Mixed Race Studies

The Remix: Dr. Yaba Blay on Colorism, Kendrick Lamar & Trevor Noah

The Remix with Dr. James Peterson
WHYY 90.9 FM
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2015-04-01

James Braxton Peterson, Host and Associate professor of English
Lehigh University, Lehigh, Pennsylvania

Comedy Central has named South African comedian Trevor Noah to helm “The Daily Show” when John Stewart departs later this year. It took slightly less than 24 hours for Noah to come under attack for remarks he made on Twitter that some perceived as anti-semitic and misogynistic. We can’t predict how Noah will weather the controversy, but Dr. James Peterson says he’s not surprised, because comics seem to consistently run into trouble for offensive remarks on Twitter.

“The Remix” is more interested in the fact that Comedy Central has appointed two men of color to lead their two most popular time slots (Larry Wilmore’s “The Nightly Show” replaced “The Colbert Report“) and the ways that might affect the nation’s daily consumption of news and news satire.

Peterson welcomes scholar, teacher and activist Dr. Yaba Blay to “The Remix” to discuss colorism, segregation within the African-American community, and cultural expressions of whiteness. The two also take a look at Blay’s book, “(1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race,” and her initiation into the Yoruba religion.

After a brief hiatus, “Props” is back, and this time, Kendrick Lamar gets some praise for taking risks on his new album “To Pimp a Butterfly.”

Listen to the episode here.

Commentary: Black Is…

Black Entertainment Television (BET)
2012-12-17

James Braxton Peterson, Director of Africana Studies; Associate Professor of English
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Black in America explores what it means to be Black.

CNN’s Black in America series has become something of a welcome crucible for the Black community these last four years — especially as the community has developed discursively across social media networks and platforms. The fifth iteration of the series debuted, with host Soledad O’Brien, last week to conflicting reviews and reports (especially on Facebook and in the Twitterverse) asking what does it mean to be Black in America and how do we define who is Black?

As usual, there is no easy answer, especially when we meet Nayo Jones and Becca Khalil, two teenage women of color who wrestle with their identities in the face of society’s need to categorize them in outdated and restrictive racial boxes.

Nayo, who would certainly be categorized as a Black woman on the street, struggles with being abandoned by her Black mother and raised by her white father. Nayo’s younger sister readily identifies as Black, but Nayo is conflicted and reluctant to identify herself as her sister has. Her best friend, Becca, an Egyptian-American, readily and enthusiastically identifies herself as African-American…

…Becca and Nayo are not alone in the conflicts they encounter as they seek to form their own identies. Yaba Blay’s (1)ne Drop Project was the inspiration behind this year’s Black in America, and is a revelation of how intra-racial bias and/or colorism continues to deeply affect the Black community. Blay interviewed light-complexioned people of African descent about self-determination and the resulting extraordinary project is both historical and relevant to identity formation…

Read the entire article here.