histories and experiences. In her book Ethnic Options, Mary Waters argues that ethnic categories do not encompass the experience of ethnicity and ethnic identity for all people. From her own research into census data on self-reported ancestry, she writes:

One thing that became clear from the data was that there was an awful lot of flux going on among these later-generation Americans—intermarriage was high, parents were not giving the same ancestry for their children as for themselves, and re-interview studies indicated that some people were changing their minds about their ancestry from survey to survey.

I agree with Waters assertions although my research examines those who are not necessarily able to categorize their identity and experiences in a nation where we are still required to categorize ourselves. In looking at the experiences of mixed-race and multiracial identified people and the experience of occupying that middle-place between categorizations. I will argue later on that people do experience privilege by having a place in the categorization of race. If we were to agree with Waters‘ argument that categorizations of ancestry do not work, then we are ignoring the experience of gaining privilege and access to communities and resources through “passing” and/or being able to choose a category to fit into. As Margaret Hunter writes in “The Beauty Queue: Advantages of Light Skin” [in Race, Gender, and the Politics of Skin Tone], “In the United States, color, more than any other physical characteristic, signifies race. But  “color” is also an attribute of individuals—human skin tone varies within and across ‘race’ categories.” What Hunter is arguing is that beauty, privilege and power are associated with light skin even within communities of color, and color creates a rift within communities based on a narrative which effectively oppresses all people of color. Skin color has the ability to determine if an individual experiences empowerment and/or ostracism within their own community as well as within the narrative of the dominant (in this case White) group. The issue of race difference and color difference are inextricably linked to systemic inequality. Although being able to “pass” as part of a marginalized community may allow for a person to have visibility, “passing” as part of the dominant community associates one with the position of the oppressor. This position of negotiating ones identity in order to gain or lose visibility and access to resources is an experience that some mixed-race people encounter; which are unique experiences that differ from being part of a recognized racial group.

The question I asked in my field research is—do mixed-race students feel that their experiences are being adequately engaged with in their education—I explore their responses for an answer to whether or not mixed-race studies, a study based on a new racial category can and whether or not they should have a place in the future of higher education…

…The criminalization of interracial sex was in place to prevent racial mixing that ultimately, as [Paul] Finkelman describes, “stemmed from the creation of slavery.” But miscegenation laws were not ruled unconstitutional until over one hundred years after legal slavery ended in the United States. A mixed-race person in the context of this history was viewed as a product of sexual transgression rooted in the fear of Black and White interracial sexual relationships. But as Rainier Spencer argues in Reproducing Race: The Paradox of Generation Mix some view a mixed-race identity as a bridge of multiculturalism to deconstruct the Black/White dichotomy. However, as he writes,

As is the case with so much of multiracial ideology, the claim of racial bridging is merely stated without the least bit of critical backing, while no one inside the movement, and precious few outside it, care to point out the inconsistency. It is no more than an unproven desire, a case of wishful thinking, based on a supposed alterity of multiracial people that harks back to the marginal man.

The “marginal man” that Spencer refers to was a fictional archetype character created by Sociologist Robert Ezra Parks that was meant to embody a person whose occupied two opposing racial or ethnic groups. So Rainier [Spencer] critiques the viability of this ideology of mixed-race people being a “bridge” or a carrier of racial understanding. By adding another category of race, we are unable to break down the current constructions of race as we are still lacking the objectivity or neutrality to do so in our discourse on race.

Read the entire article here.

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Soul to Soul: A Black Russian American Family 1865-1992

Posted in Autobiography, Books, Europe, History, Media Archive, Monographs, United States on 2013-02-18 01:59Z by Steven

Soul to Soul: A Black Russian American Family 1865-1992

W. W. Norton & Company
1994
318 pages
Hardcover ISBN-10: 0393034046; ISBN-13: 978-0393034042
Paperback ISBN: ISBN 978-0-393-31155-6

Yelena Khanga (with Susan Jacoby)

As the Soviet Union crumbled in early 1991, a young Russian woman in search of her past found her way to Mississippi, to the rich cotton land where her great-grandfather, a former slave, had become the largest black landowner in Yazoo County. In this extraordinary memoir, we share the life and family legacy of the Khangas over four generations and three continents. 32 pages of photos.

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It is scarcely necessary to point out that the intellectual superiority of the mulatto over the negro affords no sufficient ground for advocating the amalgamation of the negro and white races.

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2013-02-18 01:43Z by Steven

It is scarcely necessary to point out that the intellectual superiority of the mulatto over the negro affords no sufficient ground for advocating the amalgamation of the negro and white races. If the mulatto has a better mind than the negro, he is apparently inferior to him in physique and is inferior in every way to the whites. Any system of cross breeding which means the substitution of mulatto for white children cannot be viewed as anything but a serious menace. It is to be condemned, not only from the biological standpoint, but because it would lead to social and moral deterioration. To say that negro-white crosses are undesirable on biological grounds, however, is not to assert that race crossing is bad per se. If races are on the same level of inherent physical and intellectual endowment their fusion may produce a very desirable combination of qualities and might give rise to a diversity of traits which would be socially valuable. We have insufficient grounds for condemning crosses of races or peoples per se but only those crosses which substitute an intermediate product for the most highly endowed stock. It is the very best inheritance that should be conserved at all costs. Out of it come the rare minds that rise like mountain peaks above the general level of humanity. And it is to these minds, small in number, but incalculably great in influence, that advancement in civilization and culture is largely due.

