Mixed Race Studies

Who’s Passing for Who?

Genius
2014-12-22 (Originally written in 1956)

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

In this short story, written in 1956, Hughes plays with the idea of race as a social construct. Considering the American “one-drop rule,” which meant if you had at least 1/33 African ancestry you were black, the narrator is puzzled by whether a couple in Harlem that he meets is a white couple passing as a black couple passing for white or a black couple who can pass for white. The joke is on the narrator.

One of the great difficulties about being a member of a minority race is that so many kindhearted, well-meaning bores gather around to help. Usually, to tell the truth, they have nothing to help with, except their company–which is often appallingly dull.

Some members of the Negro race seem very well able to put up with it, though, in these uplifting years. Such was Caleb Johnson, colored social worker, who was always dragging around with him some nondescript white person or two, inviting them to dinner, showing them Harlem, ending up at the Savoy–much to the displeasure of whatever friends of his might be out that evening for fun, not sociology.

Friends are friends and, unfortunately, overearnest uplifters are uplifters–no matter what color they may be. If it were the white race that was ground down instead of Negroes, Caleb Johnson would be one of the first to offer Nordics the sympathy of his utterly inane society, under the impression that somehow he would be doing them a great deal of good.

You see, Caleb, and his white friends, too, were all bores. Or so we, who lived in Harlem’s literary bohemia during the “Negro Renaissance” thought. We literary ones considered ourselves too broad-minded to be bothered with questions of color. We liked people of any race who smoked incessantly, drank liberally, wore complexion and morality as loose garments, and made fun of anyone who didn’t do likewise. We snubbed and high-hatted any Negro or white luckless enough not to understand Gertrude Stein, Ulysses, Man Ray, the theremin, Jean Toomer, or George Anthell. By the end of the 1920’s Caleb was just catching up to Dos Passos. He thought H.G. Wells good….

Read the entire short story here.

Meet Afro-Latina Trailblazer, Crystal Roman, Founder of The Black Latina Movement

Boriqua Chicks: A Fresh, Urban, Afro-Latina Perspective
2014-11-19

Crystal Shaniece Roman, CEO & Founder of The Black Latina Movement, LLC has used her personal experience with identity to fuel several creative projects that recognize and celebrate Black Latinas. From theatrical productions to a web series, blog, and speaking engagements, she uses her acting and production talents to challenge stereotypes and create a space for Black Latinas on stage and in film.

Check out our recent conversation below!

I read that your parents are Puerto Rican: your mom Black and your dad white. How was your experience growing up?

My dad is what can be considered a White Latino. Both his parents were born and raised in Puerto Rico. My mom is a Black Latina, 2 times over in the sense that her father is Jamaican and her mom (my grandma) is an Afro-Puerto Rican, hence me saying a Black Latina twice over. Growing up was a blend of both worlds. My mom and dad made sure I was fully emerged in both cultures. There were occasional incidents of internalized racism from both sides of the family concerning hair, skin tone, etc., here and there, but my mom was quick to “set anyone straight” about that kind of nonsense around me, if and when it did occur. Other outright experiences often came from the world, outsiders.

When did you first begin identifying as a Black Latina? What inspired you to embrace this identification?

I knew I was a Black Latina from youth, but I hadn’t articulated it, in that way or used the term until 2008. Once I started to use it I felt so empowered and proud to have a title/label that I approved for myself, instead of using ones that were given to me. I was always taught to embrace myself, but I realized often times—especially in my industry—that many people were not familiar or comfortable with a “mixed” person. Moreover, those in positions of power wanted what is to be considered a “typical” look of a Black woman or Latina for most roles. So I was pushed to educate (myself) more on my identity, howl embrace it and how others like myself do as well…

Read the entire interview here.

Brazil’s hidden slavery past uncovered at Valongo Wharf

BBC News
2014-12-24

Julia Carneiro
BBC Brasil, Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is a city looking to the future. Major development work is underway in the city’s historic port area as it prepares to host the Olympics in 2016.

But the construction effort to make all that happen has unexpectedly shone a light on a dark side of Rio: its past as the largest entry point for African slaves in the Americas.

In 2011, excavation work uncovered the site of Valongo Wharf, where almost a million African slaves disembarked before the slave trade was declared illegal in Brazil in 1831.

The wharf and the complex surrounding it were constructed in 1779 as part of an effort to move what was regarded as an unsightly trade to an area far from the city centre…

…Anthropologist Milton Guran, who co-ordinates the bid to have Valongo recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site, thinks preservation is especially important because “we had successive attempts to erase this history”.

“Slavery finally started being perceived as something heinous and the Empire sought to obliterate that mark,” he says…

…The impact of slavery on Brazilian society can be seen to this day. Over half of Brazil’s population is black or mixed race, but its elite remains largely white…

Read the entire article here.