Mixed Race Studies

“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black President,” Obama said. “Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black President.”

David Remnick, “Going the Distance: On and off the road with Barack Obama,” The New Yorker, January 27, 2014. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/01/27/140127fa_fact_remnick.

The popular media and specifically the Race Remixed series in the New York Times propagate the myth of multiracialism. According to this social myth, the increasing number of interracial families and multiracial children in America is transforming race and paving the way for a post-racial future. This myth assumes the existence of a growing mass of mixed youth who both identify with their multiracial heritage and who have a clear conception of its significance and transformative potential. At best, writers and audiences (popular and academic) who believe in this myth are engaged in wishful thinking. From my experience and observation, they confuse a few individuals for the many.

Gino Pellegrini, “Generation Mixed and the One Love Club,” Gino Michael Pellegrini: Education, Race, Multiraciality, Class & Solidarity, June 3, 2012. http://gmpellegrini.org/2012/06/03/generation-mixed-and-the-one-love-club/.

“But this is amazing, the first black president. I know you’re biracial, but the first black president. I mean you’re proud to be able to say that, the first black president, that’s unless you screw up. And then it’s going to be what’s up with the half white guy. Who voted for the mulatto, what the hell?”

Wanda Sykes, White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, May 9, 2009. (00:01:39-00:02:14).

“The performance was hands-down the best Choate performance I have ever seen. I’ve seen a lot of white struggle stories, and a lot of black struggle stories, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mixed struggle story.” —Zemia Edmondson description of Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni’s one-woman performance, One Drop of Love.

Alexandra Brunjes, “Getting Race-y in the PMAC,” The News: The official student newspaper of Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, Connecticut, January 25, 2014. http://thenews.choate.edu/article/getting-race-y-pmac.

Race has a hold on history, but it no longer has a place in science. The sheer instability and potential for misinterpretation render race useless as a scientific concept. Inventing new vocabularies of human diversity and inequity won’t be easy, but is necessary.

Nina Jablonski, “2014 : What Scientific Idea is Ready for Retirement?,” Edge, January 16, 2014. http://www.edge.org/responses/what-scientific-idea-is-ready-for-retirement.

Ivey, 51, is the daughter of a white woman who was raised by her black father and stepmother. She said her racial heritage was the “No.1 issue” when she launched her first political campaign in 2006 — repeatedly being asked by voters to “clarify” her racial identity.

Erin Cox, “Ivey describes herself as ‘Trayvon Martin’s mom’,” The Baltimore Sun, (October 14, 2013). http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-10-14/news/bs-md-gansler-ivey-20131014_1_running-mate-doug-gansler-trayvon-martin.

“I think there is an additional layer of psychological interest for me in that my vision is filtered through the lens of my personal experience as someone of mixed race growing up in Canada. I was often identified as being “different” and even persecuted for this perception. As a result, I tended to form friendships with minority kids and anyone who might have felt excluded from the “mainstream.” This has had a significant impact on my view of the world, my desire for social justice and equality, and my long-standing motivations as an artist who is interested primarily in people.” —Tim Okamura

“Q&A with Tim Okamura: A Painter with a Purpose,” SCA Close Up: News and Events From the School of Visual Arts (August 29, 2013). http://blog.sva.edu/2013/08/qa-with-tim-okamura-a-painter-with-a-purpose/.

“I’m an African American,” he said. “But I am somebody, like many African Americans, who has all kinds of stuff in him”…

…“But I self-identify as African American. That’s how I am treated and that’s how I am viewed and I’m proud of it.” —Barack Obama

Jason Horowitz, “Obama: I’m Not Interested in Talking About Race in the Abstract,” The New York Observer, November 26, 2007. http://observer.com/2007/11/obama-im-not-interested-in-talking-about-race-in-the-abstract

The Johnstons’ friends seemed to realize that the family had not been passing as white, but as Americans.

Robert McG. Thomas, Jr., “Thyra Johnston, 91, Symbol Of Racial Distinctions, Dies,” The New York Times, November 29, 1995. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/29/us/thyra-johnston-91-symbol-of-racial-distinctions-dies.html.

In its multifaceted view of blackness, “(1)ne Drop” implies that no racial category is inviolable. To identify as white, for example, is no less complicated. Although whiteness typically serves as a racial default that is rarely publicly examined or named, even today it is no more absolute than blackness. The privileges it bestows can be mitigated by many things, from economic class to ethnicity. Like blackness, it connotes a range of cultures and nationalities. Like blackness, it can mean many things, manifest in many ways, and suggest many shades of pink and brown and yellow. Like blackness, it can fracture into discordant or even contentious factions.

Maurice Berger, “One Drop, but Many Views on Race,” The New York Times, December 18, 2013. http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/one-drop-but-many-views-on-race/