Samuel J. Holmes, The Trend of the Race: A Study of Present Tendencies in the Biological Development of Civilized Mankind (New York: Hourcourt, Brace and Company, 1921), 264-265.

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It can be difficult to get people to stop speaking English with me. Even if I have been speaking in Korean with them for 20 minutes.

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2013-02-18 01:37Z by Steven

“Sometimes when I am on the bus people will look at me and if they think that I am not Korean they will not sit next to me or they will move when I sit down. This kind of thing is still existent. Also, it can be difficult to get people to stop speaking English with me. Even if I have been speaking in Korean with them for 20 minutes they will still try to speak in English as if they thought I could not understand…”

—African-American Korean Yang Chan-wook (Gregory Diggs)

Kirsty Taylor, “Mixed-race Koreans urge identity rethink,” The Korea Herald, (December 7, 2011). http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111207000908.

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Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair

Posted in Books, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Monographs, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States on 2013-02-18 01:29Z by Steven

Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex, and Hair

Anchor an imprint of Random House
1997-02-19
320 pages
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-385-47123-7

Lisa Jones

In Bulletproof Diva, Lisa  Jones brings the wit and candor of her infamous Village Voice column, “Skin Trade,”  to a much larger audience. Chock full of the “fierce black girl humor” that has made her column so popular, this provocative collection of  essays and observations on race, sex, identity, and  the politics of style speaks to a young generation  of blacks who were raised in an integrated society  and are now waiting for America to deliver on its  promises of equality. The thirty-seven short  pieces and six long essays in Bulletproof  Diva cover a wide range of topics, many of them  extremely controversial. Jones moves smoothly from  issues of ethnicity in a changing America,  challenging viewpoints on African-American  and mixed race identity, to “butt theory”  and the roller-coaster politics of black hair. Written in a style that is as appealing as it is  unapologetic, Bulletproof Diva marks the debut of a genuinely gifted young writer  with a distinctive voice and a fresh perspective on  the black cultural scene.

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The Trend of the Race: A Study of Present Tendencies in the Biological Development of Civilized Mankind

Posted in Anthropology, Books, Health/Medicine/Genetics, Media Archive, Monographs on 2013-02-18 00:46Z by Steven

The Trend of the Race: A Study of Present Tendencies in the Biological Development of Civilized Mankind

Harcourt, Brace and Company
1921
396 pages
(Digitized by Google)

Samuel J. Holmes (1868-1964), Ph.D., Professor of Zoology
University of California, Berkeley

CONTENTS

  • I. An Introductory Orientation
  • II. The Hereditary Basis
  • III. The Inheritance of Mental Defects and Disease
  • IV. The Heritable Basis of Crime and Delinquency
  • V. The Inheritance of Mental Ability
  • VI. The Decline of the Birth Rate
  • VII. The Causes of the Decline of the Birth Rate
  • VIII. Natural Selection in Man
  • IX. The Selective Influence of War
  • X. Sexual Selection and Assortative Mating
  • XI. Consanguineous Marriages and Miscegenation
  • XII. The Possible Role of Alcohol and Disease in Causing Hereditary Defects
  • XIII. The Alleged Influence of Order of Birth and Age of Parents upon Offspring
  • XIV. The Racial Influence or Industrial Development
  • XV. The Selective Function of Religion
  • XVI. Retrospect and Prospect

PREFACE

The present volume is the outgrowth of a course of lectures on Eugenics which has been given for several years in the University of California. Its aim is to present an account of the various forces which are at present modifying the inherited qualities of civilized mankind. In dealing with so extensive and complex a subject I have doubtless committed a number of errors and have probably not altogether escaped from being misled by statistical fallacies into which I have so often accused others of having fallen. The more extensively I have delved into the varied literature on the biological evolution of man, the more I have become impressed with the necessity of employing extreme caution in drawing conclusions. Few subjects, in fact, present so many pitfalls for the unwary. It is with the conviction that it is especially important in this field to be sure one is right before going ahead that I have devoted so much effort to critical analysis at the risk of becoming tedious to the general reader.

I am indebted to my colleagues Professor F. B. Sumner and Professor F. J. Teggart for reading my original manuscript and for making a number of valuable suggestions.

The preparation of the present work has involved the compilation of an extensive bibliography which is to be published as an additional volume so that the references may be rendered avail able for other investigators.

S. J Holmes

Berkeley, Calif.
Jan. 1921.

Read the entire book here or here.

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Intersecting Circles: The Voices of Hapa Women in Poetry and Prose

Posted in Anthologies, Asian Diaspora, Books, Media Archive, Poetry, Women on 2013-02-18 00:15Z by Steven

Intersecting Circles: The Voices of Hapa Women in Poetry and Prose

Bamboo Ridge Press
1999
396 pages
Paperback ISBN-10: 0910043590; ISBN-13: 978-0910043595

Edited by:

Marie Hara

Nora Okja Keller

This book is out of print.

In this collection of poetry, prose, and personal essay, both new and well-known women authors of mixed race ancestry examine history, culture, and identity using insight from the female psyche. Featured are writings by Ai, Cristina Bacchilega, Kathy Dee Kaleokealoha Kaloloahilani Banggo, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Debra Kang Dean, Kiana Houghtailing Davenport, Jessica Hagedorn, Kimiko Hahn, Velina Hasu Houston, Cathy Kanoelani Ikeda, Carolyn Lei-lanilau, Susan Miho Nunes, Sigrid Nunez, Mindy Eun Soo Pennybacker, Michelle Cruz Skinner, Cathy Song, Adrien Tien, Kathleen Tyau, and twenty-five other writers.

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