{"id":6548,"date":"2010-04-11T05:23:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-11T05:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=6548"},"modified":"2010-04-28T04:25:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T04:25:14","slug":"mixedracestudies-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=6548","title":{"rendered":"MixedRaceStudies.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

MixedRaceStudies.org<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Paper Presented at
\nWho Counts & Who\u2019s Counting? 38th Annual Conference National Association for Ethnic Studies Conference<\/a>
\nSession: The race in \u201cmixed\u201d race? Reiterations of power and identity<\/strong><\/em>
\nWashington, DC
\n2010-04-10<\/p>\n

Steven F. Riley<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the paper I describe the origins of <\/em>www.MixedRaceStudies.org<\/em><\/a>\u00a0a non-commercial website that\u00a0provides a gateway to contemporary interdisciplinary (sociology, psychology, history,\u00a0law,\u00a0etc.) English language scholarship about the relevant\u00a0issues surrounding the topic of multiracialism.\u00a0 I discuss the inspiration, conception, development and future plans for the site.<\/em><\/p>\n

Good Morning.<\/p>\n

I would like to take a few moments of your time to describe an online resource I created a year ago called MixedRaceStudies.org<\/a>.\u00a0 Before I continue, I would like to thank Dr. Rainier Spencer<\/a> and Dr. Sue-Je Gage<\/a> for giving me this opportunity to speak to you.<\/p>\n

The heightened visibility of self-described \u2018mixed-race\u2019 individuals in the entertainment industry and professional sports has of recent years\u00a0has captured the attention and fascination of the American public.\u00a0 This heightened awareness has even led to changes in the way our decennial census collects racial data.\u00a0 Even more recently, the election of \u2018mixed-race\u2019 individuals across the country from mayors (such as this city<\/a>) to the president of our country<\/a> has led some to believe we have in fact\u00a0entered a \u2018post-racial\u2019 society.<\/p>\n

The skeptic in me has always questioned the validity of the American popular culture multiracial gaze.\u00a0 To be honest, I too have occasionally succumbed to the gaze of increasing numbers of interracial relationships (like my own 24 year relationship with my loving\u00a0wife Julia<\/a>), and the offspring of such unions.\u00a0 In the Silver Spring, Maryland<\/a> area that my wife and I live in, interracial couples and mixed-race individuals seem to be everywhere<\/em>.\u00a0 And this, in a racialized society as ours is <\/em>fascinating.\u00a0 But, like many things, what is fascinating today may be irrelevant next week, despised next month, discarded next year… and rediscovered next century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was drawn to the subject of mixed race because it is so complex.\u00a0 I wanted to ask questions, and to share the answers and information I found along the way.\u00a0 For me, current discourses about multiracialism in pop-culture today provide us with only a cursory understanding of the lives of \u2018mixed-race\u2019 people and the societal implications of their increasing presence.\u00a0 The many shortcomings of pop-cultural discourses are too numerous to mention, but include.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. An utter lack of historical perspective.\u00a0 This \u2018new\u2019 thing has been occurring in the Americas for over five centuries.<\/li>\n
  2. An unwillingness to dismiss or even question the (scientifically proven) fallacious concept of \u2018race\u2019 despite the fact that mixed-race individuals\u2014as Dr. Spencer says\u2014embody its\u2019 fallaciousness.<\/li>\n
  3. An unwillingness to question\u00a0whether our \u2018fascination\u2019 with multiracialism may in fact be due to the persistence of racism.<\/li>\n
  4. A tendency to view the increased number of \u2018mixed-race\u2019 individuals of heralding in an era of a \u201cpost-racial\u201d America.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To that end, I have turned my gaze away from television, away from rising and falling sports figures, towards the writings of individuals who have dedicated their life\u2019s work to elucidating us about multiracialism.<\/p>\n

    Conception<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u00a0I began this journey, quite by accident in January 2008 when the son of a college friend of my wife Julia came to visit us for dinner at our home.\u00a0 This young man\u2014who we had not seen since he was a child\u2014is\u00a0the son of a black Haitian man and a white Jewish woman, mentioned to us that he was bringing along his girlfriend.\u00a0 This caused me to spend an inordinate amount of time wondering\u00a0about\u00a0the girlfriend. I\u2019m sure you have heard the phrase or question that \u201cdare\u2019th not speak its\u2019 name\u201d… \u201cWhat are you?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhat is she?\u201d\u00a0 I wondered was she “black” like his father or “white” like his mother?\u00a0 Would he be in an interracial relationship like his parents?\u00a0 Would his parents approve of the relationship? Was I asking myself a lot of stupid questions and what did it matter anyway?<\/p>\n

