{"id":47706,"date":"2016-06-17T14:45:02","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T14:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47706"},"modified":"2016-06-19T18:31:42","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T18:31:42","slug":"yes-im-black-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47706","title":{"rendered":"Yes, I\u2019m Black! Here\u2019s why."},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, I\u2019m Black! Here\u2019s why.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Medium<\/a>
\n2016-06-16<\/p>\n

Megan Madison<\/strong><\/a>, Doris Duke Fellow
\nSchool for Social Policy and Management
\nBrandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts<\/em><\/p>\n

Part of an EmbraceRace<\/a> series on \u201cmixed-race\u201d identity.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on how people identify themselves, and accounting for their parents\u2019 and grandparents\u2019 identities, the Pew Research Center recently found that 7% of US adults are \u201cmixed-race.<\/a>\u201d Mixed-race kids are <\/em>at least double that proportion of all children.<\/em><\/p>\n

The mixed-race population is the fastest-growing racial group in the country and, although most people who could identify as multiracial<\/a> do not, they are a fast-growing political force as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

EmbraceRace<\/a> invited members of our community to talk about their experiences as mixed-race people. We provided Dr. Maria Root\u2019s<\/a> 1993 Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage<\/a> as a prompt, which several writers identified as crucial to their own early development as multiracial\/mixed- race people. We asked them to use it in any way they wished, or not at all.<\/em><\/p>\n

Below you\u2019ll find \u201cYes, I\u2019m Black! Here\u2019s Why,\u201d by Megan Madison.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was Passover<\/a>. And as an anti-bias educator, I couldn\u2019t help using the Exodus story<\/a> as an opportunity to talk about civil disobedience, to talk about the difference between just laws and unjust laws. And just as we were discussing the bravery it must have taken Moshe<\/a> to stand up to Pharaoh, the GPS<\/a> interrupted, instructing us to turn left onto MLK Blvd.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know who Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a> was?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. I know already.\u201d My white 8-year-old nephew in the backseat rolled his eyes. \u201cThe busses<\/a> and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

We talked for a while longer about risk, and courage, and sticking up for what we believe in. And then came the question that triggered in me a familiar warm wash of shame and panic: \u201cYou\u2019re black?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

I glanced up at my reflection in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep. I\u2019m Black,\u201d I replied, doing my best to convey the assuredness that I\u2019ve learned can sometimes protect me from further interrogation. The air of confidence that might just save me from having to justify my existence one more time, spare me from having to trot out version #7,280 (5 times per week x 52 weeks per year x 28 years\u200a\u2014\u200arough estimate) of the speech I\u2019ve given since childhood…<\/p>\n

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

Yes, I\u2019m Black! Here\u2019s why. Medium 2016-06-16 Megan Madison, Doris Duke Fellow School for Social Policy and Management Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts Part of an EmbraceRace series on \u201cmixed-race\u201d identity. Based on how people identify themselves, and accounting for their parents\u2019 and grandparents\u2019 identities, the Pew Research Center recently found that 7% of US adults […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,8,20],"tags":[24155,18537,24156],"class_list":["post-47706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-embracerace","tag-medium","tag-megan-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47706","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=47706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47740,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47706\/revisions\/47740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}