Mixed Race Studies

Book review: Loop of Jade by Sarah Howe

The Scotsman: Scotland’s National Newspaper
2015-05-03

Roger Cox, Arts Editor

Sarah Howe, Loop of Jade (London: Chatto & Windus, 2015)

DOUBLE takes haunt poet Sarah Howe on her return to memory’s fragrant harbour, writes Roger Cox

In her poem Sirens, Sarah Howe writes “I had one of those blurrings – glitch, then focus – / like a put-off optician’s trip, when you realise / how long you’ve been seeing things wrongly.” This sinuous, shimmering, mirage-like debut collection is littered with such moments of sudden realisation, and also haunted by the suspicion that there must be more to everything than meets the eye.

In Sirens, the blurring occurs when, reflecting on a line in a poem by Theodore Roethke, Howe suddenly twigs that a description of a girl’s “sidelong pickerel smile” is not a reference to juvenile pike, as she had always supposed, but to a small wading bird.

She knows she must now update her mental image of the girl from fish to fowl, yet try as she might she can’t shake the original image of the girl’s fishy grin. Could both images be right? Did the poet intend the double meaning?…

…Howe was born in Hong Kong in 1983 to an English father and a Chinese mother, and moved to England as a child. She still has vivid memories of her time as a schoolgirl in Hong Kong – as demonstrated by the wonderfully evocative poem Islands, in which she recalls the girls at her boarding school sleeping three to a bed shelf, “like dumplings stacked in steamers” – but this collection is billed as a voyage of discovery, a journey in search of her roots…

Read the entire review here.

Loop of Jade

Chatto & Windus, part of Vintage Publishing
2015-05-07
80 pages
Paperback EAN: 9780701188696
eBook EAN: 9781448190683

Sarah Howe

• WINNER OF THE T. S. ELIOT PRIZE 2015
• WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES / PETERS FRASER + DUNLOP YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2015
• SHORTLISTED FOR THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION 2015

There is a Chinese proverb that says: ‘It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters.’ But geese, like daughters, know the obligation to return home. In her exquisite first collection, Sarah Howe explores a dual heritage, journeying back to Hong Kong in search of her roots.

With extraordinary range and power, the poems build into a meditation on hybridity, intermarriage and love – what meaning we find in the world, in art, and in each other. Crossing the bounds of time, race and language, this is an enthralling exploration of self and place, of migration and inheritance, and introduces an unmistakable new voice in British poetry.

Both native and foreign: How being of mixed race affects Japanese students

The Cavalier Daily
Charlottesville, Virginia
2014-07-01

Emily Gorham

I have now entered week five of my three month stay in Japan as an intern for the Ibaraki Christian University’s English department. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what I’ve termed the gaijin stare — a phenomenon in which, as one of very few foreigners living in the Japanese countryside, I get stares from just about everyone, wherever I go.

This concept got me thinking: what happens when the gaijin stare is misplaced? Japan used to think of itself as a homogenous nation. Some people still think of it this way — though times are certainly changing and interracial marriage is growing increasingly common.

By one statistic, one in every 49 babies born in Japan today is considered “mixed race” — or “haafu,” which natives presumably take to mean half-Japanese and half-foreign. While this number may not sound staggering, it means Japan’s mixed raced demographic cannot be ignored.

After experiencing the gaijin stare myself, I spoke to a few students at the university who are considered “haafu” for their take on racial perception in Japan…

Read the entire article here.

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition

Wiley
December 2015
832 pages
7.2 x 1.7 x 9.6 inches
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1119084303

Derald Wing Sue, Professor of Psychology and Education
Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York

David Sue, Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington

The standard bearing guide for multicultural counseling courses now enhanced with research-based, topical, and pedagogical refinements

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition is the new update to the seminal work on multicultural counseling. From author Derald Wing Sue – one of the most cited multicultural scholars in the United States – this comprehensive work includes current research, cultural and scientific theoretical formations, and expanded exploration of internalized racism. Replete with real-world examples, this book explains why conversations revolving around racial issues remain so difficult, and provides specific techniques and advice for leading forthright and productive discussions. The new edition focuses on essential instructor and student needs to facilitate a greater course-centric focus.

