Mixed Race Studies

Prove you’re Japanese: when being bicultural can be a burden

The Japan Times
2013-07-29

Louise George Kittaka

Parents’ decision to add a katakana name can create issues when kids enter the big wide world

Japanese are Japanese and foreigners are foreigners, and never the twain shall meet? In many aspects of daily life in this country, there is one way for the Japanese and another for the rest of us. Like it or not, that’s just how it is. At least foreigners know where we stand.

However, bicultural individuals — the children of one Japanese and one foreign parent — may find that life isn’t quite that simple.

Although they were born, raised and educated in Japan, and as Japanese citizens are entitled to all the legal privileges that entails, society sometimes marginalizes them in ways that their foreign parents may not have anticipated. Japanese television shows and commercials might be full of cute “half” young adults, but back in the real world, being a bit “different” isn’t always such a good thing when you are trying to make your way in this country…

Read the entire article here.

War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art

curated by:

Laura Kina, Associate Professor Art, Media and Design and Director Asian American Studies
DePaul University

Wei Ming Dariotis, Associate Professor Asian American Studies
San Francisco State University

Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
2013-08-09 through 2014-01-19
719 S. King Street Seattle, WA 98104
206-623-5124

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 8, 2013 @ 6-8pm

Join us for the opening reception of War Baby/Love Child on Thursday, August 8. Curators Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis will be in attendance, as will exhibiting artists Louie Gong, Richard Lou, Stuart Gaffney, Jenifer Wofford, and Lori Kay.

You are invited to the 6-7pm preview and reception program. Light refreshments will be served. Please send in an RSVP to Maria Martinez or call 206.623.5124, ext 107.

7-8pm Open to the public (no RSVP needed). Free admission.

This exhibition brings together works by 19 artists, highlighting different approaches to the identities and experiences of mixed Asian Americans, mixed Pacific Islander Americans and Asian transracial adoptees. While their biographies are varied and often diverge from the dominant stereotypes of mixed Asian identities, their lives are shaped by the specific histories of Asian Pacific-U.S. collisions: narratives of war, economic and political migration and colonization. As an ethnically ambiguous Asian American generation comes of age in a world fixated on post-racial politics and moving beyond issues of identity, War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art examines how artists engage various facets of hybridity in their artwork.

Artists: Mequitta Ahuja, Albert Chong, Serene Ford, Kip Fulbeck, Stuart Gaffney, Louie Gong, Jane Jin Kaisen, Lori Kay, Li-lan, Richard Lou, Samia Mirza, Chris Naka, Laurel Nakadate, Gina Osterloh, Adrienne Pao, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Amanda Ross-Ho, Jenifer Wofford, Debra Yepa-Pappan.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Types of Mankind: or, Ethnological Researches, Based Upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania or Races and Upon their Natural, Geographical, Philological and Biblical History [Second Edition]

