{"id":27794,"date":"2013-03-22T23:09:33","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T23:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=27794"},"modified":"2017-08-09T15:52:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T15:52:03","slug":"a-conversation-with-eric-hamako","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=27794","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation with Eric Hamako"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Conversation with Eric Hamako<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

MixedRaceStudies.org<\/a>
\n2013-01-23<\/p>\n

Steven F. Riley<\/a>, Creator<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the first in a series of interviews with scholars, writers, activists and others involved with the topic of multiracilism.<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Scholar<\/em> Eric Hamako<\/a><\/em>is an Ed.D. candidate in the Social Justice Education concentration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a long-time student- and community-organizer of mixed-race activities. Last October, Eric was<\/em>appointed to a position on the United States Census Bureau’s <\/a>National Advisory Committee<\/a><\/em>(NAC) on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations for a two-year term. The committee, as one of several National Advisory Committees, advises the<\/em>Census Bureau<\/a><\/em>on a wide range of variables that affect the cost, accuracy and implementation of the Census Bureau\u2019s programs and surveys.<\/em><\/p>\n

I had a chance to sit down with Eric the morning of November 2, 2012, during the<\/em>2012 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference<\/a> (CMRS) at DePaul University in an attempt to learn more about him, his scholarship and his activism and how they intersect. The day before, both Eric and I had presented papers at the conference. Eric also presented<\/em>another<\/em><\/strong>paper on Saturday followed by a report on the census for the CMRS business meeting on Sunday! Thus our face-to-face time was quite pleasant, yet far too brief. Recently, I caught up with him to follow up on our CMRS chat.<\/em><\/p>\n

Steve Riley:<\/strong> What inspired you to get involved with mixed-race community and student organizing?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Eric Hamako<\/strong>: In college, like many Mixed-identified folks, I sought out community in various ways with various groups. In some places, I wasn\u2019t seen as belonging or didn\u2019t feel welcomed. In others, I felt I had more opportunities; people saw potential in me and welcomed my contributions. In particular, toward the end of college, I heard about a student organizing a student chapter of Hapa Issues Forum. I attended the small meeting and, as I listened to others, I thought, \u201cWell, I have some thoughts and suggestions for what this group should do…\u201d And, opening my big mouth, people seemed supportive\u2014so much so that they said, \u201cThat\u2019s a good idea… you\u2019re in charge of that.\u201d Little did I realize, at the time, that this was the first meeting and that, by virtue of showing up and demonstrating some initiative, I had somewhat inadvertently joined the leadership core of the group. Mixed-Race organizing has, unlike some of my other work and volunteer experiences, been a place where I\u2019ve felt that I could make a more substantial difference. I\u2019ve worked in other positions where, if I was heard at all, my ideas weren\u2019t given much merit and I wasn\u2019t sure what difference I was making. But, with my Mixed-Race work, I\u2019ve felt that I\u2019ve had more sense of community and more sense that I could impact what\u2019s going on. So, I\u2019ve tried to nurture that in my own work, to provide opportunities for others to connect and make their marks, too.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: Can you describe the selection process for membership to the Census NAC?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: Over the past few years, a number of Multiracial student and community organizations have been networking and getting closer to one another. Through some of our collective work, we were informed by a Census representative that the Census Bureau was putting out a public call for nominations to a new iteration of the Census Bureau\u2019s advisory committee system. Our loose network of Multiracial organizations\u2019 leaders decided we\u2019d nominate someone, in hopes that we\u2019d have a representative on the committee interested in Multiracial issues. Through an internal nomination and vote, the group elected to nominate me for a position. The Census Bureau grandparented in fifteen members of the former advisory committees, the REACs (Racial and Ethnic Advisory Committees), and of the nominations received, selected an additional seventeen new advisory committee members, for a total of thirty-two members on our National Advisory Committee. The Census Bureau chose me as one of the seventeen new nominees. I don\u2019t know much about the process the Census Bureau used to choose among the nominees, but it\u2019s my sense that they were looking for members who would be knowledgeable in various subject-areas and had community connections to various marginalized and hard-to-count populations.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: Certainly there are others in the mixed-race community who might have served on the Census NAC. What do you bring as a representative that others may not?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: There definitely are other leaders who also have area-related knowledge, historical perspective, and strong connections to Multiracial organizations and networks. I feel fortunate to have been nominated by peers and selected by the Census Bureau. To help share the information I\u2019m learning and to solicit the concerns and opinions of people interested in racial justice and Multiraciality, I\u2019ve created a blog: Two Or More: Mixed thoughts about the Census NAC<\/a><\/em> (http:\/\/censusnac.blogspot.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: Are the NAC meetings in-person?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: There are several different National Advisory Committees (NACs), including the NAC on Racial Ethnic and Other Populations. The NAC on which I serve is scheduled to meet in-person four times in two years, as well as holding at least two virtual meetings. These meetings are open to the public and provide comment periods, which I encourage people to use. Additionally, our NAC will have \u201cworking groups,\u201d which are tasked with exploring and researching various subtopics, such as how to count hard-to-count populations; the impacts of using third-party databases to supplement Census Bureau data; and what might happen if the Census Bureau combined the \u201crace question\u201d and the \u201cethnicity question\u201d into a single question. The working groups are also empowered to recruit experts from outside the NAC to contribute to the group\u2019s work. So, for people interested in working with the NAC, you might think about how you could contribute to a working group\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: Do you anticipate any changes affecting the Two or More Race (TOMR) option on the 2020 census?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: I think it\u2019s important for everyone to know that neither racism nor race are stable or natural. Racism metastasizes and changes over time, changing the ways that race is thought about and implemented in the US. For the last few decades, the Census has been one way to try to observe and track the symptoms of racial inequalities. For example, we can use the data to determine whether a racial group is disproportionately imprisoned or denied access to equitable bank loans. Without such data, it\u2019s difficult to demonstrate racist trends.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Census\u2019 racial categories change from decade to decade; one reason for those changes has to do with the ways racism and race change over time. For example, the more a group is able to assert that it is<\/em> a group and has valid claims to seek recognition and protection from racism, the more able it might be to seek recognition on the Census. The 1997 Directive No. 15<\/a> issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) allowed for the \u201cMark One Or More\u201d (MOOM) format on the 2000 Census\u2019 race question, resulting in the Two or More Races (TOMR) data we\u2019ve seen from the 2000 and 2010 Census. At this point, I do not have reason to believe that the MOOM format will be significantly altered for the 2020 Census.<\/p>\n