In response to user feedback and newly available research, the seventh edition reflects:

• Renewed commitment to comprehensiveness. As compared to other texts in the field, CCD explores and covers nearly all major multicultural counseling topics in the profession. Indeed, reviewers believed it the most comprehensive of the texts published, and leads in coverage of microaggressions in counseling, interracial/interethnic counseling, social justice approaches to counseling, implications of indigenous healing, the sociopolitical nature of counseling, racial identity development, and cultural use of evidence-based practice.
• Streamlined Presentation to allow students more time to review and analyze rather than read more detailed text
• New advances and important changes, such as expanded coverage of internalized racism, cultural humility, expansion of microaggression coverage to other marginalized groups, social justice/advocacy skills, recent research and thinking on evidence-based practice, and new approaches to work with specific populations.
• Most current work in multicultural mental health practice including careful consideration of the multicultural guidelines proposed by the American Psychological Association and the draft guidelines for Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) (2015) from the American Counseling Association’s Revision Committee.
• Expanded attention to the emotive nature of the content so that the strong emotive reaction of students to the material does not prevent self-exploration (a necessary component of cultural competence in the helping professions).
• Strengthened Pedagogy in each chapter with material to facilitate experiential activities and discussion and to help students digest the material including broad Chapter Objectives and more specific and oftentimes controversial Reflection and Discussion Questions. Every chapter opens with a clinical vignette, longer narrative, or situational example that previews the major concepts and issues discussed in the chapter. The Chapter Focus Questions serve as prompts to address the opening ‘course objectives,’ but these questions not only preview the content to be covered, but are cast in such a way as to allow instructors and trainers to use them as discussion questions throughout the course or workshop. We have retained the ‘Implications for Clinical Practice’ sections and added a new Summary after every chapter. Instructor’s Handbook has been strengthen and expanded to provide guidance on teaching the course, anticipating resistances, overcoming them, and providing exercises that could be used such as case studies, videos/movies, group activities, tours/visits, and other pedagogy that will facilitate learning.
• Easier comparison between and among groups made possible by updating population specific chapters to use common topical headings (when possible).