Lippincott, Grambo & Co.
1854
738 pages

J. C. Nott, M.D.
Mobile, Alabama

Geo. R. Gliddon, Egyptologist
Former U.S. Consul to Egypt

CONTENTS

• FRONTISPIECE — Portrait or Samuel George Morton. [Steel Engraving.]
• DEDICATION–“To the Memory of Morton”
• PREFACE — by Geo. B. Gliddon
  • Postscriptum — by J. C. Nott
• MEMOIR—” Notice of the Life and Scientific Labors of the late Samuel Geo. Morton, M. D.”—contributed by Prof. Henry S. Patterson, M.D.
• SKETCH —” of the Natural Provinces of the Animal World and their Relation to the different Types of Man” — contributed by Prof. L. Agassie, LL.D. [With colored lithographic Tableau and Map.]
• INTRODUCTION to ” Types of Mankind ” — by J. C. Nott
• PART I.
  • I. — Biographical Distribution or Animals and the Races of Men
  • II. — General Remarks on the Types of Mankind
  • III. Specific Types — Caucasian
  • IV. — Physical History of the Jews
  • V. — the Caucasian Types carried through Egyptian Monuments
  • VI. — African Types
  • VII. — Egypt and Egyptians. [Four Lithographic Plates]
  • VIII. — Negro Types
  • IX. — American and other Types — Aboriginal Races of America
  • X. — Excerpta from Morton’s Inedited Manuscripts
  • XI. — Geology and Palæontology, in Connection with Human Origins — contributed by William Usher, M.D.
  • XII. — Hybridity or Animals, viewed in Connection with the Natural History or Mankind — by J. C. Nott
  • XIII. — Comparative Anatomy or Races — by J. C. Nott
• PART II.
  • XIV.— The Xth Chapter of Genesis — Preliminary Remarks
    • Sect. A. — Analysis of the Hebrew Nomenclature
    • B. — Observations on, the annexed Genealogical Tableau of the “Sons of Noah”
      • Genealogical Tableau
    • C. — Observations on the accompanying “Map of the World”
      • Lithographic tinted Map, exhibiting the Countries more or less known to the ancient Writer of Xth Genesis
    • D. — the Xth Chapter of Genesis modernized, in its Nomenclature, to display popularly, and in Modern English, the Meaning of its ancient Writer
  • XV. — Biblical Ethnography:–
    • Sect. E. — Terms, universal and specific
    • F. — Structure of Genesis I., II., and III
    • G.—Cosmas-Indicopleustes
      • Cosmas’s Map [wood-cut]
    • H.—Antiquity of the Name “ADaM”
• PART III. — Supplement — by Geo. R. Gleddon
  • Essay I. — Archæological Introduction to the Xth Chapter of Genesis.
  • II — Palaeographic Excursus on thb Art op Writing.
    • Table — “Theory of the Order of Development in Human Writings”
  • III. — Mankind’s Chronology:—
    • Introductory
    • Chronology — Egyptian
    • Chinese
    • Assyrian
    • Hebrew
    • Hindoo
• APPENDIX I. — Notes and References to Parts I. and II.
• II. — Alphabetical List of Subscribers to “Types of Mankind”

‘Doing the right thing’: transracial adoption in the USA

Ethnic and Racial Studies
Volume 36, Issue 8 (August 2013)
Special Issue: Mothering Across Racialised Boundaries
pages 1273-1291
DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2013.776698

Ravinder Barn, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work
Royal Holloway, University of London

Racial/cultural identity and parental cultural competence in transracial adoption (TRA) are subjects of fierce debate and discussion in contemporary western societies. The ongoing practice of TRA has led to a polarization that either supports or berates the suitability of the environment provided in such homes. The external scrutiny invariably creates doubt among white adoptive parents as to whether they are ‘doing the right thing’. By drawing upon extant literature and original qualitative research carried out in New York, this paper explores adoptive mothers’ conceptualization and understanding of racial/ethnic socialisation (RES). The paper puts forward three discursive approaches. It is argued that the ways in which white adoptive mothers understand and experience diversity influences their approach to RES, which in turn is mediated through family and community networks and societal discourses on race, power and hierarchy.

Read or purchase the article here.

Narratives from a Nottingham council estate: a story of white working-class mothers with mixed-race children

Ethnic and Racial Studies
Volume 36, Issue 8 (August 2013)
Special Issue: Mothering Across Racialised Boundaries
pages 1342-1358
DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2013.776698

Lisa McKenzie, Research Fellow, Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Nottingham

This paper introduces a group of white working-class women living on a council estate in the UK drawing on an ethnographic study conducted between 2005 and 2009, examining the impact of class inequality and a stigmatized living space in an ethnically diverse urban neighbourhood. All of the women are mothers and have mixed-race children; they reside on the St Ann’s estate in Nottingham, an inner-city neighbourhood that has been subject to poor housing, poverty and unemployment for many generations. The women who live on this estate say that they suffer from negative stereotypes and stigmatization because of the notoriety of the estate, because they are working class and because they have had sexual relationships with black men. However, there is a sense of connectedness to the estate and there are strong cultural meanings that are heavily influenced by the West Indian community. This paper then highlights the importance of place when focusing upon families, class inequality and intercultural relationships.

