Mixed Race Studies

Critical Mixed Race Studies 2010 Event Report

2011-02-17

Wei Ming Dariotis, Associate Professor Asian American Studies
San Francisco State University, IPride Board
dariotis@sfsu.edu

Camilla Fojas, Associate Professor and Chair
Latin American and Latino Studies
DePaul University

Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media and Design and Director Asian American Studies
DePaul University

Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference
DePaul University, Lincoln Park Campus
2250 N. Sheffield
Chicago, Illinois USA 60614
2010-11-05 through 2010-11-06

For the inaugural CMRS 2010 conference, we had over 450 people registered and 430 people actually showed up from all over the U.S. from Hawaii to Tennessee to New York as well as scholars from Canada, Korea, and the UK. The programming included 62 sessions of panels, round tables, and seminars; multiple film screenings, keynote addresses by leading scholars Mary Beltrán from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Andrew Jolivette from San Francisco State University, and community activist and artist Louie Gong from MAVIN and Eighth Generation; a Mixed Mixer social event with live jazz music; a performance by comedian Kate Rigg; an Informational Fair; a Book Table; Caucus and Business meetings.

We sold out three boutique hotels with CMRS attendees and many panels were standing room only or at capacity. We were honored to have many senior scholars present at CMRS 2010 as well as a strong contingent of undergraduate and graduate students from area colleges, community members, and a surprisingly high number of graduate students and junior colleagues from across the country. A critical mass of new media artists (podcasters, bloggers, film and video) including bloggers Steven F. Riley from MixedRaceStudies.org and Fanshen Cox from the Mixed Chicks Chat podcast joined us as well. Representatives from community organizations came out in full force from: MAVIN, SWIRL Inc., Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, Multiracial Americans of Southern California, LovingDay.org, and the Biracial Family Network.

You can find links to download the conference poster and a PDF of the schedule as well as the video of the welcoming address and the three keynote addresses and audio recordings from 18 sessions via iTunes U on the CMRS 2010 website: http://las.depaul.edu/aas/About/CMRSConference/index.asp

Outcomes and Future Goals
We can’t express how grateful we are to all the attendees, participants, volunteers, hosts and co-sponsors for making this event happen.

Following the 2010 CMRS conference, we were able to establish the following Tangible Outcomes:

• DePaul’s Media Production & Training (Wen Der Lin and Greg Barker) video recorded, edited, and posted video from the welcoming address and the three keynote addresses on iTunes U.
• DePaul’s Media Production & Training (Wen Der Lin and Russ Patterson) worked with the organizers and participants to audio record conference sessions. 18 conference sessions were edited and MP3 audio was posted on iTunes U.
• DePaul’s Linda Greco created updated the conference website under the Global Asian Studies URL (http://las.depaul.edu/cmrs).
• Laura Kina started a Google group “criticalmixedracestudies” which participants are using to continue to stay in touch. If you haven’t joined yet, please do so at: criticalmixedracestudies@googlegroups.com!
• CMRS participants are also using our “Critical Mixed Race Studies” facebook page to stay in touch. Friend us! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13919553099.
• Chris Paredes, a student at the University of Washington, organized a network of mixed race student organizations from across the country to stay in touch on a regular basis. If you would like to join this discussion, please contact Chris at: paredc@gmail.com.
• Amanda Erekson, President of MAVIN, is coordinating monthly call ins for the community orgs. If your mixed race community organization would like to participate, contact Amanda for details at: amanda.erekson@gmail.com.
• DePaul LA&S undergrad student, Erin Kushino, would like to start a mixed race student org at DePaul. If you know DePaul students who might want to help her with these efforts, please contact her at: erincaitlink@sbcglobal.net.

Goals in progress and/or that we need help with still:

• Next CMRS conference – Camilla Fojas and the DePaul University Department of Latin American and Latino Studies will host the second CMRS conference in November 2012. Be on the look out for the call for papers shortly. Please direct all conference questions to Camilla Fojas at: cfojas@depaul.edu.
• G. Reginald Daniel and Paul Spickard (University of California, Santa Barbara), Laura Kina (DePaul University), Wei Ming Dariotis (San Francisco State University) plan to launch an online peer reviewed CMRS journal. We are in the process of reviewing digital platforms for the online journal and drafting a list of CMRS journal advisory board members. We will be sending out invitations to senior scholars shortly. We will be looking for additional junior and senior scholars to be blind reviewers and guest editors. Please direct all questions about the journal to G. Reginald Daniel at: rdaniel@soc.ucsb.edu.
• Plans are in the works to found an association for CMRS. If you are interested in volunteering for a leadership role, please contact Laura Kina at: cmrs@depaul.edu. Our immediate needs are for a volunteer lawyer to review our by-laws and help us apply for non-profit status.

Thank you for supporting the inaugural CMRS 2010 conference!