Offering the perfect blend of theory and practice, this classic text helps readers overcome the discomfort associated with discussions of race, provides real-world examples of how to discuss diversity and difference openly and honestly, and closely examines the hidden and unwritten rules that dictate many aspects of diversity in today’s world.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• About the Authors
• Section One the Multiple Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
  • Part I: The Affective and Conceptual Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
    • Chapter 1 Obstacles to Cultural Competence: Understanding Resistance to Multicultural Training
      • Emotional Self-Revelations and Fears: Majority Group Members
      • Emotional Invalidation versus Affirmation: For Marginalized Group Members
      • A Word of Caution
      • Recognizing and Understanding Resistance to Multicultural Training: For Trainees and Trainers
      • Cognitive Resistance—Denial
      • Emotional Resistance
      • Behavioral Resistance
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 2 The Superordinate Nature of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
      • Culture Universal (Etic) versus Culture Specific (Emic) Formulations
      • The Nature of Multicultural Counseling Competence
      • A Tripartite Framework for Understanding the Multiple Dimensions of Identity
      • Individual and Universal Biases in Psychology and Mental Health
      • The Impact of Group Identities on Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • What Is Multicultural Counseling/Therapy?
      • What Is Cultural Competence?
      • Cultural Humility and Cultural Competence
      • Social Justice and Cultural Competence
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 3 Multicultural Counseling Competence for Counselors and Therapists of Marginalized Groups
      • Counselors from Marginalized Groups Working with Majority and Other Marginalized Group Clients
      • The Politics of Interethnic and Interracial Bias and Discrimination
      • The Historical and Political Relationships between Groups of Color
      • Differences between Racial/Ethnic Groups
      • Counselors of Color and Dyadic Combinations
      • Summary
      • References
  • Part II The Political Dimensions of Mental Health Practice
    • Chapter 4 The Political and Social Justice Implications of Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • The Education and Training of Mental Health Professionals
      • Definitions of Mental Health
      • Counseling and Mental Health Literature
      • Need to Treat Social Problems—Social Justice Counseling
      • The Foci of Therapeutic Interventions: Individual, Professional, Organizational and Societal
      • Social Justice Counseling
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 5 Impact of Systemic Oppression
      • Therapist Credibility and Client Worldviews
      • The Rest of the Story
      • Therapist Credibility and Attractiveness
      • Formation of Individual and Systemic Worldviews
      • Formation of Worldviews
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 6 Microaggressions in Counseling and Psychotherapy
      • Contemporary Forms of Oppression
      • Evolution of the “Isms”: Microaggressions
      • The Dynamics and Dilemmas of Microaggressions
      • Therapeutic Implications
      • Summary
  • Part III The Practice Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling/Therapy
    • Chapter 7 Barriers to Multicultural Counseling and Therapy: Individual and Family Perspectives
      • Identifying Multicultural Therapeutic Issues
      • Generic Characteristics of Counseling/Therapy
      • Culture-Bound Values
      • Class-Bound Values
      • Language Barriers
      • Patterns of “American” Cultural Assumptions and Multicultural Family Counseling/Therapy
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 8 Culturally Appropriate Intervention Skills and Strategies
      • Cultural Expression of Mental Disorders
      • Communication Styles
      • Sociopolitical Facets of Nonverbal Communication
      • Counseling and Therapy as Communication Style
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 9 Multicultural Evidence-Based Practice
      • Evidence-Based Practice and Multiculturalism
      • Evidence-Based Practice and Diversity Issues in Therapy
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 10 Non-Western Indigenous Methods of Healing: Implications for Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
      • Legitimacy of Culture-Bound Syndromes: Nightmare Deaths and the Hmong Sudden Death Phenomenon
      • The Principles of Indigenous Healing
      • Conclusion
      • Summary
      • References
  • Part IV Racial/Cultural Identity Development in Multicultural Counseling and Therapy
    • Chapter 11 Racial/Cultural Identity Development in People of Color: Therapeutic Implications
      • Racial Awakening
      • Racial/Cultural Identity Development Models
      • A Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model
      • Therapeutic Implications of the R/ CID Model
      • Conclusions
      • Summary
      • References
    • Chapter 12 White Racial Identity Development: Therapeutic Implications
      • What Does It Mean to Be White?
      • The Invisible Whiteness of Being
      • Understanding the Dynamics of Whiteness
      • Models of White Racial Identity Development
      • The Process of White Racial Identity Development: A Descriptive Model
      • Developing a Nonracist and Antiracist White Identity
      • Summary
• Section Two Multicultural Counseling and Specific Populations
  • Part V Understanding Specific Populations
    • Chapter 13 Culturally Competent Assessment
      • Therapist Variables Affecting Diagnosis
      • Cultural Competence and Preventing Diagnostic Errors
      • Contextual and Collaborative Assessment
      • Infusing Cultural Competence into Standard Clinical Assessments
      • References
  • Part VI Counseling and Therapy with Racial/Ethnic Minority Group Populations
    • Chapter 14 Counseling African Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 15 Counseling American Indians and Alaska Natives
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • Alcohol and Substance Abuse
      • References
    • Chapter 16 Counseling Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 17 Counseling Latinos
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 18 Counseling Individuals of Multiracial Descent
      • Multiracialism in the United States
      • Specific Challenges
      • A Multiracial Bill of Rights
      • Multiracial Strengths
      • References
  • Part VII Counseling and Special Circumstances Involving Racial/Ethnic Populations
    • Chapter 19 Counseling Arab and Muslim Americans
      • Arab Americans
      • Muslim Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 20 Counseling Jewish Americans
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 21 Counseling Immigrants and Refugees
      • Challenges and Strengths
      • Counseling Refugees
      • References
  • Part VIII Counseling and Therapy with Other Multicultural Populations
    • Chapter 22 Counseling LGBT Individuals
      • Understanding Sexual Minorities
      • Specific Challenges
      • References
    • Chapter 23 Counseling Older Adult Clients
      • Characteristics and Strengths
      • Specific Challenges of Older Adults
      • References
    • Chapter 24 Counseling Women
      • Specific Challenges
      • Embracing Gender Strengths
      • References
    • Chapter 25 Counseling and Poverty
      • Demographics: Who Are the Poor?
      • Strengths of People Living in Poverty
      • Suggested Guidelines for Counselors
      • References
    • Chapter 26 Counseling Persons with Disabilities
      • Understanding Disabilities
      • The Americans with Disabilities Act
      • Specific Challenges
      • Supports for Individuals with Disabilities
      • Counseling Issues with Individuals with Disabilities
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index

Thai beauty ad: ‘Just being white, you will win’

Cable News Network (CNN)
2016-01-08

Wilfred Chan

(CNN)—It’s hard to imagine anything more blatant than this.