But, there are many important issues that are related and less visible. For example, in the lead-up to Directive No. 15, I think many people were talking about \u201cWhat will the forms allow?\u201d (i.e., \u201cenumeration\u201d) and far<\/em> fewer people were talking about \u201cHow will people\u2019s responses be counted up and reported out?\u201d (i.e., \u201ctabulation\u201d and reporting). I encourage everyone to educate themselves about how the data is tabulated and reported. Different agencies and organizations tabulate and report in different ways\u2014and that impacts how the data can be used and what we can learn about racial inequalities.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: What challenges (if any) do you anticipate with your NAC?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: I think several of the challenges are logistical, but the logistics of things also impact getting to know each other and working together. All of the committee members are working other jobs and have other responsibilities. We\u2019re spread out across the country and meet in-person only a few times during our term; that makes getting to know each other and remotely coordinating our work more challenging. Thankfully, I think that many of us have had experience collaborating over long distances and the Census Bureau provides some technical support for bridging the distances (e.g., conference calls; a web-based space for communication and collaboration; financial support for travel to our in-person meetings). Another logistical or perhaps communication challenge is sharing information with and gathering concerns and opinions from various populations and communities. While I don\u2019t claim to represent every Multiracial-identified person or every person concerned about Multiracial issues, I do hope to find ways to communicate with other people. For now, I\u2019m counting on my connections to various Multiracial organizations and my attempts to reach out through those channels.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: The census in Canada does not collect data on race. Do you think that the U.S. should follow in its footsteps? Why or why not?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH:<\/strong> Because I think the Census\u2019s data about race is an important way to identify racial inequalities produced by systemic racism, I\u2019m in favor of continuing to collect information about race, rather than discontinuing it. That said, collecting information about race via the Census is merely a way to track the symptoms<\/em> of racism, rather than the systems<\/em> through which racism operates. I think we need information about both<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Similarly\u2014and perhaps controversially\u2014I think that we often use a person\u2019s racial self-identification (e.g., on the Census) as a loose way of inferring things about their experiences of racism. Some scholars have pointed out that this is somewhat sloppy and also reinforces the myth that \u201crace\u201d is real, when really race is just a product of racism. So, if what we really want to know is, \u201cWhat\u2019re your experiences of racism?\u201d then we can and should ask additional questions, beyond just \u201cWhat\u2019s your racial identity?\u201d or \u201cWhat race are you?\u201d Part of racism\u2019s myth of race is the idea that members of a so-called racial group are all similar and thus different from everyone of other racial groups\u2014but really, there\u2019s tremendous diversity within so-called racial groups. And racism affects members of a racial group differently, based on racism\u2019s interaction with things like sexism, heterosexism, classism, colorism, ableism<\/a>, nationalism, and Christian Supremacy.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: I was impressed with one of your Facebook posts about the California Mumford Act of 1967<\/em>, where the National Rifle Association (NRA) and conservative Republicans, led by assemblyman Don Mumford and governor Ronald Regan spearheaded gun-control legislation because of a fear of increased gun ownership by black people. How and why is it important to use an anti-racist social justice framework when engaging in your work?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: I can\u2019t claim credit for the content of that post\u2014only for reposting it along to folks; there\u2019s some good stuff out there. As for my own work, I\u2019m trying to find ways to improve the ways that we teach about racism and about monoracism (oppression of Multiraciality). As a student and an educator, I\u2019ve found that much of the anti-racist curricula that\u2019s currently available isn\u2019t well-suited for addressing monoracism or for reaching Mixed-identified participants. So, I\u2019m trying to work with colleagues to identify some of those shortcomings and to improve what and how we\u2019re teaching about racism, about monoracism, and about the other \u201cintersecting\u201d or intertwined forms of oppression. I try to keep a multi-issue analysis in mind when I work and when I teach. For me, I aspire to a social justice analysis that sees how things like racism and sexism are not only \u201cintersecting\u201d but are intertwined and make up each other. And, further, I think Multiracial organizers can learn a lot from other social movements. I\u2019ve been particularly interested in what Multiracial organizers can learn and share with people organizing for bisexual\/pansexual liberation and transgender liberation. Certainly, we\u2019re present in each other\u2019s movements, but we\u2019re also each situated as \u201cin-between\u201d and many of the stereotypes and aspects of oppression are similar, too.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: How and why is the examination of the “mixed-race metaphor” in science fiction and other genres important in the discussion of mixed-race?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: I believe that stories are powerful. Stories shape how we think about ourselves and others; how we think about social problems, their origins, and their solutions; and what we think is possible or desirable. Many negative stories have been told about Multiraciality and, while they continue to be told, now there are also more seductively positive-sounding stories, too. But I want to emphasize: racial stereotypes that sound<\/em> positive are still racial stereotypes, are still racism, and often play into larger racist agendas.<\/p>\n

