Mixed Race Studies

TEDxHampshireCollege–Jay Smooth: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race

TEDx
Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts
2011-11-15

Jay Smooth is host of New York’s longest running hip-hop radio show, the Underground Railroad on WBAI 99.5 FM in NY, and is an acclaimed commentator on politics and culture.

In this talk, he discusses the sometimes thorny territory of how we discuss issues of race and racism, offering insightful and humorous suggestions for expanding our perception of the subject.

Who is Black?

The Final Call
2001-07-10

Rosa Clemente, Guest Columnist

Rosa Clemente

Yesterday, an interesting thing happened to me. I was told I am not Black.

The kicker for me was when my friend stated that the island of Puerto Rico was not a part of the African Diaspora. I wanted to go back to the old skool playground days and yell: “You said what about my momma?!” But after speaking to several friends, I found out that many Black Americans and Latinos agree with him. The miseducation of the Negro is still in effect!

I am so tired of having to prove to others that I am Black, that my peoples are from the Motherland, that Puerto Rico, along with Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic, are part of the African Diaspora. Do we forget that the slave ships dropped off our people all over the world, hence the word Diaspora?…

Read the entire article here.

The Five Stages of Being Biracial (If You’re Me)

The Toast
2013-10-21

Jaya Sexena

1. Denial

It wasn’t that the idea of being biracial frustrated me, it was just that I didn’t think I was it.

Yes, I finally learned to write “Jaya Saxena,” but to a blank-slate of a five-year-old that combination of letters was just as random as any of my friends’ names. “Judith” looked weird too, right? “Denisa”? “Fiona”? I figured it was all arbitrary.

My family did not act like other immigrant or biracial families. Those kids had parents who spoke of siblings and childhoods in foreign countries with thick accents. They always seemed to be returning to those countries, or filling their households with decorations and music to make it feel like they had never left. They had kids who actually knew something about a “home country.” My house never felt like Talia’s house, where she’d switch between speaking to her dad in Hebrew, her mom in English, and then playing Aladdin on Sega Genesis with me.

My dad, who moved to Newark when he was 8, had long ago adopted a Jersey accent and demeanor, his actions indistinguishable from those of his Italian and Jewish neighbors. He cooked pork chops and pasta with meat sauce, and played country fiddle. He lit incense sometimes but so did lots of hippie parents. He hadn’t been back to India since before I was born.

My mom, with her freckles and red hair, was often mistaken for my Irish nanny. We can trace our first ancestor’s arrival to 1635, and by about 1740 everyone on her side had officially come over. She grew up on a farm and wasn’t afraid of killing the roaches that sometimes skittered around our apartment, and the only time she was called “exotic” was when she went to Scotland. Together, they were just my parents.

So I wasn’t biracial. I was a New Yorker, as if being both weren’t an option. I ate bagels and played handball and wore pants. My dad taught me how to play guitar and played me songs by Danny Kaye or The Muppets. Yes, sometimes my “dress up” outfits contained brightly colored silk and bangles, but those were just decorations. Yes, my grandma would make potatoes that came out yellow and were flecked with seeds, but she’d save a plate of spaghetti and slices of American cheese for me. They were Indian, not me, and that was normal…

Read the entire article here.

Is It Time to Do Away With The ‘One-Drop’ Rule?

Clutch
2013-07-10

Britni Danielle
Los Angeles

Conversations about race in America can lead to never-ending discussions, hurt feelings, and sometimes even breakthroughs. Blame it on our complicated past of slavery, racism, and legalized prejudice, but even approaching a frank discussion about race in this country can seem nearly impossible.

And yet we keep trying.

Recently, I spotted an article over on The Root which stated that Johnny Depp is a direct descendant of Elizabeth Key, a former slave who worked to secure her freedom in 1656…

…While I doubt anyone will rush to claim Depp as black (at least I hope not), how blackness gets defined in America continues to be rooted in antiquated notions of the one-drop rule…

…When pondering whether or not we should do away with the one-drop rule, it’s important to remember it was not created by those of African ancestry looking forge a shared kinship or by local/federal governments hoping to properly categorize the populace for the purpose of collecting census data (the terms “Indian,” “mulatto,” and “negro” were well established), but rather the one-drop rule was created to keep the white race “pure.” In short, it was merely another tool aimed at protecting white supremacy in America…

Read the entire article here.

