{"id":51085,"date":"2017-01-08T03:31:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T03:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=51085"},"modified":"2017-01-08T22:28:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T22:28:00","slug":"best-of-2016-12-on-tuesday-with-matthew-braunginn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=51085","title":{"rendered":"BEST OF 2016: 12 on Tuesday with Matthew Braunginn"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEST OF 2016: 12 on Tuesday with Matthew Braunginn<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Madison365<\/a>
\nMadison, Wisconsin
\n2016-12-21<\/p>\n

Henry Sanders<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nMatthew Braunginn<\/em><\/small><\/a><\/p>\n

A founder of the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition<\/a>, Matthew Braunginn<\/a> works to close the achievement gaps as a coordinator with UW\u2019s PEOPLE program. [Since this came out, Braunginn has become the Student Engagement Specialist for the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District<\/a>. \u2013Ed.] He\u2019s also a regular columnist for\u00a0<\/em>Madison365<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rank your Top five MCs<\/a>.<\/strong> I love the Wu-Tang Clan<\/a>. They\u2019re for the kids, they\u2019re also my favorite group and 36-Chambers<\/em><\/a> is a better album than Illmatic<\/em><\/a>, I stand by that. Listen to them side by side and you\u2019ll know what I mean. But this is about MC\u2019s and I\u2019ll try and respect this rule here cuz I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll break many more as I go on. So let\u2019s see here\u2026my favorites:…<\/p>\n

…What does it mean to be Interracial in Madison<\/a>?<\/strong> This question\u2026this is a massive question that I could write a dissertation on. But it\u2019s unique in so many ways. I think that in one way I was able to see the depths of white supremacy in a way that few non-white, particularly black people, get to see.<\/p>\n

I mean, this city \u201cothered\u201d me in so many ways, which, if you see me, can be laughable because I\u2019m white-passing<\/a>. It\u2019s funny because ever since I wrote the piece \u201cNot Quite White<\/a>\u201d for Madison365<\/em> I\u2019ve had mostly mixed people or black people in mixed race relationships assume two things: One, they assume the background of my father is mixed because I\u2019m light skinned. (There is mixing on my dad\u2019s side of the family, but it shows how ignorant people are of the history of that in America.) And two, they assume I\u2019m saying that something is wrong with being mixed. I mean, c\u2019mon now, they didn\u2019t read the piece, they didn\u2019t see that it\u2019s my lived experiences, mixed with understanding the history of the Black American experience that led me to say I\u2019m a mixed-race, BLACK male. Not just mixed, not mixed with white, like there\u2019s something wrong with being black, like I\u2019m part white, why would I ever want to be Black? Which just shows the depths of white supremacy.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the thing; I was never fully accepted as white, even though I\u2019m white passing, which caused a lot of confusion growing up. I didn\u2019t know how I was \u2013 was I black or white? Some ungodly mixed between the two, forever existing between the ether, never knowing when white people would decide I could pass for white or when they would want me to be Black. That is part of the diversity of the Black American experience. This isn\u2019t about the \u201cone drop\u201d rule<\/a>; it\u2019s about how deep white supremacy goes that someone like me can still feel and experience it. That I can be in a group of white people that is in the middle of an encounter with cops, and the officers somehow are more aggressive towards me than the white people around me. I learned, through being aware enough of my experiences, that I am not white, nor will I ever be; white supremacy, white people will make sure to let me know that I am not white. So I claim my black identity with pride, as I want nothing to do with the legacy of white supremacy and want to help this nation break free of that. But more importantly I know there is nothing wrong with being black, that black is beautiful, that that is part of my history, it\u2019s in my blood; my grandfather\u2019s cousin A. Leon Higginbotham<\/a> helped write the South African constitution, I mean, c\u2019mon. And even more important I love my dashes of melanin and will glow in my blackness; I love my blackness and yours…<\/p>\n

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

BEST OF 2016: 12 on Tuesday with Matthew Braunginn Madison365 Madison, Wisconsin 2016-12-21 Henry Sanders Matthew Braunginn A founder of the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, Matthew Braunginn works to close the achievement gaps as a coordinator with UW\u2019s PEOPLE program. [Since this came out, Braunginn has become the Student Engagement Specialist for the Middleton-Cross […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13743,8,23674,20],"tags":[25937,25938,19560,22539,22540,5661],"class_list":["post-51085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-social-justice","category-usa","tag-henry-sanders","tag-henry-sanders-jr","tag-madison","tag-madison365","tag-matthew-braunginn","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51085","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=51085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51101,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51085\/revisions\/51101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}