Visibly white but legally designated as black, my mother did what the 1924 Virginia state law, the Act to Preserve Racial Integrity, was determined to prevent.

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2017-10-08 03:45Z by Steven

Visibly white but legally designated as black, my mother did what the 1924 Virginia state law, the Act to Preserve Racial Integrity, was determined to prevent. In an effort to preserve the “purity” of the white race, this law enshrined the one-drop rule, legally designating anyone with even one drop of African blood as black. A eugenicist at the time expressed the fear emblazoned in the law: “Many thousands of white Negros … were quietly and persistently passing over the line.” My mother was one of them.

Gail Lukasik, “My mother passed for white for most of her life. Here’s what that taught me about racial identity.” Mic, September 12, 2017. https://mic.com/articles/184393/my-mother-passed-for-white-for-most-of-her-life-heres-what-that-taught-me-about-racial-identity.

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My mother passed for white for most of her life. Here’s what that taught me about racial identity.

Posted in Articles, Biography, Louisiana, Media Archive, Passing, United States, Virginia on 2017-10-07 22:32Z by Steven

My mother passed for white for most of her life. Here’s what that taught me about racial identity.

Mic
2017-09-12

Gail Lukasik


Gail’s grandfather’s family that she never knew
Source: Gail Lukasik

Gail Lukasik, Ph.D. is a professional speaker, mystery novelist, and the author of the upcoming memoir, White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing (Skyhorse; Oct. 17).

For the majority of my life, I believed I was a white woman. I had no reason to question my race or my racial heritage. Why would I? I had only to look in the mirror to know the veracity of my whiteness — or so I thought.

In 1995, while scrolling through the 1900 Louisiana census records looking for my mother’s father, Azemar Frederic of New Orleans, I made a startling discovery. Azemar Frederic and his entire family were classified as black. In that split second, everything I knew about myself changed. When I walked into the Illinois family history center, I was a white woman. When I left I didn’t know who I was. My sense of identity was shattered…

Read the entire article here.

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Safe space for multiracial students

Posted in Articles, Campus Life, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, United States on 2017-02-06 00:52Z by Steven

Safe space for multiracial students

The Sagamore: Brookline High School’s student newspaper
Brookline, Massachusetts
2017-02-04

Sofia Reynoso, Staff Writer

According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s 2016-2016 data, 7.5 percent of the high school’s student body consists of multiracial students. A new club known as the Multiracial Identifying Community (MIC) is forming from this growing population.
MIC provides students with a safe space to discuss unique issues pertaining to the multiracial experience.

Meetings are every other Monday around 3 p.m. in room 340. Junior Lena Harris, an active member of the club, said that they are trying to work around varying schedules.

“We’re going to be trying in the future to get more meeting times because we do feel like this is an important issue, and we really want to get out there at the high school,” Harris says…

Read the entire article here.

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