Phil “Pompey” Fixicio To Speak on a Post Show Panel Exploring African American and Native American Spirituality

Los Angeles Theater Center
514 South Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90013
Telephone: 213.489.0994
Sunday, 2013-11-03, 15:00 PST (Local Time)

On Sunday November 3rd, in honor of the new play on the Seminole people, the road weeps, the well runs dry, Phil “Pompey” Fixicio will be speaking on a post show panel at The Los Angeles Theatre Center. This panel, entitled Exploring African American and Native American Spirituality will include Rev. Dr. Cecil “Chip” Murray (USC), Phil “Pompey” Fixico (Seminole descendant), and Professor Hanay Geigomah (UCLA). The panel follows the 3:00pm performance. For tickets and information on the play, click here.
 
Phil “Pompey” Fixico, Seminole Maroon Descendant, California Semiroon Mico (Nation of One), Heniha for the Wildcat/John Horse Band of the Seminoles of Texas and Old Mexico, Honorary Elder of the Muskogee Yamassee of Florida, Featured, in the Smithsonian Institution’s, book and exhibit, entitled :”indivisible”; African-Native American Lives in the Americas, Co-Founder of the Bureau of Black Indian Affairs (indianvoices), Member of the L.A. chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers and Dept. of Interior/National Park Service/ National Underground Rail Road/ Network to Freedom Private-Sector Partner ( Semiroon Historical Society).

the road weeps, the well runs dry

Los Angeles Theater Center
514 South Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90013
Telephone: 213.489.0994

2013-10-24 through 2013-11-17
Thursday-Saturday: 20:00 PT (Local Time)
Sunday: 15:00 PT (Local Time)

Written by Marcus Gardley
Directed by Shirley Jo Finney

Rolling World Premiere

Surviving centuries of slavery, revolts, and The Trail of Tears, a community of self-proclaimed Freedmen creates the first all-black U.S. town in Wewoka, Oklahoma. The Freedmen (Black Seminoles and people of mixed origins) are rocked when the new religion and the old way come head to head and their former enslavers arrive to return them to the chains of bondage.  Written in gorgeously cadenced language, utilizing elements of African American folklore and daring humor, the road weeps, the well runs dry merges the myth, legends and history of the Seminole people.

Previews: October 24 & 25

For more information, click here.

(1)ne Drop Project Live

Painted Bride Art Center
230 Vine Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106
Telephone: 215.925.9914
Sunday, November 10, 2013, 17:00-18:00 EST (Local Time)

Do you know Blackness when you see it? This provocative question informs the work of Dr. Yaba Blay, whose (1)ne Drop Project depicts the stories and images of over 60 individuals from around the world, all of whom identify as Black, but none of whom fit the stereotypical “Black box.” Their candid memoirs challenge our understanding of race and identity.

The storytelling event, (1)ne Drop Project Live, interweaves history with candid stories from participants in the Project and gives a microphone to living testimonies of diversity. The event will include readings from project participants.

For more information, click here.

One Thing I Can’t Pass On to My Daughter: White Privilege

Brain, Child: the magazine for thinking mothers
2013-10-24

Martha Wood
Momsoap: Sometimes I froth at the Mouth

A while back, I met up for a play date with another white mother to children of color. As we sat chatting and watching our daughters play, I noticed something about her daughter, next to Annika, and no doubt, she noticed that same thing. And so I said it aloud. Something I’d never noticed about Annika before that day. And since, I have reflected upon it many, many times, wondering exactly what it meant.

“If you put our daughters in a group of black children, nobody would ever guess they were biracial.”

Both of our girls have skin tones similar to the average African American. Both brown eyes. Both, very thick, curly hair.

She nodded. Knowingly…

Read the entire article here.

The Fluidity

Neither/Both: my mixed-race experience
2013-10-19

Lola Osunkoya

I went to the skating rink on a night I don’t usually go, and found myself to be the only female of color there.  It was unusual to me because on my regularly night, it’s a predominantly Black crowd.  In this stage of my identity development, I’m very conscious of my racial surroundings when I am one of the few.

Today I identify primarily as Mixed, but also as Black.  That has changed over the years as Mixed identities are inherently fluid… if we choose that route – static is another choice.  I have been militantly Mixed, not White enough, begrudgingly Black.  All of them had a certain frantic energy on them because I felt like they were dependent on outside validation.  Today I feel more at peace with my chosen identity.  Will it remain this way now that it feels peaceful?  Maybe.  But the fluidity could push me in a new direction sometime in the future…

Read the entire article here.

Growing Up Black in American Apartheid – Ford Pt1

Reality Asserts Itself
The Real News Network
2013-10-23

Paul Jay, Host

Glen Ford, Executive Editor
Black Agenda Report

On Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay: Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, tells his story as a red-diaper baby, growing up facing racism in the North living with his white activist mother, and living in the Deep South with his black deejay father.