Mixed Race Studies

Cole Porter Scores An Interracial Couple’s Highs And Lows

National Public Radio
All Things Considered
Music: Mom and Dad’s Record Collection
2012-08-30

NPR Staff

As summer winds down, All Things Considered is winding down its series “Music: Mom and Dad’s Record Collection.”

For the past few months, the show has asked listeners to tell their stories about a particular piece of music they associate with their parents. Listener Melanie Cowart of San Antonio, Texas, wrote in to explain how Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine” — a song that’s been interpreted by Artie Shaw, Ella Fitzgerald and many others — became a running soundtrack for her parents’ relationship.

“My father was African-American; my mother was white,” Cowart tells NPR’s Melissa Block. “They met in 1929, at a time when that type of a relationship was not something that was acceptable in society. In fact, in many states, including in Missouri where they met, it was against the law. But they fell in love and formed a very strong bond.”…

Read the entire transcript here. Download the audio here (00:05:42).

Who Gets To Decide Who Is Native American?

Tell Me More
National Public Radio
2012-08-09

Michel Martin, Host

Rob Capriccioso, Washington Bureau Chief
Indian Country Today Media Network

Tiya Miles, Professor of American Culture, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Native American Studies
University of Michigan

A controversy about identity has erupted in the race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. News outlets revealed Democrat Elizabeth Warren claimed Cherokee ancestry during her academic career, and critics say Warren isn’t providing enough documentation to prove her identity. Host Michel Martin discusses just who is Native American.

Listen to the story here. Download the story here. Read the transcript here.

Betwixt And Between: Studying Multiracial Identity

National Public Radio
Talk of the Nation
2012-06-21

Neal Conan, Host

G. Reginald Daniel, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara

In 1989, Reginald Daniel began teaching a university course on multiracial identity called Betwixt and Between. It remains the longest-running college course addressing the multiracial experience. For his continuing studies and research on multiraciality, Daniel received the Loving Prize.

Note from Steven F. Riley: The “Loving Prize” is the awarded by the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival co-founders Fanshen Cox and Heidi Durrow to artists and educators who have shown a dedication to celebrating and illuminating the Mixed experience. Past recipients include best-selling writer James McBride, NFL star Hines Ward, Hapa artist Kip Fulbeck, scholars Dr. Maria P. P. Root and Paul Spickard, writer and educator Maya Soetoro-Ng, and writer and TV producer Angela Nissel.

G. Reginald Daniel Accepts Loving Prize at Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival (2012-06-16) ©2012, Steven F. Riley

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I’m Neal Conan.

In the spring of 1989, Professor Reginald Daniel started teaching a university course on multiracial identity called Betwixt and Between. The class is one of the first of its kind. He’s continued to teach it ever since. Last week, he received the Loving Prize, named after the couple in the famous Loving v. Virginia case where the Supreme Court struck down laws that banned interracial marriage. The award recognized his contributions to the national dialogue about multiracial identity.

Well, we want to hear from multiracial listeners today. What’s changed in your experience over the last two decades and more? Give us a call: 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation at our website, that’s at npr.org. Reginald Daniel teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara and joins us now from his home in Santa Barbara. Congratulations.

REGINALD DANIEL: Thank you very much. It is quite an honor and also quite—sort of something to get my head around. It was—having that kind of public recognition…

Read the transcript here.  Listen to the interview here. Download the interview here.

Morgan Freeman: No Black President For U.S. Yet

Tell Me More
National Public Radio
2012-07-06

Michel Martin, Host

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman joined Tell Me More host Michel Martin to discuss his new movie, The Magic of Belle Isle. But the prolific actor, famous for his roles in films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby and The Dark Knight, also had a lot to say about politics. He was especially interested in talking about President Obama, and why Freeman thinks he should not be called America’s first black president.

“First thing that always pops into my head regarding our president is that all of the people who are setting up this barrier for him … they just conveniently forget that Barack had a mama, and she was white — very white American, Kansas, middle of America,” Freeman said. “There was no argument about who he is or what he is. America’s first black president hasn’t arisen yet. He’s not America’s first black president — he’s America’s first mixed-race president.”

Many of Freeman’s films explore important chapters of African-American history: Amistad was about the trans-Atlantic slave trade; Driving Miss Daisy was set in the civil rights era; and Glory centered on an all-black regiment in the Civil War.

Freeman says he has been disappointed by what he considers unfair treatment of Obama by his political opponents.

“He is being purposely, purposely thwarted by the Republican Party, who started out at the beginning of his tenure by saying, ‘We are going to do whatever is necessary to make sure that he’s only going to serve one term,’ ” he said. “That means they will not cooperate with him on anything. So to say he’s ineffective is a misappropriation of the facts.”…

Listen to the interview here. Download the interview here.

Summer Blend Book Club Wraps Up

Tell Me More
National Public Radio
2011-08-25

Michel Martin, Host

This series began in June with the help of Heidi Durrow, author and co-founder of the “Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival.” All summer long, Tell Me More has been covering books about the multicultural experience in America. Durrow checks back in with host Michel Martin to discuss the novels in the program’s Summer Blend Book Club.

