Mixed Race Studies

the road weeps, the well runs dry

Los Angeles Theater Center
514 South Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90013
Telephone: 213.489.0994

2013-10-24 through 2013-11-17
Thursday-Saturday: 20:00 PT (Local Time)
Sunday: 15:00 PT (Local Time)

Written by Marcus Gardley
Directed by Shirley Jo Finney

Rolling World Premiere

Surviving centuries of slavery, revolts, and The Trail of Tears, a community of self-proclaimed Freedmen creates the first all-black U.S. town in Wewoka, Oklahoma. The Freedmen (Black Seminoles and people of mixed origins) are rocked when the new religion and the old way come head to head and their former enslavers arrive to return them to the chains of bondage.  Written in gorgeously cadenced language, utilizing elements of African American folklore and daring humor, the road weeps, the well runs dry merges the myth, legends and history of the Seminole people.

Previews: October 24 & 25

For more information, click here.

Multiracial Experiences Survey

Self in Social Context Lab
Psychology Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
2013-02-18

Lisa S. Giamo, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
Experimental Social Psychology

I am conducting research as part of my dissertation at Simon Fraser University. As part of research being conducted on behalf of the Self in the Social Context Lab at Simon Fraser University, we are currently working on a study examining the experiences of multiracial people in today’s society. Psychology is just starting to study multiracial people more in depth, and we think it is important to understand more about the experiences of multiracial people and how they see themselves. We are specifically interested in people with one White and one Asian parent, as this population is the fastest growing of all of the multiracial combinations.  Since multiracial people are found all across the globe, it is difficult to do this type of research without assistance with online recruiting.

The anonymity and confidentiality of all participants are guaranteed.  If you are interested in being a part of this research, please use the following link to our survey: https://cgi.sfu.ca/~sisclab/cgi-bin/v5/rws5.cgi?FORM=MultiracialExperience1

This Is The Mixed-Race Cheerios Ad All The Idiots Are Complaining About

Business Insider
Advertising
2013-05-30

Judith Grey

A new commercial for Cheerios featuring a mixed-race family has become a target for idiots on the internet.

The anodyne spot features a Caucasian mother, an African-American father and their biracial daughter, but contains no overt messaging, politically correct or otherwise (except that Cheerios are good for you).

Nonetheless, Adweek noted the spot had been propelled onto the front page of Reddit, where it received a plethora of racists remarks. Concreteloop.com noted a YouTube commentator who allegedly called the spot an “abomination.”…

Read the entire article here.

In a first, black voter turnout rate passes whites

Associated Press
2013-04-29

Hope Yen

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s blacks voted at a higher rate than other minority groups in 2012 and by most measures surpassed the white turnout for the first time, reflecting a deeply polarized presidential election in which blacks strongly supported Barack Obama while many whites stayed home.

Had people voted last November at the same rates they did in 2004, when black turnout was below its current historic levels, Republican Mitt Romney would have won narrowly, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press.

Census data and exit polling show that whites and blacks will remain the two largest racial groups of eligible voters for the next decade. Last year’s heavy black turnout came despite concerns about the effect of new voter-identification laws on minority voting, outweighed by the desire to re-elect the first black president.

William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, analyzed the 2012 elections for the AP using census data on eligible voters and turnout, along with November’s exit polling. He estimated total votes for Obama and Romney under a scenario where 2012 turnout rates for all racial groups matched those in 2004. Overall, 2012 voter turnout was roughly 58 percent, down from 62 percent in 2008 and 60 percent in 2004.

The analysis also used population projections to estimate the shares of eligible voters by race group through 2030. The numbers are supplemented with material from the Pew Research Center and George Mason University associate professor Michael McDonald, a leader in the field of voter turnout who separately reviewed aggregate turnout levels across states, as well as AP interviews with the Census Bureau and other experts. The bureau is scheduled to release data on voter turnout in May.

Overall, the findings represent a tipping point for blacks, who for much of America’s history were disenfranchised and then effectively barred from voting until passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

But the numbers also offer a cautionary note to both Democrats and Republicans after Obama won in November with a historically low percentage of white supporters. While Latinos are now the biggest driver of U.S. population growth, they still trail whites and blacks in turnout and electoral share, because many of the Hispanics in the country are children or noncitizens…

Read the entire article here.

The Racial Middle On-line Survey

On behalf of Dr. Reanne Frank and Dr. Jennifer Jones of The Ohio State University, we invite you to take part in our research study, which concerns the development of racial identity among multiracials. There are no foreseeable significant direct benefits to you by participating in this research. However, we do hope that this research will provide you with the opportunity to engage in meaningful reflection about your identity. Furthermore, it is our hope that this research will benefit society in general by advancing our awareness and understanding of the experience of race in contemporary society.
 
If you agree to participate in our research, we ask that you complete an informational survey and family history to the best of your ability. Completing the survey and family history will take approximately 20 minutes. You must be at least 18 years of age to participate in this study.

