{"id":56624,"date":"2018-07-01T20:07:12","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T20:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=56624"},"modified":"2018-07-01T20:07:12","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T20:07:12","slug":"why-barack-is-black-and-megan-is-biracial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=56624","title":{"rendered":"Why Barack is black and Megan is biracial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mediadiversified.org\/2018\/06\/28\/why-barack-is-black-and-megan-is-biracial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Why Barack is black and Megan is biracial<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mediadiversified.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media Diversified<\/a><br \/>\n2018-06-28<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/olivia-woldemikael-47372945\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Olivia Woldemikael<\/strong><\/a>, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science<br \/>\n<em>Harvard University<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mediadiversified.org\/2018\/06\/28\/why-barack-is-black-and-megan-is-biracial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mediadiversityuk.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/06\/prince_harry_and_ms-_markle_visit_catalyst_inc_41014635231.jpg\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Olivia Woldemikael discusses the differences in how <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meghan_Markle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Megan Markle<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barack_Obama\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barack Obama<\/a> present themselves racially and asks what it means for blackness as an identity<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The exclusivity and purity of the racial categories, black and white, is a myth, and a destructive one. Yet, it is continuously perpetuated in national discourse and family conversations. As the personalities of celebrities and politicians continue to be venerated in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">America<\/a>, the racial identity of public figures such as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barack_Obama\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barack Obama<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meghan_Markle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meghan Markle<\/a> are important sites for changing our ideas about race.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise to me that Barack Obama was considered America\u2019s first black president and Meghan Markle is considered the biracial princess of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/England\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">England<\/a>. The two are similarly \u201clight-skinned\u201d in racial parlance. Yet, the manner in which each of them has constructed signifiers of their race explains the difference in public perception. While perception alone does not diminish either\u2019s proximity to whiteness and privilege, which may help explain their success. It does, however, draw attention to the way individuals are able to exercise agency in determining their racial identity, undermining the monolithic American racial ideology. The divergent public personas that Obama and Markle have cultivated demonstrate the fragility of racial categories and hierarchies, as well as highlight the need for a paradigmatic shift in the way we discuss and represent race in the media&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"https:\/\/mediadiversified.org\/2018\/06\/28\/why-barack-is-black-and-megan-is-biracial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Olivia Woldemikael discusses the differences in how Megan Markle and Barack Obama present themselves racially and asks what it means for blackness as an identity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,8413,8,26,394,10,20],"tags":[16878,20717,28814],"class_list":["post-56624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-communications","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-socialscience","category-uk","category-usa","tag-media-diversified","tag-meghan-markle","tag-olivia-woldemikael"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56624","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=56624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56625,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56624\/revisions\/56625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}