{"id":17012,"date":"2011-10-13T14:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=17012"},"modified":"2015-10-24T22:02:48","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T22:02:48","slug":"in-strangers%e2%80%99-glances-at-family-tensions-linger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=17012","title":{"rendered":"In Strangers\u2019 Glances at Family, Tensions Linger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/13\/us\/for-mixed-family-old-racial-tensions-remain-part-of-life.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">In Strangers\u2019 Glances at Family, Tensions Linger<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\" target=\"_blank\">The New York Times<\/a><br \/>\n2011-10-13<\/p>\n<p><strong>Susan Saulny<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"nyt_video_player\" title=\"New York Times Video - Embed Player\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/bcvideo\/1.0\/iframe\/embed.html?videoId=100000001090280&amp;playerType=embed\" width=\"480\" height=\"373\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Toms_River,_New_Jersey\" target=\"_blank\">TOMS RIVER, N.J.<\/a> \u2014 \u201cHow come she\u2019s so white and you\u2019re so dark?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The question tore through Heather Greenwood as she was about to check out at a store here one afternoon this summer. Her brown hands were pushing the shopping cart that held her babbling toddler, Noelle, all platinum curls, fair skin and ice-blue eyes.<\/p>\n<p>The woman behind Mrs. Greenwood, who was white, asked once she realized, by the way they were talking, that they were mother and child. \u201cIt\u2019s just not possible,\u201d she charged indignantly. \u201cYou\u2019re so&#8230;dark!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was not the first time someone had demanded an explanation from Mrs. Greenwood about her biological daughter, but it was among the more aggressive. Shaken almost to tears, she wanted to flee, to shield her little one from this kind of talk. But after quickly paying the cashier, she managed a reply. \u201cHow come?\u201d she said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s the way God made us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Greenwood family tree, emblematic of a growing number of American bloodlines, has roots on many continents. Its mix of races \u2014 by marriage, adoption and other close relationships \u2014 can be challenging to track, sometimes confusing even for the family itself&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a href=\"http:\/\/sociology.rice.edu\/Content.aspx?id=76\" target=\"_blank\">Jenifer L. Bratter<\/a>, an associate sociology professor at Rice University who has studied multiracialism, said that as long as race continued to affect where people live, how much money they make and how they are treated, then multiracial families would be met with double-takes. \u201cUnless we solve those issues of inequality in other areas, interracial families are going to be questioned about why they\u2019d cross that line,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Census data, interracial couples have a slightly higher divorce rate than same-race couples \u2014 perhaps, sociologists say, because of the heightened stress in their lives as they buck enduring norms. And children in mixed families face the challenge of navigating questions about their identities&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Once, on a beach chair at a resort in Florida years ago, a white woman sunning herself next to Mrs. Dragan bemoaned the fact that black children were running around the pool. \u201cIsn\u2019t it awful?\u201d Mrs. Dragan recalled the woman confiding to her.<\/p>\n<p>Within minutes, Mrs. Dragan, ever feisty despite her reserved appearance, had her brood by her side. \u201cI\u2019d like to introduce you to my children,\u201d she told the woman. Awkward silence ensued&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/13\/us\/for-mixed-family-old-racial-tensions-remain-part-of-life.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Strangers\u2019 Glances at Family, Tensions Linger The New York Times 2011-10-13 Susan Saulny TOMS RIVER, N.J. \u2014 \u201cHow come she\u2019s so white and you\u2019re so dark?\u201d The question tore through Heather Greenwood as she was about to check out at a store here one afternoon this summer. Her brown hands were pushing the shopping [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,414,8,394,20],"tags":[215,344,2640,6532,4216,2327],"class_list":["post-17012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-census","category-family","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-jenifer-bratter","tag-jenifer-l-bratter","tag-new-york-times","tag-race-remixed","tag-susan-saulny","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43453,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17012\/revisions\/43453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}