Mixed Race Studies

Annette John-Hall: CNN series cuts to the core of black identity

Philadelphia Inquirer
2012-12-07

Annette John-Hall, Inquirer Columnist

No surprise that Black in America, Soledad O’Brien’s documentary series on African American life and culture, was among CNN’s most-watched programs. No other show has offered a deeper look at what it means to be black, in all its complexities.

As provocative as the previous four broadcasts were, I dare say that nothing will cut to the core of black identity more than O’Brien’s fifth installment, Who is Black in America?, at 8 p.m. Sunday on CNN.

If you know Philadelphia, you’ve got to tune in. The documentary is flush with Philly folks.

Students Nayo Jones and Rebecca Khalil of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement explore racial identity, sometimes painfully, under the compassionate guidance of instructor Perry “Vision” DiVirgilio. Drexel professor Yaba Blay—whose (1)ne Drop project gave O’Brien the impetus for the documentary—shares her own story.

Along with O’Brien, all attended a packed screening this week at Drexel.

Like any good documentary, Who Is Black in America?left me pondering fundamental questions: Just who is black in America? Is blackness predicated on skin color or a cultural state of mind? And who gets to decide?

One little drop

Through the years, skin color has been politicized and racialized. Just look at President Obama. Even though he identifies as a black man of mixed race, his identity is the topic of endless public debate. As if he’s going to change his answer.

After all, the “one-drop rule,” a law adopted by some Southern states in the early 20th century, designated a person black if s/he possessed even a trace of black heritage – in effect, only one drop of black blood. By that rule, our biracial president would have had no chance to enjoy the privileges conferred on pure-lineage whites.

Today, multichoice census forms allow us to check off what we truly are. Yet colorism continues to shackle us in a racialized society.

Fortunately for O’Brien, her parents made it easy for her. Growing up in a white community on Long Island, María de la Soledad Teresa O’Brien, fair-skinned, freckle-faced, big-Afroed daughter of an Afro-Cuban mother and an Irish-Australian father, never had to grapple with the “What are you?” questions.

“My parents made it very clear: Do not let people tell you you’re not black and not Latino,” O’Brien, 46, told me. “They understood the hostility of the environment. … You needed to be steeled.”…

Read the entire article here.

CNN Contributing Producer Probes Lingering Pain of the ‘One Drop’ Rule

ColorLines: News for Action
2012-12-07

Akiba Solomon, Columnist, Gender Matters
New York, New York

Keep the concept of privilege-clinging in the back of your mind as you check out the work and words of Dr. Yaba Blay, the driving force behind “Who Is Black in America?” the fifth installment of CNN’s “Black in America” series. Using Blay’s Kickstarter-funded multimedia collaboration with photographer Noelle Theard as a starting point, the show focuses on how people of African descent practice colorism, enforce identities based on appearance and the challenges of self-definition for multiracial people who aren’t recognizably black. I caught up with Blay, an assistant professor of Africana Studies at Philadelphia’s Drexel University (and, full disclosure, a Facebook-buddy-turned-friend), a few days after she co-hosted a special screening of the program on campus. Here, an edited, condensed version of our discussion.

So what’s the origin of the (1)ne Drop Project?

Oftentimes we do research that’s reflective of our lived experiences. So I’ve been personally impacted by colorism growing up as a West African, dark-skinned girl in New Orleans where you’ve got [self-described] black, white and Creole [cultures] and skin color politics are at the forefront of our social relationships there. I’ve always been very aware that I’m dark-skinned, in fact very dark-skinned. … I looked at colorism from the standard direction as far as how we look at the disadvantages of having dark skin in a racialized society. But there was always a part of me that wanted to explore the other side of this. … And actually, the first iteration of this project was called “The Other Side of Blackness,” but “(1)ne Drop” just emerged [as a] more catchy name. I’ve always known that light-skinned people were having their own experiences with skin color politics, but I wasn’t necessarily sure how to approach the question. There are black people all over the world, but the imagery connected to [blackness] has been more nebulous. If I take my students on study abroad, say in Brazil, will they be able to recognize the black people? Or are they just living with the idea that the black people are the ones who look familiar?…

Read the entire interview here.

Soledad O’Brien: Who is black in America? I am

Cable News Network (CNN)
2012-12-07

Editor’s Note: In today’s United States, is being black determined by the color of your skin, by your family, by what society says, or something else? Soledad O’Brien reports “Who Is Black in America?” on CNN at 8 p.m. ET/PT this Sunday, December 9.

Yaba Blay, Professor/Scholar

Soledad O’Brien, Host

(CNN) – Yaba Blay, Ph.D. created the (1)ne Drop Project, a multiplatform endeavor that hopes to challenge perceptions of black identity. Blay, a consulting producer for “Who Is Black in America?” spoke to hundreds of those who may not immediately be recognized as “black” based on how they look, including CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien.  In this edited excerpt from her forthcoming book, Blay spoke to O’Brien about what makes a person black, and why the conversation is important.

Yaba Blay: How do you identify? Racially and culturally?

Soledad O’Brien: I’m black. I’m Latina. My mom is Cuban. Afro-Cuban. My dad is white and Australian. And I think because of my job, often a question like “How do you identify?” is really not about the question. It’s always “What side are you on?” “What perspective to you bring?”

Blay: I remember when “Black in America” first came out, and a lot of people being like “Who is she and why is she doing this?”…

…Blay: So what makes a person black?

