{"id":53695,"date":"2017-04-25T02:57:41","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T02:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=53695"},"modified":"2017-04-25T02:58:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T02:58:29","slug":"race-is-more-than-just-black-and-white-this-new-podcast-explores-some-of-that-middle-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=53695","title":{"rendered":"Race is more than just black and white. This new podcast explores some of that middle ground."},"content":{"rendered":"

Race is more than just black and white. This new podcast explores some of that middle ground.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a>
\n201-04-24<\/p>\n

Alex Laughlin<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n(Illustration by Chris Kindred)<\/small><\/p>\n

There\u2019s this literary theory called the \u201cmulatto canary in the coal mine<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It holds that the treatment and depictions of mixed-race people in art and culture is a reflection of the broader state of race relations in America at that moment.\u00a0The theory has\u00a0been applied to works throughout American history, from Nella Larsen\u2019s<\/a> 1929 novel, \u201cPassing<\/a>,\u201d to Danzy Senna\u2019s<\/a> \u201cCaucasia<\/a>\u201d in 1999.<\/p>\n

These multiracial characters, their very bodies providing evidence of racial lines crossed, are marked by confusion and betrayal, jealousy and cowardice, and most frequently, a tragic ending.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s 2017 \u2014 50 years since the Loving v. Virginia<\/em><\/a> Supreme Court decision invalidated anti-miscegenation<\/a> laws across the country. It\u2019s been legal to cross these racial lines for five decades now, almost two full generations. What does it mean to be mixed race in America today?<\/p>\n

I suppose I should tell you a little about myself and why I\u2019m so interested in this topic…<\/p>\n