Mixed Race Studies

Storytelling matters to Stanford historian Allyson Hobbs

Stanford News
Stanford University, Stanford, California
2016-02-19

Kate Chesley, Associate Director of University Communications

Allyson Hobbs and her award-winning book, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life

ALLYSON HOBBS, assistant professor of American history, finds much of the inspiration for her research in the stories of her own remarkable family. Telling those stories – and connecting them with larger themes in U.S. history – is one of the things that matters most to her.

Hobbs was the featured speaker recently at the popular “What Matters to Me and Why” noontime discussion series, sponsored by the Office for Religious Life. The series asks members of the Stanford community to reflect on matters of personal values and beliefs.

Hobbs is the author of A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, published by Harvard University Press in 2014. The book, which won the 2015 Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for best first book in American history and the 2015 Lawrence Levine Prize for best book in American cultural history, was inspired by a story Hobbs’ beloved aunt told her about a distant cousin.

That cousin, Hobbs told the audience, was born on the South Side of Chicago in the 1920s. Light skinned, the cousin was forced by her mother to leave her home and pass for white in Los Angeles. Hobbs told the heartbreaking story of how the cousin, married to a white man and raising children who were unaware of their mother’s heritage, was unable to return to Chicago to see her dying father lest her secret be revealed…

Read the entire article here.

ASA 115: Mixed Race Expeiences

University of California, Davis
2012-2016

Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies

“Even after our first ‘black’ president ushered in a so-called ‘post racial America,’ we understood that there is much more to the race issue than what has been presented.”

Using the theme of Race Traitors, this quarter’s Mixed Race Experiences course serves to complicate and even question the meaning, importance, and value of race constructions. Why have those in interracial unions and their offsprings been targets of oppression, cooptation, and even veneration in the Americas and globally? How have these same groups also threatened and challenged race categorizations? There will be no midterm or final but instead students will participate in the process of curating and creating an art exhibit.

For more information, click here.

I sat beside Obama at the Black Lives Matter meeting. This was no political show

The Guardian
2016-02-20

Brittany Packnett

The author sits beside Barack Obama’s in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on 18 February. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Some political meetings devolve into theater. Not this one: we all spoke direct truth to literal power

Black folks know political theater when we see it; we’ve lived through it for years. And as the 2016 presidential election ramps up, our feeds, and our lives, are inundated with grandstanding and pandering, much lofty rhetoric and often, too few solutions that actually prioritize the unique needs of people of color.

Any White House meeting, much like the one 15 of us had Thursday with President Obama to discuss civil rights, could have appeared as such.

I witnessed such theater just a week prior at the Ferguson city council meeting. A consent decree to help rid Ferguson of its now well-documented racist policing practices was due for a vote. The decree had been negotiated by city officials and the Department of Justice for many months, and both bodies had been dutifully engaged by a substantial number of Ferguson citizens in conversation, community meetings hosted by the Ferguson Collaborative and public comment at three city council meetings…

Read the entire article here.

Skin color matters in Latino/a communities: Identifying, understanding, and addressing Mestizaje racial ideologies in clinical practice.

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice
Volume 47, Issue 1 (Feb 2016)
pages 46-55
DOI: 10.1037/pro0000062

Hector Y. Adames, Professor of Clinical Counseling Psychology

Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, Child Clinical Psychologist, Professor, Researcher

Kurt C. Organista, Associate Dean; Professor of Social Welfare
The San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, California

Little attention has been paid to within-group differences among Latino/as, particularly with regards to skin color and related racial features. The few available studies suggest that skin color, physiognomy, and colorism (a form of within-group racial discrimination) can negatively affect interpersonal relations, mental health, educational attainment, and income among Latino/as. Considering factors such as skin color and physiognomy in the general well-being and mental health treatment of Latino/as may foster rapport building in therapy and better treatment outcomes for individuals across the color gradient. Integrating such factors may also contribute to the provision of culturally responsive and racially conscious services to individuals from this community. Thus, there is an urgent need for mental health practitioners to understand and address the impact of skin color and physiognomy on the lived experience of Latino/as. The purpose of this paper is to help prepare mental health practitioners working with Latino/as to identify, acknowledge, and respond to the clinical implications of skin color, racial features, and colorism. To achieve this goal, 3 objectives are outlined. First, the concept of Mestizaje racial ideologies, a myopic view that places individuals of Latino/a descent from the entire color spectrum into one racial category, is presented. Second, a case vignette is offered to illustrate how topics related to skin color and colorism may present themselves in clinical practice. Finally, the article concludes with a model to assist mental health practitioners, educators, and clinical supervisors gain the knowledge, awareness, and clinical skills to competently address the role of skin color and physiognomy when working with Latino/as.

Read or purchase the article here.

Mom Writes Book, ‘Bad Hair Does Not Exist!’ For Daughters

NBC News
2016-02-17

Maya Chung

Bad Hair Does Not Exist/Pelo Malo No Existe! is a Children’s Book by Sulma Arzu-Brown.

“Bad Hair Does Not Exist!” is a new bilingual book that encourages young Black, Afro-Latino, and multi-racial girls to see themselves, and their hair, as beautiful.

Sulma Arzu-Brown, who calls herself a “Garifuna” woman or Afro-Latino from Honduras, was inspired to write the book after her three-year-old daughter’s babysitter commented that little Bella Victoria had “pelo malo,” which is a Spanish term for “bad hair.”

She knew then that she could either be angry or be a part of the solution, so she chose to write a book.

