{"id":26875,"date":"2012-12-10T04:37:03","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T04:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=26875"},"modified":"2012-12-10T04:37:03","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T04:37:03","slug":"cnns-soledad-obrien-keeps-own-story-under-wraps-while-exploring-colorism-in-who-is-black-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=26875","title":{"rendered":"CNN’s Soledad O’Brien keeps own story under wraps while exploring colorism in “Who is Black in America?"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien keeps own story under wraps while exploring colorism in “Who is Black in America?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Times<\/a>
\nThe Feed<\/a>
\n2012-12-07<\/p>\n

Eric Deggans<\/a><\/strong>, TV\/Media Critic<\/p>\n

More than any other, one moment crystallizes the confusing, sometimes comically absurd contortions built up around racial identity unveiled in CNN\u2019s latest documentary Who Is Black in America?<\/em>
\n\u00a0
\nIt\u2019s not the 7-year-old, dark-skinned black girl who turns to her mother and insists light skin is pretty. It\u2019s not the professor [William A. Darity, Jr.<\/a>]\u00a0who cites studies showing dark-skinned black men suffer a 10 to 12 percent income inequality compared to white men.
\n\u00a0
\nIt\u2019s when Becca Khalil, a Philadelphia-based high schooler who is the light-skinned child of Egyptian parents, feels compelled to identify herself as white on a college scholarship application.
\n\u00a0
\nDeclaring to CNN\u2019s cameras that she identifies as black personally, Khalil is nevertheless challenged by a friend born of African-American parents, who says she hasn\u2019t had a \u201cblack experience.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…When most of the youths in CNN\u2019s documentary talk about being black, they mean African American. But [Soledad] O\u2019Brien<\/a>, who also self-identifies as black, has her non-white roots in Cuba, a Hispanic-centered culture that’s different than the environment for black folks raised in Atlanta or Detroit.
\n\u00a0
\nAnd unlike some of the kids she profiles, O\u2019Brien doesn\u2019t believe anyone gets to choose their racial identity.
\n\u00a0
\n\u201cThis idea that someone gets to choose seems odd,\u201d added the anchor. \u201cI\u2019m lighter-skinned than the president of the United States, but my mom is black, my brothers and sisters are black, my mom has a short afro. I never thought I had a choice about how I identified … My identity was given to me very early by my parents.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…O\u2019Brien\u2019s documentary also doesn\u2019t mention the most famous person navigating issues of race and identity in modern times: President Barack Obama<\/a>. And the reason Obama isn\u2019t featured is the same reason O\u2019Brien doesn\u2019t tell her story, even though the details \u2014 she was raised as an Afro-Cuban\/Irish child in an all-white neighborhood where she felt \u201cpeople like me weren\u2019t attractive\u201d \u2014 seems the embodiment of the documentary\u2019s spirit…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien keeps own story under wraps while exploring colorism in “Who is Black in America? Tampa Bay Times The Feed 2012-12-07 Eric Deggans, TV\/Media Critic More than any other, one moment crystallizes the confusing, sometimes comically absurd contortions built up around racial identity unveiled in CNN\u2019s latest documentary Who Is Black in America? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1196,8,394,20],"tags":[12983,13058,12774,12082],"class_list":["post-26875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-becca-khalil","tag-eric-deggans","tag-soledad-obrien","tag-tampa-bay-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26875","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=26875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}