    As it turned out, our young guest\u2019s girlfriend (now fiance)\u00a0was in fact the daughter of a black father and a white mother also.\u00a0 Were they an interracial couple?\u00a0 Would their children be \u2018mixed-race\u2019?…. or not.<\/p>\n

    As the evening progressed, our conversation turned to politics and our preferred candidates for Democratic presidential nomination.\u00a0 Julia and I supported then Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton<\/a>, because… we thought she could win.\u00a0 Our two young guests disagreed and were convinced\u2014and convinced us\u2014that this “black man of mixed heritage” named Barack Obama<\/a>\u00a0could indeed be elected to the presidency.<\/p>\n

    My journey continued after the election of President Obama and before his inauguration.\u00a0 It seemed that everywhere I looked there were articles about interracial families on television programs, in newspapers, magazines and websites… again.\u00a0 Were “mixed race” people in hiding since a\u00a0previous victory, not in the electoral politics, but on the golf course in 1997?\u00a0 Was America on the verge of a becoming post-post racial society?\u00a0 What I yearned for was not another 15 second sound bite about the \u201cchanging face of America\u201d, but an honest appraisal of what the apparent heightened visibility of mixed-race people\u00a0really meant for America.<\/p>\n

    In February of 2009, I discovered the online podcast Mixed Chicks Chat<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em>Started in May of 2007 by educator Fanshen Cox<\/a> and author Heidi W. Durrow<\/a>, this wonderful podcast promotes itself as \u201cthe only weekly show about being racially and culturally mixed.\u201d\u00a0 Available live or recorded via TalkShoe or recorded via Apple\u2019s iTunes, the 150 episodes\u2014I appeared as a featured guest on the 150th<\/sup>episode this last Wednesday\u2014provide listeners with insightful and thought provoking discussion surrounding \u2018mixed-race\u2019 issues.\u00a0 After listening to several live podcasts, I found the hosts Ms. Cox and Ms. Durrow quite knowledgeable about all aspects of the \u2018mixed-race\u2019 experience.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the some of the listeners.\u00a0 On many occasions, I would post links in the \u201cchat room\u201d to books and articles for fellow participants unfamiliar with terms such as \u201cone-drop rule<\/a>\u201d, \u201cJim Crow<\/a>\u201d,\u00a0 etc.\u00a0 It was after a few weeks of this exercise, I decided to create an online resource to answer these many questions.<\/p>\n

    To obtain the knowledge to begin the process of building this resource, I purchased and read Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe\u2019s \u2018Mixed Race\u2019 Studies: A Reader<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0Considered by some the<\/em> definitive anthology on the subject, \u2018Mixed Race\u2019 Studies<\/em> takes the reader on a 150 year interdisciplinary trek encompassing the origins of \u201cmiscegenation<\/a> theory\u201d and false notions of moral and hybrid degeneracy, to contemporary discourses on identity politics and celebration, and finally to the critiques of these political movements.\u00a0 Great anthologies like \u2018Mixed Race\u2019 Studies<\/em> encourage the reader to further their scholarship by reading additional discourses by the various authors.\u00a0 That was and remains the goal for my site, which I named MixedRaceStudies.org <\/em>in April of 2009.<\/p>\n

    www.MixedRaceStudies.org<\/em><\/a> \u00a0<\/em>is a\u00a0non-commercial website that provides a gateway to contemporary interdisciplinary (sociology, psychology, history,\u00a0law,\u00a0etc.) English language scholarship about the relevant\u00a0issues surrounding the topic of multiracialism.<\/p>\n

    The site contains over 1,000 posts that include over 400 articles, 300 books, and over 100 papers, reports and dissertations.<\/p>\n

    The site is by no means an exhaustive listing of discourses on \u2018mixed race\u2019 scholarship.\u00a0 Some examples of the scholarship that is not available on the site are as follows:<\/p>\n