In the past, we had more stories where Multiraciality was represented as negative, defective, confused or evil. And those stories are still being told (e.g., Voldemort<\/a> in the Harry Potter<\/a> <\/em>franchise). But now we\u2019re seeing more stories where a hybrid hero embodies more positive-sounding stereotypes and defeats the hybrid villain. So, the hybrid hero tells us positive-sounding stories, such as \u201cMultiracial people are smarter, healthier, stronger, etc.\u201d or \u201cMultiracial people will be the end of racism!\u201d But as sweet as those stories sound, as seductive as it might be for people to believe those lies, that\u2019s all they are: racist lies. Multiracial people are neither racially inferior nor racially superior. No one and no group is inherently better or worse than another on a racial basis. And, I hope that we will strengthen our mental self-defense skills so that we\u2019re prepared to fight back against racist stories; not just the obviously hateful racist stories, but also the seductive racist stories that try to say, \u201cHey, we used to say you were bad, but now we\u2019re going to say you\u2019re better… (better than those<\/em>people).\u201d I think that seeing the problems in stories is an important step to telling different<\/em> stories, rather than retelling the same old stories.<\/p>\n

SR<\/strong>: I found the Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) conference to be an incredible learning experience and thoroughly invigorating. It was great to have the privilege to present a paper and it was also really wonderful to meet many of the scholars that I have posts for on my site. What did CMRS do for you and how might it influence your NAC activities?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

EH<\/strong>: I\u2019m so<\/em> thankful to all the people who\u2019ve made the first two CMRS conferences possible\u2014to everyone who attended, but also to the people who organized the conference and made it happen. As an attendee and a presenter, CMRS continues to be a place where I can meet new people, reconnect with friends and colleagues, feel inspired and useful, and also, as an academic, to be exposed to new ideas and new ways of thinking. As a representative to the NAC, CMRS provides me with opportunities to share information, gather ideas and opinions, and to connect broadly and deeply with people who\u2019re concerned about Multiraciality, monoracism, and social justice. I\u2019m looking forward to CMRS 2014!<\/p>\n

\u00a9<\/sup>2013, Steven F. Riley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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