“The book is a tool of cultural solidarity and a tool of empowerment for all of our little girls,” said Arzu-Brown whose daughters are now 4 and 11. “The term ‘Bad hair’ or ‘Pelo Malo’ is divisive to both community and family, and can contribute to low self-esteem.”…

Read the article here.

The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2016-02-02
368 pages
6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Hardcover ISBN: 9780544387669
eBook ISBN: 9780544386426
Paperback ISBN: 9780544811805

Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Michael Eric Dyson explores the powerful, surprising way the politics of race have shaped Barack Obama’s identity and groundbreaking presidency. How has President Obama dealt publicly with race—as the national traumas of Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and Walter Scott have played out during his tenure? What can we learn from Obama’s major race speeches about his approach to racial conflict and the black criticism it provokes?

Dyson explores whether Obama’s use of his own biracialism as a radiant symbol has been driven by the president’s desire to avoid a painful moral reckoning on race. And he sheds light on identity issues within the black power structure, telling the fascinating story of how Obama has spurned traditional black power brokers, significantly reducing their leverage.

President Obama’s own voice—from an Oval Office interview granted to Dyson for this book—along with those of Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, and Maxine Waters, among others, add unique depth to this profound tour of the nation’s first black presidency.

Mixed-Race Youth and Schooling: The Fifth Minority

Routledge
2016-02-26
256 pages
10 B/W Illus.
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-13-802191-4
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-13-802193-8

Sandra Winn Tutwiler, Professor of Education
Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas

This timely, in-depth examination of the educational experiences and needs of mixed-race children (“the fifth minority”) focuses on the four contexts that primarily influence learning and development: the family, school, community, and society-at-large.

The book provides foundational historical, social, political, and psychological information about mixed-race children and looks closely at their experiences in schools, their identity formation, and how schools can be made more supportive of their development and learning needs. Moving away from an essentialist discussion of mixed-race children, a wide variety of research is included. Life and schooling experiences of mixed-raced individuals are profiled throughout the text. Rather than pigeonholing children into a neat box of descriptions or providing ready made prescriptions for educators, Mixed-Race Youth and Schooling offers information and encourages teachers to critically reflect on how it is relevant to and helpful in their teaching/learning contexts.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Part I: Being Mixed-Race in Society
  • Chapter 1: The Context of Race for Mixed-Race People
  • Chapter 2: Mixed-Race People in Society Over Time
  • Chapter 3: Racial Identity: Multiple Perspectives on Racial Self-Understanding
• Part II: Family, Community, and Peers
  • Chapter 4: Structures, Practices, and Socialization in Interracial and Multiracial Families
  • Chapter 5: Community, Social Class and Sociocultural Interactions
  • Chapter 6: Peer Relations and Friendship Formations
• Part III: Education and Schooling: People, Places, and Practices
  • Chapter 7: Teachers’ (Mixed) Race Constructions and Teaching in Multiracial Classrooms
  • Chapter 8: The Racial Context of Schooling and Mixed-race Youth
  • Chapter 9: Schooling Supportive of Mixed-Race Youth
• Index

Black Lives Matter Activist Says Obama Meeting Was Positive

TIME
2016-02-18

Maya Rhodan

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 18: U.S. President Barack Obama (C) speaks about race relations while flanked by Brittany Packnett (L), and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, February 18, 2016 in Washington, DC. President Obama met with African American faith and civil rights leaders before an event to celebrate Black History Month. Mark Wilson—Getty Images

For over an hour on Thursday, 31-year-old activist and educator Brittany Packnett sat beside President Obama at a table in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for a unique meeting of the minds.

The nation’s first African American president convened a group of activists, both young and old, for a discussion on how he can spend his final year in office tackling issues that impact the black community—from criminal justice reform to police-community relations. Though one activist from Obama’s hometown of Chicago publicly slammed the meeting as a “photo opportunity and a 90-second sound bite for the president,” according to Packnett, the meeting was the complete opposite of that.

“We had a conversation that lasted over 90 minutes,” Packnett tells TIME. “The president actually extended himself because he wanted to continue the conversation. We had a lot of opportunity to elevate various strategies that are happening on the ground as far as criminal justice reform, working on police violence, and systemic educational inequities.”…

Read the entire article here.

Meet Team One Drop: Ben Affleck

Fanshen Cox
2016-02-10

One Drop of Love is a multimedia one-woman show exploring the intersections of race, class and gender – and in search of justice and love. The show is written and performed by Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni.

For more information, click here.

The Complexity of Immigrant Generations: Implications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Integration of Hispanics and Asians

National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Working Paper No. 21982
February 2016
58 pages
DOI: 10.3386/w21982

Brian Duncan, Professor of Economics
University of Colorado

Stephen J. Trejo, Professor of Economics
University of Texas, Austin

Because of data limitations, virtually all studies of the later-generation descendants of immigrants rely on subjective measures of ethnic self-identification rather than arguably more objective measures based on the countries of birth of the respondent and his ancestors. In this context, biases can arise from “ethnic attrition” (e.g., U.S.-born individuals who do not self-identify as Hispanic despite having ancestors who were immigrants from a Spanish-speaking country). Analyzing 2003-2013 data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), this study shows that such ethnic attrition is sizeable and selective for the second- and third-generation populations of key Hispanic and Asian national origin groups. In addition, the results indicate that ethnic attrition generates measurement biases that vary across groups in direction as well as magnitude, and that correcting for these biases is likely to raise the socioeconomic standing of the U.S.-born descendants of most Hispanic immigrants relative to their Asian counterparts.

Read the entire paper here.