A new Thai beauty ad claiming white skin is the key to success has unleashed a storm of criticism in Thailand, especially online, where people complain the ad perpetuates damaging, racist ideas.

“Just being white, you will win,” says Cris Horwang, a smiling pale-skinned actress, in the 50-second spot by Seoul Secret, a Thai beauty company.

Without the advertised pill, “the whiteness I have invested in, will just vanish,” she warns.

On screen, the actress’ expression turns despondent as her skin is digitally altered to turn black.

Horwang promises that the product, called Snowz, “will help you not to return to being dark.”

“Eternally white, I am confident,” she adds.

On Friday evening, Seoul Secret pulled the video from its online platforms and issued a statement.

“(We) would like to apologize for the mistake and claim full responsibility for this incident. Our company did not have any intention to convey discriminatory or racist messages,” it said.

“What we intended to convey was that self-improvement in terms of personality, appearance, skills, and professionality (sic) is crucial.”…

Read the entire article and view the ad here.

[Note from Steven F. Riley: See the article, “Skin Bleaching and Global White Supremacy: By Way of Introduction.”]

BOOK REVIEW – Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World

Mixed Roots Stories
2015-12-10

Chandra Crudup, PhD, MSW

Sharon H. Chang’s inaugural book, Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World, lays out a blue print that outlines the history of white supremacy and how it has corrupted the way people treat each other, specifically Mixed Race/Multiracial and Multiracial Asian individuals. She develops an important foundation that provides a glimmer of hope for moving forward toward improving our future world, despite the powerful suppressive system before us.

The title might make you think it is a parenting book, and it is (or could be), but it so much more! The language/verbiage used in the book makes this potentially academic/research strong book accessible for those who might have the most questions…parents. Though this book has a focus on multiracial Asian children, it is not just a book for parents of multiracial Asian children. It is a book for all children of color…and even for parents of white children! This book is for anyone who comes in contact with children in any way. This means if you are a teacher/educator, a child care worker, do research with children or on race and intersectionaility…or if you are a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or once was a child. This book is for everyone!…

Read the entire review here.

Once sidelined, Taiwan’s mixed-race children find new embrace

Christian Science Monitor
2015-07-01

Ralph Jennings

As more Taiwanese men marry Southeast Asian women, the island nation is beginning to think of itself as multi-ethnic, in a distinct departure from the mainland. The change is supported by younger generations.

Taipei — Huang Hui-mei used to dread being asked about her racial heritage. The daughter of a Vietnamese mother and Taiwanese father, she knew that having Southeast Asian heritage was seen as a marker of low status in Taiwan.

But now, Hui-mei, a high school sophomore whose mother was driven by poverty to come to Taiwan, is finding that people are more curious – in a good way – about her background.

Taiwanese are increasingly thinking of themselves as a multi-ethnic society – a concept that is reshaping Taiwan’s story of its basic identity. That has larger significance now as a generation of younger Taiwanese move to more clearly distinguish their island and its culture from that of political rival, China…

Read the entire article here.

Diving Into Race, Identity of Multiracial Families In ‘Raising Mixed Race’

NBC News
2015-12-31

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang

Sharon H. Chang’s son with a copy of Kip Fulbeck’s “Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Kids.” Photograph Courtesy of Sharon H. Chang

Scholar and activist Sharon H. Chang’s new book, “Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post-Racial World,” published in December by Routledge, is generating excitement among reviewers and readers. More than a research study and more than a parenting guide, the book was awarded #1 New Release on Amazon before it had even begun shipping, and it sold out the first weekend it was released.

“‘Raising Mixed Race’ represents not only years of work on my end but a multitude of others’ lived racial realities; stories about and involving mixedness that are poignant, sharp, relevant and vital, and yet – remain mostly untold in America and around the world,” wrote Chang in her blog, Multiracial Asian Families, when announcing her book. “It is my sincere belief if we engage with ‘Raising Mixed Race,’ it can (will) challenge our thinking on mixedness to go deeper and contribute to moving society as a whole towards justice, healing and true transformation.”

With interviews with 68 parents of 75 young multiracial Asian children about race, racism and identity, Chang delves into history, critical mixed race studies, changing demographics, personal experiences, and includes advice for parents, families, teachers, and friends of multiracial Asian children.

NBC News spoke with Chang about her new book, her research on mixed race families, and why it’s important for parents and children to talk about identity.

