{"id":26889,"date":"2012-12-11T02:21:07","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T02:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=26889"},"modified":"2017-01-26T18:57:33","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T18:57:33","slug":"why-cnns-black-in-america-and-nprs-state-of-the-reunion-offer-up-a-potpourri-of-tragic-mulattoes-before-a-national-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=26889","title":{"rendered":"Why? CNN’s “Black in America” and NPR’s “State of the Re:Union” Offer Up a Potpourri of Tragic Mulattoes Before a National Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why? CNN’s “Black in America” and NPR’s “State of the Re:Union” Offer Up a Potpourri of Tragic Mulattoes Before a National Audience<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We Are Respectable Negroes<\/a>
\n2012-12-10<\/p>\n

Chauncey DeVega<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Watching CNN, and listening to NPR on Sunday night, reminded me that Imitation of Life<\/em> was not just a movie or a play; for many of us, such stories of racial identity, confusion, denial, and shame are all too real.<\/p>\n

CNN’s special on colorism and mixed race identity<\/a> went as expected. It profiled many maladjusted young black people who would fail any brown paper bag test, yet have an almost pathological obsession with wanting to be white. I was laughing at the TV screen during the show because these brown complected black folks, who desperately want to “pass<\/a>,” would have been better suited for a skit on Chappelle’s Show<\/em>, than discussing matters of “race” and “culture” on national television.<\/p>\n

As an antidote to such tragic mulattoes, Soledad O’Brien’s<\/a> Black in America<\/em> special also profiled some well-adjusted black people who understand that race is a fiction. Despite the “race” of their not black parent, they understand that the one drop rule<\/a> prevails in the United States, and these individuals gain strength and grounding from their identities as Black Americans.<\/p>\n

By comparison, NPR’s State of the Re:Union<\/a> ran a much more powerful and important show on Sunday night<\/a>. All aspects of the sad and twisted American obsession with race, and how it has damaged all of us, were on clear display there.<\/p>\n

There is a cruel and plain truth which ties CNN’s “Black in America<\/a>“, and NPR’s “Pike County, Ohio: As Black as We Wish to Be<\/a>“, together…<\/p>\n

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

Why? CNN’s “Black in America” and NPR’s “State of the Re:Union” Offer Up a Potpourri of Tragic Mulattoes Before a National Audience We Are Respectable Negroes 2012-12-10 Chauncey DeVega Watching CNN, and listening to NPR on Sunday night, reminded me that Imitation of Life was not just a movie or a play; for many of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8413,8,394],"tags":[10174,240,12655],"class_list":["post-26889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","tag-chauncey-devega","tag-colorism","tag-we-are-respectable-negroes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26889","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=26889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51305,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26889\/revisions\/51305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}