O’Brien: I certainly don’t think it’s skin color. And I certainly don’t think it’s how well you speak the language. And I’m not sure I can answer that question thoroughly because my consciousness about race was really implanted in me by my parents. I would say I’m black because my parents said I’m black. I’m black because my mother’s black. I’m black because I grew up in a family of all black people. I knew I was black because I grew up in an all-white neighborhood. And my parents, as part of their protective mechanisms that they were going to give to us made it very clear what we were…

Read the entire article here.

Did one-drop rules have a positive side?

Cable News Network (CNN)
Black in America: A Soledad O’Brien Report
2012-12-05

Soledad O’Brien, Host
 
Ethnographer and professor Dr. Yaba Blay explains why she thinks the one-drop rule has a positive side.

[Transcription by Steven F. Riley]

Soledad O’Brien: Why do so many black people—me included—embrace the “one-drop rule” when it really, literally, has its roots in terrible things?

Yaba Blay: Again, I think because the “one-drop rule,” in as much as it was oppressive, protected us.  It gave us an identity in the same way that when we talk about white parents of mixed-race kids, you know, and you’ll hear a lot of white parents say, “oh my child can choose to be whatever they want to be.” And then you see the child struggling. That there’s some comfort and there’s some strength that comes with being told what you are. And so I think the “one-drop rule” gave us a definition of blackness that was unquestionable. There was no space to be mixed-race, biracial, any of these things. And from that, we were able to mobilize, right, in the fight against Jim Crow; in the fight against segregation; in the fight against racism. That, again it gave us the parameters for what our community ultimately was.

Sneak peek at next ‘Black in America’

Cable News Network
2012-11-27

What makes someone black in America? Skin color? History? Culture? Soledad O’Brien reports on Sunday, December 9 at 8pm ET/PT.

Everyone seems to be negating President Barack Obama’s own story. The man himself has said publicly in print that, yes, his mother is white; yes, he is technically bi-racial, mixed race, whatever the language is people choose to use, but in this racialized society he is seen as a black man. And for that reason he identifies as black.

—Yaba Blay

Patrice Peck, “Biracial versus black: Thought leaders weigh in on the meaning of President Obama’s biracial heritage,” TheGrio, November 19, 2012. http://thegrio.com/2012/11/19/bi-racial-versus-black-thought-leaders-weigh-in-on-the-meaning-of-president-obamas-bi-racial-heritage/#s:president-obama-4

Who is Black in America? A Soledad O’Brien Report

Cable News Network
2012-12-09, 20:00 EST

Soledad O’Brien, Host

Black in America is a documentary series reported by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.

In its fifth year, CNN’s Black in America takes a look at “Who is Black in America?” Soledad O’Brien follows two 17-year-olds, Becca Khalil and Nayo Jones, on their journeys to find their racial identities.

Left of Black S3:E10 | Who is Black in Multiracial America?

Left of Black
John Hope Franklin Center
Duke University
2012-11-19

Mark Anthony Neal, Host and Professor of African & African American Studies
Duke University

Habiba Ibrahim, Associate Professor of English
University of Washington

Yaba Blay, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies
Drexel University

Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

American racial history was long framed by the notion of the “one drop” rule, which within a political economy of race and difference, was a blatant attempt to embolden Whiteness and the privilege that derived from it.  Scholar Yaba Blay offers a different view of the “one drop” rule with her multi-media project (1)ne Drop which “seeks to challenge narrow, yet popular perceptions of what Blackness is and what Blackness looks like.”

Blay, a Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Drexel University and contributing producer to CNN’s Black in America 5, which was inspired by the (1)ne Drop project, joins Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal on the November 19th episode of Left of Black to talk about the complexities of Black identity.  Neal is also joined by University of Washington Professor Habiba Ibrahim for part two of an interview about her new book Troubling the Family: The Promise of Personhood and the Rise of Multiracialism (University of Minnesota Press).

Strange Fruit: Dr. Yaba Blay’s (1)ne Drop Project; Director Kenny Leon

WFPL 89.3 FM
Louisville, Kentucky
2012-11-03

Laura Ellis, Producer

Who is black? That’s the question the (1)ne Drop Project seeks to answer. The project, created by Dr. Yaba Blay, features photographs of people who identify as black, African-American, biracial, and other identities—but whose physical appearances may provoke curiosity, or even disbelief, in strangers. Dr. Blay will appear on CNN’s Black in America 5 to talk about what it means to be black. But this week she made some time to talk to us about her work…

Listen to the interview here (00:38.42). (The interview with Dr. Blay begins at 00:14:54 and ends at 00:26:01).

 (1)ne Year Later…

(1)ne Drop Project
2012-11-05

On November 5, 2011, the 39th day of our 45-day Kickstarter campaign, we reached our goal. One year later, it is with great pride and gratitude that I announce that the (1)ne Drop Onliine Exhibition is complete! The website now features 56 contributors representing 20 countries and countries of origin. In addition to the portraiture of Noelle Théard, Director of Photography, the project also features the work of well noted photographers, Rushay Booysen (South Africa), Janet E. Dandrige, Guma (Brasil), Akintola Hanif, Ayana V. Jackson (France), and Richard Terborg (The Netherlands).

From a Kickstarter campaign to the inspiration behind CNN’s Black in America 5, this project has blossomed in ways that I could have never imagined one year ago. I will forever be grateful for your continued support.

With love, THANK YOU! Again and again.

Yaba