MICHEL MARTIN, host: As we said earlier, our Summer Blend book series has taken us deep into the experience of the emerging story of mixed-race Americans.

We decided to end where we began, with a conversation with author Heidi Durrow. She is the author of the bestseller “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky.” She cofounded the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival, and she helped us kick off our series back in June. And she joins us once again from NPR West.

Heidi, welcome back. Thanks so much for joining us, and thank you for helping us with the series.

HEIDI DURROW: Thanks for having me back….

Read the transcript here.  Listen to the interview (00:06:30) here, download it here.

Multiracial Teens Launch A ‘Latte Rebellion’

Tell Me More
National Public Radio
2011-07-15

Michel Martin, Host

“You’re half Chinese and half European, I’m half Indian, a quarter Mexican and a quarter Irish. We’re mixed up. We’re not really one or the other ethnically. We’re like human lattes.”

So explains Asha, the main character in Sarah Jamila Stevenson’s debut novel, The Latte Rebellion.

To raise money for a class trip she and her friends began as selling a few T-shirts and labeled the effort the Latte Rebellion. But the movement soon became something much larger than they could have anticipated.

Seen through the eyes of adolescents, Asha and her friends tackle the complexities of identifying as multiracial during adolescence, when identifying as anything seems like a challenge.

“At the time I was writing it … there were still some news stories about South Asians who were getting harassed and insulted, and even assaulted,” Stevenson said in an interview with Tell Me More host Michel Martin. “And because I’m part South Asian myself, it really hit close to home. It had me worried about my relatives who live in the United States. So I felt pretty strongly about working that into my book somewhere.”…

Read the transcript here.  Listen to the interview here.

‘In The Blink Of An Eye,’ A Change In Racial Identity

All Things Considered
National Public Radio
2011-07-07

Michele Norris, Host

Michael Sidney Fosberg grew up thinking he was white. His mother is white. His stepfather is white. And while he never met his biological father, the assumption was that he was white too. But well into his adulthood, Fosberg found out that his father was a black man. Michele Norris speaks to him about his story that he’s told in his one-man play and his book, both called Incognito.

Read the transcript of the interview here.  Listen to the interview here.

A Mixed Race Take On What It Means To Be ‘Free’

Tell Me More
National Public Radio
2011-06-24

NPR Staff

A lonely young New Yorker finds a puppy while jogging. A middle class couple tries navigating the treacherous waters of admission to a sought-after preschool. A new mother grows jealous of the chic and thin mom living across the hall.

It’s all stuff you may have seen before—but not quite. At least not if Danzy Senna has anything to say about it.

These are all characters in Senna’s new collection of short fiction, titled You Are Free. The stories start with the familiar, but soon take subtle turns to reveal racial and other tensions lurking not too far below the surface.

Senna herself is mixed race. Her father is half African-American and half Mexican, while her mother is Irish and English. Growing up in Boston, Senna was raised to self-identify as black.

“I think growing up black or growing up biracial is something that’s part of your daily language and your daily awareness of the world you’re living in,” she tells NPR’s Michel Martin.

But she doesn’t see her work being about race or mixed race. Instead, Senna uses race as the background of her fiction, as a way to understand the culture and characters…

Read the entire story here.
Read the transcript of the interview here.
Listen to the interview here (00:13:32).

Growing Up Mixed, Blended In The New American Family

National Public Radio
Tell Me More
2011-03-29

Michel Martin, Host

New census figures show that the number of mixed-race Americans has grown by nearly 50 percent in the last ten years. And that rise in number is most pronounced in the South. Census data also reveals that 17 percent of kids in the U.S live in blended families. In Tell Me More’s weekly parenting conversation, host Michel Martin explores the experiences of mixed-race and blended families. Weighing in on the discussion is Suzy Richardson, founder of the website, MixedandHappy.com, Karyn Langhorne Folan, author of Don’t Bring Home A White Boy: And Other Notions That Keep Black Women from Dating Out and NPR editor Davar Ardalan.

Read the transcript here. Listen to the story here (00:17:41).

Ladies Remember Elizabeth Taylor, Weigh Modern Beauty Standards

Tell Me More
National Public Radio
2011-03-23, 14:00-15:00 EDT (WAMU, 88.5 FM, Washington, D.C.) For other broadcast times, click here.

Farai Chideya, Guest Host

Marcia Alesan Dawkins, Visiting Scholar
Brown University

Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor has died at the age of 79. The screen icon became a 12-year-old sensation in the movie, “National Velvet”. She went on to star in 53 films, winning two Oscars for her work. In Tell Me More’s occasional “Beautyshop” conversation, guest host Farai Chideya looks back on the Taylor’s life and discusses a new survey on changing notions of beauty in America. Weighing in are Latoya Peterson, editor of Racialicious.com; Galina Espinoza, editorial director of Latina magazine, and Marcia Dawkins, visiting scholar at Brown University.

See: Marcia Alesan Dawkins. “Mixed Race Beauty Gets a Mainstream Makeover,” TruthDig, March 7, 2011.

Listen to the episode here. (00:17:49)