Multiracial People of Black-White Backgrounds needed for Dissertation on the Effects of Racial Microaggressions

Hello! My name is Claire Anne (“Daanee”) Touchstone, and I am a doctoral student at Loyola Marymount University, writing a dissertation on the effects of racial microaggressions on multiracial black-white university students between the ages of 18-25. While I am most interested in people of black-white mixed backgrounds, I will gladly accept any applicant who is of mixed black background.

Racial microaggressions are defined by Derald Wing Sue and colleagues (2007) as: “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racial minority group.” Some examples include (Sue et al, 2007):

• Alien in Own Land: When assumed to be foreign-born based on race: “Where are you from?” “Where were you born?” “You speak good English.”
• Ascription of Intelligence: “You are a credit to your race.” “You are so articulate.”
• Color Blindness: Statements that indicate that a person does not want to acknowledge race: “When I look at you, I don’t see color.” “There is only one race, the human race.”
• Assumption of Criminal Status: A person of color is presumed to be dangerous, criminal, or deviant on the basis of their race: For example, a man or woman clutching their purse or checking their wallet as a person of color approaches or passes. Also, a store owner following a customer of color around the store.
• Denial of Individual Racism: A statement made when people deny their racial biases: “I’m not racist. I have several Black friends.” “As a woman, I know what you go through as a racial minority.”

Can you think of a microaggression that has happened to you in your life, particularly as a result of being of mixed racial backgrounds?

For this study, I am particularly interested in multiracial microaggressions, defined by Johnston and Nadal (2010) as “daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, enacted by monoracial person that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights toward multiracial individuals or groups.” Some examples include:

• “What are you?
• “You have to choose, you can’t be both.”
• “One day, everybody will be mixed.”
• “Were you adopted? Is that your mother, father?”
• Being accused of “acting white”
• Forms that allow only one racial choice
• Tokenism: being the racial spokesperson for your minority race: “Why do all black people ______ (fill in the blank)?”
• Subjected to minority stereotypes and microaggressions

Study Procedures:

This three-part study consists of reading a vignette of a microaggressive experience and discussing in a focus group interview (of 6-8 people), three individualized interviews (each to take place 3-7 days apart), and writing a short narrative/reflection (1-2 pages) of a personal microaggressive experience based on being of mixed backgrounds.

Participation is voluntary and anonymous, and participants may withdraw at any time from the study without penalty. All participants will be given an Informed Consent Form and Subject’s Bill of Rights. All participants will be compensated with a gift card to either Starbuck’s or Target; the amount of the gift card will vary depending on partial or complete participation (up to $25.00 USD), but all participants will receive some compensation for their time.

If you are a person of African-American mixed heritage (particularly with one African-American parent and one Caucasian parent) and are interested in participating in this study, please contact me at daancer@hotmail.com. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you!

Ms. Claire Anne (“Daanee”) Touchstone, Ed.D. Candidate
Loyola Marymount University

CeCe Ridder is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Higher Education Administration at The University of Texas at Austin and is recruiting University of Texas at Austin students for a research study about Black-White Multiracial college students.  She is seeking registered students at UT Austin in the third or fourth year of study and have one parent from a Black or African American racial category and one from a White or European racial category.   She would be very interested in speaking to them more about involvement or non-involvement in student organizations and racial identity. This interview is a conversation style, confidential process.

The title of this study is: Multiracial College Students: Exploring Racial Identity Through Student Organizations. The significance of this study is to explore how multiracial students utilize student organizations, and what influence this involvement has on racial and other social identities (gender, age, sexual orientation, etc). The implications for college administrators will be a more in depth understanding of multiracial students, and improve policy, curricula, advising and counseling.

The student participation will include a brief survey, one 60-90 minute in person interview and a 60 minute follow-up interview at a convenient time and location.  If you have any students in mind, can you please e-mail her his/her name and e-mail address and she can send them an e-mail, or feel free to send this request to them with her information, CeCe.Ridder@mccombs.utexas.edu or by phone (512) 789-7410.

Research Project on Mixed Race Identity

Are you of a mixed racial background? Do you identify as ‘mixed’ or ‘mixed race’? Do you identify with a mixed racial identity?

This project is being conducted for a Master’s thesis in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta.

The purpose of the project is to explore a whole range of perspectives and experiences, and the multiple ways that ‘mixed race’ can be understood.

Male and female participants between 20-30 years of age, who are of ‘mixed racial’ parentage and who grew up in Canada, and who live or have lived in the Edmonton, Alberta area are being recruited.

Interviews will be conducted with participants, and will take approximately one hour.

If you would like to be part of this study, please contact Jillian Paragg at paragg@ualberta.ca or if you know of someone who may be interested in participating, please pass this message on to them.

Seeking Race Transcenders to Participate in Racial Identity Study

Carlos Hoyt, a Ph.D. student at Simmons College in Boston, is currently seeking individuals who are commonly identified as black or African American (including biracial or black-multiethnic), but who do not define themselves according to the social construct of race. Hoyt’s study will give race transcenders the opportunity to describe the factors and paths that led to a sense of self beyond black, bi- or multiracial identity and to an identity orientation that is non-racial.