Please tell us a little about your family background and how you came to this project. Why did you decide to write this book?

My father is a Taiwanese immigrant who came to America in the 1970’s, not long after the Immigration Act of 1965 lifted anti-Asian exclusionary restrictions which had been in place for decades. He met and married my white mother in that same decade which, of course, was also not long after the landmark civil rights Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia which struck down laws prohibiting interracial marriage. My mother is white American of fairly recent Slovakian, German, and French Canadian descent — my Slovakian great grandmother escaped Eastern Europe when she was sixteen and migrated alone through Ellis Island. [The people in] her family were farmers and she became a factory worker in the U.S.

Today I am married to a mixed race man whose mother is a Japanese immigrant, came in her 20s as well, and whose father is white of longtime white American descent, many generations back, it is thought, to colonization…

Read the entire interview here.

The Tax Sleuth Who Took Down a Drug Lord

The New York Times
2015-12-25

Nathaniel Popper, Wall Street Reporter

Gary Alford, a special agent with the I.R.S., pored over old blog posts and chat room logs that led, eventually, to Dread Pirate Roberts. Cole Wilson for The New York Times

Gary L. Alford was running on adrenaline when he arrived for work on a Monday in June 2013, at the Drug Enforcement Administration office in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. A tax investigator, he had spent much of the weekend in the living room of his New Jersey townhouse, scrolling through arcane chat rooms and old blog posts, reading on well after his fiancée had gone to sleep.

The work had given Mr. Alford what he believed was the answer to a mystery that had confounded investigators for nearly two years: the identity of the mastermind behind the online drug bazaar known as Silk Road — a criminal known only by his screen name, Dread Pirate Roberts.

When Mr. Alford showed up for work that Monday, he had a real name and a location. He assumed the news would be greeted with excitement. Instead, he says, he got the brushoff.

He recalls asking the prosecutor on the case, out of frustration, “What about what I said is not compelling?”

Mr. Alford, a young special agent with the Internal Revenue Service assigned to work with the D.E.A., isn’t the first person to feel unappreciated at the office. In his case, though, the information he had was crucial to solving one of the most vexing criminal cases of the last few years. While Silk Road by mid-2013 had grown into a juggernaut, selling $300,000 in heroin and other illegal goods each day, federal agents hadn’t been able to figure out the most basic detail: the identity of the person running the site…

…But Mr. Alford also detected the sort of organizational frictions that have hindered communication between law enforcement agencies in the past. Within the I.R.S., Mr. Alford had heard tales of his agency being ignored and overshadowed by more prominent organizations like the F.B.I. The story that resonated with Mr. Alford most strongly was that of the tax agent Frank J. Wilson, who brought down the gangster Al Capone, but who was forgotten in the movie versions of the investigation, which tended to focus on Eliot Ness, the flashier Bureau of Prohibition agent.

“They don’t write movies about Frank Wilson building the tax case,” Mr. Alford said in an interview at the I.R.S.’s Manhattan headquarters. “That’s just how it is.”

Mr. Alford grew up in the Marlboro public housing projects of Brooklyn in the 1980s, a short, half-black, half-Filipino kid in a tough neighborhood. His father, a math teacher, would cite the power of the subject to teach his son how to prevail over difficulties. “If you get the right answer, the teacher can’t tell you anything,” Mr. Alford remembers his father saying. That attitude led Mr. Alford to study accounting at Baruch College and then to the I.R.S., where his skeptical, lone-wolf approach worked well…

Read the entire article here.

When You Grow Up Mixed Race

Thought Catalog
2015-12-11

Evicka Chang

Growing up mixed-race is confusing. It wasn’t until my third year of University when the theory of hybridity was introduced in a Lit Theory class that I even began to consider the complexities of my own existence. It was also then that I started to realize that much of my own experience was not unusual for those of us who exist in the in-between.

The biggest struggle is exactly that: not fitting into either space. With a White mother and a Chinese father, neither will ever understand my experience. My mother sees me as White; never will she understand the struggles I have and will continue to face as a non-White female. My father sees me as Chinese, only with the benefit of being able to ‘pass’ when needed. My Chinese extended family only knows me as the White member of the family, the Westerner who is not quite Chinese. My White extended family continuously ‘others’ me, pushing me back into the margins because I do not look like them…

Read the entire article here..