Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

In contrast to the courts that openly struggle with fluid racial identities, others deal with the problem by merely assigning a category to a fluid identity individual in order to make the prima facie case analysis a simpler proposition. In cases out of Virginia, Texas, and Minnesota, courts were presented with claims brought by a mixed race plaintiff but gave scant if any attention to this complex identity, preferring to simply assign the plaintiff a category that allowed for easy application of the McDonnell Douglas protected class paradigm. In these cases, the courts typically noted that the plaintiffs identified themselves as “multiracial,” or “biracial,” and then proceeded to describe them simply as “black” or “African American” for the remainder of the opinion. This was the case even where the alleged discrimination consisted of harassing statements that seemed to have been directed specifically at the plaintiff’s mixed race status.

Leora F. Eisenstadt, “Fluid Identity Discrimination,” American Business Law Journal, Volume 52, Issue 4, Winter 2015, 817. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ablj.12056.

Loving Day, And The Fluidity Of Racial Identity

Posted in Articles, Autobiography, Media Archive, Social Justice, United States on 2017-06-12 13:53Z by Steven

Loving Day, And The Fluidity Of Racial Identity

Cognoscenti
WBUR 90.9 FM
Boston, Massachusetts
2017-06-12

John Vercher

Today, June 12, marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Loving v. Virginia decision that invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage and made my existence, well, legal.

At 50 years young, the decision that allowed people like my parents — who could see past shades of melanin — to marry anyone they pleased is holding strong.

More or less.

It wasn’t until the year 2000 that 60 percent of Alabama voters finally elected to honor the Supreme Court’s decision, and remove anti-miscegenation laws from their state constitution. A whole 60 percent!

But they did it. And that’s a cause for celebration.

It’s also the perfect opportunity to take a look at privilege. Specifically, mine…

Read the entire article here.

Tags: John Vercher, Loving v. Virginia, WBUR, WBUR 90.9 FM

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The Unbearable Whiteness Of Being

Posted in Articles, Family/Parenting, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2017-05-10 18:36Z by Steven

The Unbearable Whiteness Of Being

WBUR 90.9 FM
Boston, Massachusetts
2017-05-02

John Vercher

I’m raising my sons to be proud of their blackness, writes John Vercher. But they’ll benefit from their lighter skin. (Ayo Ogunseinde/Unsplash)

I used to make fun of my Pop’s Afro. Then, as now, he took meticulous care of it. I remember with such clarity the way he used to trim it in the mirror of our basement bathroom. The way he leaned over the sink to wash it, neck craned under the faucet to keep the shampoo from running in his eyes. The way he styled and shaped it to geometric perfection. That Afro was the epitome of cool.

Except to me. His natural, his turtlenecks under his leather jackets, his ankle-high leather boots, made him a walking anachronism. An outdated Richard Roundtree; Shaft in the wrong time.

I envied that hair, though I didn’t know it at the time. I still do. Not only for myself but also for my sons. I am a biracial black man, but I was not blessed with my father’s good hair. His loose curls plus my mother’s arrow-straight locks left me with a shock more Prince than Angela Davis; skin more Dwayne Johnson than Wesley Snipes. A child of the 70s, my parents let my hair grow long and wavy and so I heard that question, as early as grade school; the question that dogged me through high school, followed me to college, nipped at my heels through adulthood, until I shaved my thinning hair:

“What are you, exactly?”…

Read the entire article here.

Tags: John Vercher, WBUR, WBUR 90.9 FM

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