Mixed Race Studies

St. Stephen’s launches book about struggles with identity

City Centre Mirror
Toronto, Canada
2012-10-17

Justin Skinner

A group of talented young men and women from St. Stephen’s Community House are hoping their own experiences can help other youth navigate the stereotypes and challenges of growing up biracial.

St. Stephen’s has launched a new book titled It’s Not All Black and White: Multiracial Youth Speak Out, which contains poems, short stories and interviews with multiracial writers.

The book delves into the young authors’ own feelings and life experiences as they struggled with issues of identity.

“Growing up and being mixed race, when I’d hang out with my white friends they’d say I act too black and when I’d hang out with my black friends they’d say I act too white,” said contributor Bianca Craven…

Read the entire article here.

Family Portrait in Black and White [Tanasse Review]

Educational Media Review Online
2012-09-24

Distributed by Interfilm Productions Inc., 304-1515 West Hastings St., Vancouver, BC V6G 3G6, Canada; 604-638-8920
Produced by Boris Ivanov
Directed by Julia Ivanova
DVD, color, 85 min. and 52 min. versions
Sr. High-General Adult
Adoption, Adolescence, Children, Child Development, Parenting, Area Studies, European Studies, Ethnic Studies, Social Work, African Studies

Gisèle Tanasse, Operations Supervisor Moffitt Library
University of California, Berkeley

Family Portrait in Black and White presents an intimate look into the daily challenges facing Ukranian Olga Nenya, half Stalanist dictator, half motherly saint. Olga cares for her brood of 16 foster children, mostly children of mixed-race abandoned by their white mothers, with an iron hand in a very modest home without a toilet or running water. Ever the task master, the children’s free time is filled with various domestic and agricultural chores, tending the vegetable garden, feeding goats, cleaning house, cooking and doing schoolwork. We are also privy, though, to very tender moments, including Olga comforting and caressing her children, a sister happily sharing her modest bowl of berries with 11 of her siblings and Olga’s anger and fear of losing her children when a herd of government inspectors come, giving her a truly bizarre verbal lashing over the use of plastic plates. This home-life stands in stark contrast with the racist, xenophobic remarks we hear from locals and neighbors, who at best, feel a superior pity towards the children, but more typically would seem driven to intimidate and possibly cause them physical harm. Even Olga’s adopted children look down on African students they pass in the street, using racial epithets and making horrific comments that the students merely wish to seduce white Ukrainian women. It seems, however, that any pride or air of superiority that Olga instills in the children is less a commentary on the shortcomings of the fathers, and more of a reflection of the value that Olga places on her children as assets to their country—the Ukraine—cannot afford, according to Olga, to lose such jewels as her children…

Read the entire review here.

China’s Mixed Views on Mixed People

hardboiled: the asian pacific american issues newsmagazine at uc berkeley
Issue 13.3 (March 2010)
page 9

Margaret Zhou

“Little girl, wait! Take picture?” Over the four years I spent in China as a child, I was grabbed and tugged by the arm hundreds of times by strangers who all had the same curious and excited gleam in their eyes. My other foreign friends, who stood out in a sea of black-haired heads with their blonde hair and blue eyes, were also common targets of these harmless attacks. There always seemed to be a difference, though, in how the swift picture-takers treated me in comparison to the other kids. Since I am half-Chinese and half-white, I was the only one among us who looked kind of un-foreign, kind of like them. Sometimes this would render preferential treatment, as the picture-takers would say I was the most exotic looking one; other times, I was deemed not exotic enough to be in their pictures, and instead received confused glances as they turned away. I never knew which one was better or worse.
 
Vivian S. Toy of the New York Times published an article last year relating the experience of her mixed children during their visit to Beijing. Her stories of picture-takers and that continuous question, “What are you?” recalled memories from my childhood. “It had become clear why my children were attracting so much attention. They look Chinese, but not exactly. They look Western, but not quite,” Toy explained.
 
In the same vein, an article titled “Mixed blood people get the best of both worlds” was published on the Shanghai Daily website in September 2009. The article lists the numerous benefits of being mixed in China: mixed people are popular in the fashion and modeling industries because they’re usually taller than most Chinese; they’re perceived by many as “more attractive and more intelligent”; those with an American parent don’t have to study hard in school because they can go to a U.S. university; mixed babies are often used in product advertising; and mixed men are often approached by women for marriage.
 
Patrick Liu, who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the history of a mixed family living in Jiangsu Province, is cited in the article as stating that the “attractive and intelligent” stereotype surrounding people of mixed race “reflects both pride in Chinese culture and respect for foreign culture.” The article goes on to state that in a homogenous society like China, where 93% of the population is Han Chinese, “it is intriguing for people to see a different look, especially when the difference is mixed with similarities that are easy to understand” – because, of course, it’s easiest for us to understand people of our own race.
 
So is it true then? Do “mixed blood” people really have the best of both worlds?…

Read the entire article here.

Family Portrait in Black and White: A Talk With Julia Ivanova

The Huffington Post
The Blog
2012-07-12

E. Nina Rothe, Global Culture Explorer

The upcoming documentary by Julia Ivanova, titled Family Portrait in Black and White features a Ukrainian foster mother, Olga, and her brood of 27 foster kids. Ranging in ages between grade schoolers and legal adults, Olga’s children are for the most part the beautifully unique result of relationships between African students—attending the affordable universities of the former Soviet country — and Ukrainian women. In a national environment that presently leans more on the side of intolerance and bigotry, where neo-Nazi demonstrations can be the found on any given day in Kiev, Olga should be called a heroine.

Yet the beauty of Ivanova’s insightful film lies in her cinematic portrayal of the woman behind the mother. Olga turns out to be a flawed, overbearing, opinionated result of the former Soviet regime, who loves by the rules and teaches by the book: her book. In other words, perfectly human.

I caught up with Ivanova about her touching film and she shared her insightful views on the film’s imperfect heroine, as well as the future of these biracial children in a world that is increasingly partial to what is standard and un-unique.

Your film tells the story of a woman who is human, not just a heroine. How did you become aware of this particular story?

This particular story was very dear to me because for a number of years I wanted to make a film about biracial citizens of Eastern Europe and especially children who were born in Eastern Europe and don’t have a second identity other than the identity of the nation they feel they belong to. But the society sees them as different, so I was looking for a story that would allow me to explore this topic in its whole complexity. I was filming in Moscow in 2004 when I saw an article in the local newspaper of this woman in Ukraine with photos. Immediately I thought it was an excellent, excellent story and I got in touch with her a year or two later and then came to meet her…

Read the entire interview here.