{"id":27332,"date":"2013-01-06T18:51:42","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T18:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=27332"},"modified":"2013-05-27T02:33:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T02:33:28","slug":"catching-up-with-black-in-america%e2%80%99s-soledad-o%e2%80%99brien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=27332","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up With Black in America\u2019s Soledad O\u2019Brien"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catching Up With Black in America\u2019s Soledad O\u2019Brien<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Clutch Magazine<\/a>
\n2012-12-14<\/p>\n

Zettler Clay<\/strong><\/p>\n

A while ago, I took my little cousins to Toys \u201cR\u201d Us. Three of them. 8 years old, 6 years old, 4 years old. It was going smoothly enough until we came across a row of dolls.<\/p>\n

There were two on the end. A fully-adorned Black doll on the left. A fully-adorned white doll on the right. She picked the one on the right.<\/p>\n

My radar immediately went off. I gently suggested the melanated doll.<\/p>\n

No dice. I strongly suggested this doll. Nothing. We weren\u2019t getting anywhere and I was met with the confused look of a little girl whose older cousin had a problem with what she wanted. After he said she could get what she wanted.<\/p>\n

I was short on time. She was short on understanding. So I relented.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t been able to shake this experience. The notion of colorism \u2014 the lighter the skin, the better the \u201cdoll\u201d \u2014 hits us early in life and never leaves. It\u2019s endemic in our community, a point brought to the surface by CNN\u2019s latest addition to the Black in America series, Who is Black in America?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing wrong with seeing color,\u201d said CNN anchor and special correspondent Soledad O\u2019Brien<\/a>. \u201cIt becomes a problem when people limit and define you by it.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…Classification creates forms. Forms create separateness, which leads to competition. Colonization. And a wondering lot of people left to discover who they are because of who they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

But why the focus on defining minorities? What about a White in America?<\/strong> It is this criticism that O\u2019Brien hears. And agrees with…<\/p>\n

For a few candid moments, I caught up with O\u2019Brien about defining \u201cblackness,\u201d future of Black in America, white supremacy\u2019s effects on Black women and self-identification.<\/p>\n

Me<\/strong>: This is a huge subject to tackle.<\/p>\n

Soledad O\u2019Brien<\/strong>: You think! (laughs)…<\/p>\n

Me<\/strong>: How much has this series helped in your self-identification?<\/p>\n

SO<\/strong>: I\u2019ve always had a very strong self-identification. I\u2019ve never struggled with my racial classification. I was very lucky. My mom used to always tell me, \u201cdon\u2019t let anyone tell you you\u2019re not Black. Don\u2019t let anybody tell you you\u2019re not Latino.\u201d My parents instilled a very strong sense of identity. Even in the recent doc as I was talking to the young women, I kept thinking, \u201cthis is soooo not my experience.\u201d I found that other people had many more challenges about racial ambiguity. I find it fascinating to learn about different communities and geographic history. Black people in Atlanta vs. Black people in Minneapolis (where we\u2019re shooting now). Black people in Philly vs. Black people in New York. Just the history of these communities. I have found it rewarding to see the differences in us and how similar we are…<\/p>\n

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

Catching Up With Black in America\u2019s Soledad O\u2019Brien Clutch Magazine 2012-12-14 Zettler Clay A while ago, I took my little cousins to Toys \u201cR\u201d Us. Three of them. 8 years old, 6 years old, 4 years old. It was going smoothly enough until we came across a row of dolls. There were two on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,125,13743,14646,8,394,20],"tags":[13288,12774,13287],"class_list":["post-27332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-identitydevelopment","category-interviews","category-latino","category-media-archive","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-clutch-magazine","tag-soledad-obrien","tag-zettler-clay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27332","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=27332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}