Read or purchase the article here.

The Colors of Zion: Blacks, Jews, and Irish from 1845 to 1945

Harvard University Press
February 2011
272 pages
6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
20 halftones
Hardcover ISBN: 9780674057012

George Bornstein, C. A. Patrides Professor of Literature, Emeritus
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

A major reevaluation of relationships among Blacks, Jews, and Irish in the years between the Irish Famine and the end of World War II, The Colors of Zion argues that the cooperative efforts and sympathies among these three groups, each persecuted and subjugated in its own way, was much greater than often acknowledged today. For the Black, Jewish, and Irish writers, poets, musicians, and politicians at the center of this transatlantic study, a sense of shared wrongs inspired repeated outpourings of sympathy. If what they have to say now surprises us, it is because our current constructions of interracial and ethnic relations have overemphasized conflict and division. As George Bornstein says in his Introduction, he chooses “to let the principals speak for themselves.”

While acknowledging past conflicts and tensions, Bornstein insists on recovering the “lost connections” through which these groups frequently defined their plights as well as their aspirations. In doing so, he examines a wide range of materials, including immigration laws, lynching, hostile race theorists, Nazis and Klansmen, discriminatory university practices, and Jewish publishing houses alongside popular plays like The Melting Pot and Abie’s Irish Rose, canonical novels like Ulysses and Daniel Deronda, music from slave spirituals to jazz, poetry, and early films such as The Jazz Singer. The models of brotherhood that extended beyond ethnocentrism a century ago, the author argues, might do so once again today, if only we bear them in mind. He also urges us to move beyond arbitrary and invidious categories of race and ethnicity.

Table of Contents

• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. Races
• 2. Diasporas and Nationalisms
• 3. Melting Pots
• 4. Popular and Institutional Cultures
• 5. The Gathering Storm: The 1930s and World War II
• Notes
• Index

Akala: Dynamite by any other name…

The Guardian
The Observer
2013-06-01

Kate Mossman

Rapper, adapter of Shakespeare and brother of Ms Dynamite, Akala is on a mission to correct a few misconceptions

A few weeks ago in these pages, Birmingham rapper Lady Leshurr asked why there had been no high-profile female rappers in the UK since Ms Dynamite. Akala seems a good person to consult – one, because he’s her brother, and two, because you can ask Akala just about anything and you’ll get a pretty comprehensive answer. In the course of 68 minutes in a London community centre under the Westway, he talks about 16th-century explorers, Biggie Smalls, the universities of 13th-century Timbuktu, tai chi, the Black Wall Street of Oklahoma, the African city portraits of Olfert Dapper, Eminem, peanuts, Napoleon’s generals, traffic lights and golf. But back to Ms Dynamite.

“I remember the Daily Mail wrote an article about my sister at the time,” he says, “and essentially their argument was, ‘Well, she’s not really black, is she – she’s quite clever and she’s got a white mum!’ It was so funny the way they tried to co-opt us. Remember that big story about Bob Marley and his ‘white dad’ last year? He was unequivocally black power, but he’s rewritten as this fun-loving Rasta. Mark Duggan [the Tottenham man shot by police in August 2011] was also mixed race, but no one’s ever going to co-opt Mark Duggan!”…

Read the entire article here.

