{"id":39479,"date":"2015-01-16T23:49:59","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T23:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=39479"},"modified":"2015-02-24T01:52:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T01:52:05","slug":"what-if-everything-you-know-about-race-is-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=39479","title":{"rendered":"What If Everything You Know About Race Is Wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What If Everything You Know About Race Is Wrong?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Texas Public Radio<\/a>
\nSan Antonio, Texas
\n2015-01-15<\/p>\n

Jack Morgan<\/strong><\/a>, Arts and Culture Reporter<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFanshen Cox DiGiovanni<\/small><\/p>\n

A one-woman show is coming to the Tobin Center<\/a> and it\u2019s probably unlike anything you\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s called “One Drop of Love<\/a>.” starring Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni<\/a>, produced by Ben Affleck<\/a> and Matt Damon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you get mixed up with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

(Laughs) \u201cI think I met Matt when I was about 12 and Ben when we started high school together,” DiGiovanni told me. “And we did theater\u2014we had a very wonderful theater program at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School<\/a>. And these two guys are such wonderful human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year ago, DiGiovanni first produced this one-woman show for a Master of Fine Arts degree thesis performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen came and saw my thesis performance and just said afterwards \u2018I think this is really great and important and I\u2019d like to help you get it to a wider audience.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Damon also saw it and agreed with his friend. Thus DiGiovanni’s tour was conceived. So exactly what is One Drop of Love<\/em>? It\u2019s talking about one of this country\u2019s most difficult subjects: race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never know what kinds of experiences the people in the audience have had with race and racism,\u201d DiGiovanni explains.<\/p>\n

The whole show revolves around this premise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI start off the show as the character from a 1790 census, on which there were only three racial categories<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her show, she goes around her audience, linking audience members to one of those racial categories.<\/p>\n

Walking through an audience, she names them: \u201cOkay, white\u2026black\u2026mulatto<\/a>\u2026Chinese? Yes, hello\u2026quadroon<\/a>\u2026no, I see you! An Indian\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s one part history, one part performance art.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who look at me and shake their head and say ‘no, that\u2019s not what I am!’ Which is very much the point, because that\u2019s how the census was counted until 1970. A census worker would just go around and guess the race of the person they were looking at.”<\/p>\n

She says race, in a sense, isn\u2019t even real…<\/p>\n