If you would like to complete this research study, please click the link below to participate.

https://casosu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_es5b7nJjyMlPOn3
  
As a reward to participating in the survey, we offer you the opportunity to participate in a raffle to win an Amazon gift certificate for $50.
 
If you are asked and agree to participate in a follow-up interview, we will provide you with an additional small honorarium of $20.00 in exchange for your participation.
 
For more information about this research study, please contact Dr. Jennifer Jones at jones.4155@osu.edu. For questions about your rights as a participant in this study or to discuss other study-related concerns or complaints with someone who is not part of the research team, you may contact Ms. Sandra Meadows in the Office of Responsible Research Practices at 1-800-678-6251.

SNAPSHOT: “a true story of love interrupted by invasion”

Greenway Court Theatre
544. N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, California
2013-04-04 through 2013-04-21

Mitzi Sinnott

A daughter’s journey through a landscape of years, memories and realities, initiated by her questioning, “what do I know about war?”  The answers are lying in an album of faded photos of her absent father, who left for the Vietnam War before she was born.  Fusing words, dance, music and film this story chronicles the quest of a mixed-race daughter from Southern Appalachia who eventually finds her homeless Veteran father suffering in Hawaii.

Her growing insights reveal how the forces of history, race and war affected herself and her family, and the torn fragments of her life begin to re-connect. SNAPSHOT honors her father and other Vietnam Veterans who have been lost under the avalanche of history. This play is a daring look at the truth of our past and an inspiring example of the need for us to reconcile our history—one life at time.

For more information, click here.

Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival^® is Moving On and Making Room

2013-03-18

Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, Playwright, Producer, Actress, Educator

Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival^® lives on, but only in our own hearts, voices and its original mission.

The Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival^® celebrated its final event in June 2012. I hope that you will honor its original mission, and all of the ways in which it touched the Mixed community and beyond by celebrating its accomplishments and continuing its mission through your own vital organizations and activities. If you are looking for ways to continue to celebrate the Mixed experience, here are just a few of the wonderful places to turn to:

• Critical Mixed Race Studies
• MixedRaceStudies.org
• Mixed Heritage Center
• Mixed & Happy
• Swirl
• Hip Hapa Homeez
• Mixed in Canada
• Mixed Roots Japan
• KhanishaFoster.tumbler.com
• Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC)
• LOMA
• Multicultural Familia
• MixedRootsStories.org (launching April 1st)
• MixedAmericanLife
• Jennifer Frappier is making a documentary: chillthedocumentary.com
• Mixed Marrow 
• Hapa Japan Conference

I am doing anti-racist and racial identity work with my solo show and documentary: OneDropofLove.org, and Heidi Durrow has applied for a number of trademarks associated with continued work in the Mixed community; however, she may not use our registered trademark Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival^® in connection with any of her activities (this includes on the @mxroots twitter account and the www.mxroots.org website). If you have any questions whatsoever or would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact me: fanshenmc(at)gmail(dot)com.

US stopping use of term ‘Negro’ for census surveys

The Associated Press
2013-02-25

Hope Yen

WASHINGTON (AP) — After more than a century, the Census Bureau is dropping its use of the word “Negro” to describe black Americans in surveys.
 
Instead of the term that came into use during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, census forms will use the more modern labels “black” or “African-American”.
 
The change will take effect next year when the Census Bureau distributes its annual American Community Survey to more than 3.5 million U.S. households, Nicholas Jones, chief of the bureau’s racial statistics branch, said in an interview…

Read the entire article here.

Critical Mixed Race Studies Website is Launched

Critical Mixed Race Studies Website
2013-02-20

Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media and Design
DePaul University

The new Critical Mixed Race Studies website has been launched!

Critical Mixed Race Studies is the transracial, transdisciplinary, and transnational critical analysis of the institutionalization of social, cultural, and political orders based on dominant conceptions of race. CMRS emphasizes the mutability of race and the porosity of racial boundaries in order to critique processes of racialization and social stratification based on race. CMRS addresses local and global systemic injustices rooted in systems of racialization.

Visit the site here.

National Association of Mixed Student Organizations (NAMSO) – Newsletter 1.3

National Association of Mixed Student Organizations
2013-02-10

Happy spring semester!

Dear Mixed Student Organizations and friends,
 
Hope the new term and new year are off to a great start. Here at NAMSO, we have been busier than ever following the holiday season.

In this issue of our newsletter, a few follow-ups from the fall:

• The full collection of our photos from November 2012’s Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference in Chicago, where we led a workshop about the history of mixed heritage student organizing. Find the photos in our Facebook album here, and tag yourself and friends!
• If you’re interested in seeing what you missed in our CMRS Conference workshop, we’ve uploaded the slides from our presentation. Access them here. Questions? Email us.
• Critical Mixed Race Studies has a Facebook page, and a forthcoming website. Like their Facebook page to receive updates about the 2014 conference!

And, a message from us at the Leadership Council:…

Read the entire issue here.