Mental health service use by adolescents of Indian and White origin

Archives of Disease in Childhood
Published online: 2013-07-29
DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2013-303772

Panos Vostanis, Professor of Psychology
University of Leicester

Nadzeya Svirydzenka, Research Assistant
Department of Psychology
University of Leicester

Pat Dugard, Independent Senior Statistician
King’s Lynne, United Kingdom

Swaran Singh, Professor of Social and Community Psychiatry
University of Warwick, Coventry

Nisha Dogra, Professor of Psychology
University of Leicester

Background Despite the available epidemiological evidence on the prevalence of mental health problems in childhood and adolescence, there is limited knowledge on whether there are differences in the level of need and service utilisation by young ethnic minority groups.

Methods Adolescents of 13–15 years from nine schools in two English cities in which children of Indian ethnicity were over-represented (n=2900), completed rating scales on different types of mental health problems, contacts with services and informal supports.

Results Indian adolescents scored significantly lower on general mental health and depression symptoms. They were also less likely than White adolescents to self-report having mental health problems, even for a similar level of need. Among those with mental health scores within the clinical range, Indian adolescents were less likely to have visited specialist services. Instead, they were more likely to first approach family members, teachers or general practitioners.

Conclusions Rather than a blanket approach being applied to policy and service planning to meet the needs of diverse communities of young people, more specific evidence needs to be gained about patterns of referrals of minority groups and their strategy of accessing supportive adults.

Read or purchase the article here.

Multiracial Daughters of Asian Immigrants: Identity and Agency

Women & Therapy
Volume 36,  Issue 3-4, 2013
Special Issue: Women and Immigration
pages 268-285
DOI: 10.1080/02703149.2013.797776

Leilani Salvo Crane
Counseling and Psychological Services
University of Pennsylvania

Multiracial daughters of Asian immigrants must navigate complex pathways to adulthood, self-efficacy, and self-concept. Frequently they are required by family and society to bridge the cultural divide among a variety of Asian and American norms. Conflicting loyalties at times manifest as psychological struggles, which the daughter may be unable to resolve without therapeutic intervention. This article describes a culturally responsive approach to therapeutic intervention that takes into account both developmental and multiracial identity models, along with specific tools for exploring the complexities of cultural background, familial expectations, and issues of power and oppression. Both Hays’ ADDRESSING model (2001, 2009) and construction of the genogram are used to explore individual differences. Case examples are presented to illustrate interventions.

Daughters of Asian immigrants must navigate complex pathways to adulthood, self-efficacy, and self-view. As noted in the Handbook of Girls’ and Women’s Psychological Health (Worell & Goodheart, 2006), immigrant women and their children must be considered within the family system, rather than as Isolated individuals (Goodheart, 2006). Those with disempowered and or traumatized parents travel an especially difficult road due. in part, to the absence of multiracial role models with whom to identify, as well as to frequently conflicting cultural demands. Multiracial daughters of at least one Asian immigrant parent frequently face demands from family of origin to lie closely connected to family…

Read or purchase the article here.

Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me: A Watershed Moment for the U.S.

Racism Review
2013-07-21

Joe Feagin, Ella C. McFadden Professor of Sociology
Texas A & M University

President Obama’s poignant comments on the white-racist discrimination that Black men regularly face were pathbreaking for this country. First, in the history of the U.S. never has such a high government official so forthrightly called out key elements of white racism and condemned persisting patterns of racial harassment and profiling of Black boys and men.

Secondly, Obama’s commentary, together with his speech during the 2008 election, mark the first time that whites and many other nonblack Americans have heard important elements of the Black counter-frame to the centuries-old white racial framing of this society—at least not from such a “bully pulpit,” as Teddy Roosevelt put it.

One cannot imagine any white president saying, or being able to say, what Obama has said in his two explicit commentaries on U.S. racism. He certainly did not say enough about this racism, but his commentaries so far have been pathbreaking, especially for a white population much of which is in terminal denial of that racism.

Obama assessed the killing of Trayvon Martin from a Black perspective, one rarely taken seriously by most white Americans. Now, for a time, it has to be taken seriously and provides the basis to expand on his analysis later on…

Read the entire article here.