{"id":35053,"date":"2013-12-16T14:01:17","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T14:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=35053"},"modified":"2017-06-26T19:14:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T19:14:24","slug":"one-drop-but-many-views-on-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=35053","title":{"rendered":"One Drop, but Many Views on Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Drop, but Many Views on Race<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2013-12-16<\/p>\n

Maurice Berger<\/a><\/strong>, Research Professor and Chief Curator
\nCenter for Art, Design and Visual Culture
\nUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the 2010 census \u2014 when respondents could check more than one racial group \u2014 President Obama<\/a>, the son of a black African father and a white mother, checked a single box<\/a>: \u201cBlack, African-American or Negro.\u201d Mr. Obama himself was unequivocal about it<\/a>: \u201cI self-identify as African-American \u2014 that\u2019s how I am treated and that\u2019s how I am viewed. And I\u2019m proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the president\u2019s words are nuanced: While he opts to classify himself as black, he implies that his racial identity is also contingent on how he is seen and treated by others in a nation prone to racial absolutes, no matter how he sees himself.<\/p>\n

Those observations are among the provocative arguments presented by Yaba Blay<\/a> in \u201c(1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race<\/a>\u201d (BLACKprint Press<\/a>), which examine what it means to be black. In it, she demonstrates how racial identity is not just biological or genetic but also a matter of context and even personal choice. It is revealing that the president\u2019s definitive answer came after years of being dogged by outside doubters who questioned not just his race, but also his very nationality.<\/p>\n

\u201c(1)ne Drop\u201d explores the intricate and fraught issue of race through the observations of 60 contributors from 25 countries who self-identify, at least partly, as black, even if they are not always seen as such because of light skin, facial features or interracial ancestry. Their words are accompanied by portraits by Noelle Th\u00e9ard<\/a> and a team of photographers directed by her. The book challenges narrow conceptions about blackness, both as an identity and as an experience, and the stereotypes and rigid boundaries of color that continue to divide us…<\/p>\n

…The books subject\u2019s recount how their efforts to define themselves clashed with society\u2019s imperative to assign neat racial categories in order to \u201cmake something that is fluid and uncertain more certain,\u201d as a contributor, Deborah Thomas, noted. Some described the bewilderment and prying questions of acquaintances, co-workers and strangers attempting to discern their race. Others pointed to the social stigma of having complexions that are frustratingly \u2014 or insultingly \u2014 viewed as too dark or too light…<\/p>\n

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

In the 2010 census \u2014 when respondents could check more than one racial group \u2014 President Obama, the son of a black African father and a white mother, checked a single box: \u201cBlack, African-American or Negro.\u201d Mr. Obama himself was unequivocal about it: \u201cI self-identify as African-American \u2014 that\u2019s how I am treated and that\u2019s how I am viewed. And I\u2019m proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,5,1196],"tags":[16557,2640,8015,147,2327,7992],"class_list":["post-35053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-book-reviews","category-literary-criticism","tag-maurice-berger","tag-new-york-times","tag-noelle-theard","tag-photography","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-yaba-blay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35053","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=35053"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54272,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35053\/revisions\/54272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}