{"id":57941,"date":"2019-04-19T18:12:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T18:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=57941"},"modified":"2019-05-01T22:13:20","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T22:13:20","slug":"with-the-birth-of-my-son-i-stopped-hiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=57941","title":{"rendered":"With the Birth of My Son, I Stopped Hiding"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Birth of My Son, I Stopped Hiding<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Modern Love
\nThe New York Times<\/a>
\n2019-04-19<\/p>\n

Tina Chang<\/strong><\/a>, Poet Laureate of Brooklyn, New York
\nBrooklyn, New York<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nBrian Rea<\/small><\/a><\/p>\n

Fearing judgment of her interracial relationship and mixed-race child, a woman keeps both from her family. Until she doesn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n

My son, Roman, turned to me from his book and said, \u201cMom, can you throw me a blanket? This is my favorite part in the book and I don\u2019t want to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I look at my son, I see myself: the inability to tolerate pain, even from the smallest of physical hurts; the deep fear of the dark, of the deserted street, of that strange insect on the ceiling; and the intense, abiding love of reading.<\/p>\n

Most of all, I see myself in his face, the eyes like mine, left slightly larger than right, especially when he\u2019s tired, and the toothy smile that breaks through the most serious situations. All of it: me.<\/p>\n

Yet when he and I walk along the street, so many people feel the need to tell me how much he isn\u2019t like me, how incredibly unalike we appear, how he looks just like his father. They say it with such authority.<\/p>\n

My son is biracial. His father is Haitian-American and I\u2019m of Chinese descent; Often, I have to work to prove that my son is mine. On our daily subway commute to school, at least one person will look at me, then at him, and then back again. I am forced to see what they see: His skin is darker and his hair wavy, while I\u2019m fair, prone to freckling, with hair that won\u2019t hold a curl. If their eyes happen to meet mine, they\u2019ll catch me glaring, holding them accountable for what I deem to be their silent judgment…<\/p>\n

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

Fearing judgment of her interracial relationship and mixed-race child, a woman keeps both from her family. Until she doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16,8,20],"tags":[2640,2327,29716],"class_list":["post-57941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-asia","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-new-york-times","tag-the-new-york-times","tag-tina-chang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57941","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=57941"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57951,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57941\/revisions\/57951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}