{"id":37997,"date":"2014-10-29T00:54:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T00:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=37997"},"modified":"2014-10-29T00:54:06","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T00:54:06","slug":"on-blackness-and-autism-identity-and-essence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=37997","title":{"rendered":"On blackness and autism, identity and essence"},"content":{"rendered":"

On blackness and autism, identity and essence<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Ray Hemachandra @ Golden Moon Publishing: Autism, spirit, beauty. Compassion. Love. Kindness. Sparks of light.<\/a>
\n2014-02-24<\/p>\n

Ray Hemachandra<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Often I\u2019m asked \u201cWhat are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Racial and ethnic identity still inform so much in our culture. The question asked really is a question of identity. \u201cWhat are you?\u201d masks the underlying question, \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

When I was young I was black. My father, Neal Hemachandra, was black. His mother, Leathe Wade Colvert, was black. Her mother, Martha Pleasant, came from Virginia<\/a> and slave plantations. She was black.<\/p>\n

I was black even as I carried an Asian Indian name and just as much ethnic heritage: my father\u2019s father, Balatunga Hemachandra, emigrated from Sri Lanka<\/a>. I was black even as I was Jewish: my blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jewish mother\u2019s family were immigrants from eastern Europe<\/a>, and much of their family died in the Holocaust<\/a>. I was black even as American Indian and black Dutch genes contributed to my father\u2019s ancestral lines…<\/p>\n

American history and family history confirmed this identity. One drop<\/a>. My parent\u2019s mixed marriage: they were married in New York City<\/a>, where they both were born, by a prominent NYC African American judge, Hubert Delany<\/a>, brother of the Delany sisters who became famous decades later. My parents\u2019 marriage was reported in the black press in several papers up and down the East Coast<\/a>…<\/p>\n

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

On blackness and autism, identity and essence Ray Hemachandra @ Golden Moon Publishing: Autism, spirit, beauty. Compassion. Love. Kindness. Sparks of light. 2014-02-24 Ray Hemachandra Often I\u2019m asked \u201cWhat are you?\u201d Racial and ethnic identity still inform so much in our culture. The question asked really is a question of identity. \u201cWhat are you?\u201d masks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,395,8,20],"tags":[18298,18299],"class_list":["post-37997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-asia","category-autobiography","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-ray-hemachandra","tag-ray-hemachandra-golden-moon-publishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37997","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=37997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}