Mixed Race Studies

Documentary ‘Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story’ Tells Untold Stories of Bi-Racial World War II Era Children

The AFRO
2014-01-15

Maria Adebola

Emmy-winning journalist Regina Griffin was inspired to tell a story and that’s how her film, Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story was born.

A family friend, entrepreneur Doris McMillon, had told stories about growing up the half-Black, half-White child of a Black G.I. and White German woman and the story was horrifying. Unwanted by both nations, the children often lived their lives as unwanted, ignored and forgotten people,

“I got chills learning about their lives, in orphanages and beyond,” said Griffin.

Griffin transformed her research into a documentary about the lives of the babies. The film was screened recently in front of about 50 people at the William McGowan Theater located at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

The film scrapes the surface of the difficulties that resulted from the interracial relationships between Black soldiers and German women during World War II. Many of the children ended up being adopted or sent to orphanages because their German mothers feared the public scrutiny that came with having a mixed-race child out of wedlock.

Some of the Black soldiers who wanted to marry their German girlfriends found it difficult because the relationships were viewed as forbidden. Those who wanted to return home to the African-American girlfriends and sometimes wives didn’t want to bring along children whose presence would indicate they had been unfaithful.

The children were caught in the middle…

Read the entire article here.

The 10 Best Black Books of 2013 (Non-Fiction)

The AFRO
2013-12-24

Kam Williams, Special to the AFRO

The 10 Best Black Books of 2013 (Non-Fiction)

1. (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race Edited by Yaba Blay, Ph.D. with photography by Noelle Theard
2. Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities by Craig Steven Wilder
3. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
4. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Dr. Donald Yacovone…

Read the entire list here.

Prince George’s Political Duo, Jolene and Glenn Ivey Focus on Family

AFRO
Prince George’s County News
2013-10-16

Zenitha Prince, Special to the AFRO

He’s a former two-term state’s attorney for Prince George’s County who is now a partner in the prestigious K Street law firm of Leftwich & Ludaway. She’s the chairman of the Prince George’s delegation in the Maryland House of Delegates and a candidate for lieutenant governor of Maryland.

At the characterization that they are a “power couple,” however, Glenn Ivey, 52, laughs heartily. Jolene Ivey, also 52, has a similar reaction.

“We find that pretty amusing,” she said with a soft chuckle. “We’re always buried in laundry and trying to get our children to soccer practice.”…

…Jolene Ivey said her father and stepmother, Gigi Stephenson, nurtured in her a love of community service and advocacy in their Northeast Washington home.

“They were always a good example of how to be good citizens in the world,” she said.

But running for public office was never her plan, said Jolene Ivey, who earned a bachelor’s in communication at Towson and a master’s in journalism from Maryland.

“I decided to run for public office because it is a great vehicle to make things happen for people,” she said.

In Annapolis, she has often focused on issues related to women, children and families. If she is elected, her agenda will include working with Gansler to increase the minimum wage, close the achievement gap and improve diversity in government.

“It is exciting to be in a position where I’m going to be able to have a real impact on the direction the state is heading,” she told the AFRO.

Jolene Ivey’s racial identification has become something of a subhead in the coverage of the campaign. Though light-skinned enough to be mistaken for White—her birth mother was Caucasian—Jolene Ivey identifies herself as African American.

“It doesn’t affect me inside because I know who I am—I’m Black,” she said. “My family is Black…and I’m the mother of five Black sons. The only issue arises when other people make assumptions about me based on my outward appearance, but I can’t do anything about that.”…

Read the entire article here.