Race transcenders are aware that society racializes them as black or African American and they are well aware of the effects of race and racism in society, but they do not subscribe to racial categorization or racial identity as part of their sense of self.  This is analogous to someone raised in a religious faith who, at some point, chooses to renounce religion altogether.  Others might know this person as a member of a family or community in a particular religious category, but the individual chooses an identity that does not include such categorization; she or he has become non-religious. The following quotation gives a clear illustration of the race transcendent orientation.

“My journey has taken me past constructions of race, past constructions of mixed race, and into an understanding of human difference that does not include race as a meaningful category (Spencer in Penn, 2002, p.10).”

If you feel that you are a race transcender and would like to share the story of how you arrived at that sense of self, please contact Carlos at hoyt.carlos@gmail.com and/or visit www.RaceTranscenders.com for more information.

Mike Peden, a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in journalism and minor in communication studies and an employee of the St. Paul Neighborhood Network is currently working on a second documentary about multiracial identity that will air on the station and online.  This is the second part in a series of shows about mixed race.  The original documentary was featured in the 2009 Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival in Los Angeles.

You can watch the original documentary, What Are You? A Dialogue on Mixed Race, by following the link here.

Mike is looking for men and women in the Twin Cities [Minneapolis/St. Paul] area of any age who are of multiracial heritage.  If you or someone you know has researched or participated in scholarly studies on multiracial identity, feel free to share those stories.  He believes the best way to educate others on the facets of multiracial identity is having his subjects guide the storytelling, so the show will be presented from a journalistic perspective with minimal input from him during the program.  His goal is to share professional and anecdotal stories with scientific research to provide a well-rounded forum.

If you would like to share your story, Mike can be reached by phone at 651-468-5451, or by e-mail at sportsbrain2005@aol.com.

Critical Whiteness Studies Symposium: Call for Papers

Critical Whiteness Studies Symposium
University of Iowa
2010-09-23 through 2010-09-24
Abstract Deadline: 2010-03-12

Keynote Speakers:

David Roediger, Kendrick C. Babcock Professor of History
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Karyn McKinney, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Education, Human Development, & Social Sciences
Penn State University, Altoona

Abstract deadline March 12, 2010.

This two-day symposium examines the social, cultural and historical production of whiteness, particularly in the age of Obama. The symposium takes up a critical race theory paradigm to engage whiteness and whiteness studies in conversation with the humanities and social sciences. Questions of importance include: How can we interrogate and employ whiteness studies in ways that do not re-center or reify whiteness? Should whiteness studies take an increasingly critical stand in the wake of an Obama Presidency? In other words, how do we maintain a focus on social justice in the face of complacency around institutionalized oppression? We are particularly interested in engaging these and other questions about whiteness in an historical context, thinking through the particular shapes of whiteness, privilege and oppression in the contemporary moment while debunking the ideological lure of a “postracial” America.

We seek abstract submissions that address but are not limited to:

• Whiteness and sexualities
• Whiteness, class and labor struggle
• Whiteness, Orientalism and the Occidental Gaze
• Social movements
• Postracism, postfeminism and post-identity formations
• Homonormativity
• American exceptionalism and Homonationalism
• Mixed race whiteness and white ethnicity
• Whiteness, food culture and “eating the Other”
• Whiteness and regionalism; Midwestern critical whiteness
• Neoliberalism, whiteness and global capitalism
• Representing and consuming whiteness (e.g., visually, aurally, performatively)
• Whiteness and digital culture
• Whiteness, critical pedagogies and the classroom

Panel submissions, as well as submissions of individual papers and creative performances are welcome.

Critical Whiteness Studies is organized by the Project On Rhetoric of Inquiry (POROI) at the University of Iowa. The symposium will consist of two public lectures featuring David Roediger and Karyn McKinney, performances, visual installations and scholarly panels that critically examine whiteness. POROI is an interdisciplinary program dedicated to the exploration of how scholarship and professional discourses are conducted through argument, how paradigms of knowledge are sensitive to social-political contexts, and how the presentation of scholarly and professional findings involve the recognition and negotiation of audiences.

Please submit abstracts for papers, panels, or roundtables, accompanied by one-page vitas. Include any AV needs you may have. Submit materials by March 12, 2010.

Mixed Race Gay Men and HIV: A Community History

Format: Single Authored Book
Anticipated Publication Date: 2010

Andrew Jolivétte, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies (Also see biographies at Speak Out! and Native Wiki.)
San Fransisco State University
Center for Health Disparities Research and Training

Mixed Race Gay Men and HIV: A Community History will document the contemporary experiences of mixed race gay men in the San Francisco Bay Area through extensive individual and focus group interviews.  To date, a tremendous amount of research examines the socio-cultural and psychological factors that contribute to the experiences of gay men of color and gay white men, especially as these experiences relate to HIV/AIDS.  However, the literature on the experiences of mixed race gay men is pretty much non-existent.  Dr. Jolivétte is conducting this research to address the gap in the academic literature on mixed race gay men and HIV/AIDS health disparities.

To read more about this research study, click here.