Mixed Race Studies

Fathers of Conscience with Bernie D. Jones

Research at the National Archives & Beyond
Blogtalk Radio
2012-11-08, 21:00 EST (2012-11-09, 02:00Z)

Bernice Bennett, Co-Host

Natonne Elaine Kemp, Co-Host

Bernie D. Jones, Associate Professor of Law
Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts

Fathers of Conscience: Mixed-Race Inheritance in the Antebellum South

Bernice Bennett and Natonne Elaine Kemp welcome author Bernie D. Jones for an engaging discussion about her book—Fathers of Conscience: Mixed-Race Inheritance in the Antebellum South. Jones is Associate Professor, Suffolk University Law School.  She is a graduate of the New York University Law School and the University of Virginia Department of History.

Fathers of Conscience examines high-court decisions in the antebellum South that involved wills in which white male planters bequeathed property, freedom, or both to women of color and their mixed-race children. These men, whose wills were contested by their white relatives, had used trusts and estates law to give their slave partners and children official recognition and thus circumvent the law of slavery. The will contests that followed determined whether that elevated status would be approved or denied by courts of law.

For more information, click here.

Regular screening mammography before the diagnosis of breast cancer reduces black:white breast cancer differences and modifies negative biological prognostic factors

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
Volume 135, Number 2 (2012)
pages 549-553
DOI: 10.1007/s10549-012-2193-3

Paula Grabler
Feinberg College of Medicine
Northwestern University

Danielle Dupuy
Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Taskforce, Chicago, Illinois

Jennifer Rai
University of Michigan College of Medicine

Sean Bernstein
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

David Ansell
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

Black women present with later stage breast cancers compared to white women, and their cancers are more likely to be larger, receptor negative, and undifferentiated. This study evaluated black:white differences in the stage and biology of breast cancer among women who had a screening mammogram at one of two Chicago academic medical centers within two years of the breast cancer diagnosis (regularly screened) and compared them to the black:white differences in the stage and biology of breast cancer in women who had not received mammographic screening within two years of a breast cancer diagnosis (irregularly screened.) There were no significant black:white differences in the proportion of early breast cancers (black = 74 %; white = 69 %, p = NS) in the regularly screened population or in the irregularly screened group (black = 60 %; white = 68 %, p = NS.) The regularly screened population received significantly more mammograms (58 % ≥4 mammograms) compared to the irregularly screened population (41 % ≥4 mammograms.) Black women in the regularly screened population were less likely than irregularly screened black women to have estrogen negative breast cancers (26 vs. 36 %, p < .05), progesterone negative breast cancers (35 vs. 46 %, p < .05), and poorly differentiated breast cancers (39 vs. 53 %, p < .05.) White women in the irregularly screened population also had worse prognostic factors than white women in the regularly screened population, though these were not statistically significant. Regular mammographic screening can contribute to the narrowing of black:white differences in presentation of breast cancer.

Read or purchase the article here.

Michele Elam: The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics and Aesthetics in the New Millennium [Johnson Review]

New Books in African American Studies: Discussions with Scholars of African Americans about Their New Books
2012-10-31

Sherry Johnson, Assistant Professor of English
Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan

“What are you?” The question can often comes out of nowhere One can be going about her quotidian activities, or she might have just finished a meeting at work. “What are you?” The question is disorienting for most, but for others who are racially ambiguous it is commonplace. The ostensibly benign question suggests that it is about the person being asked. However, one might argue that it is more about the one who does the asking. In The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Millenium (Stanford University Press, 2011), Michele Elam critically discusses the rise of the Mixed Race Studies. To demonstrate the new sub-genre of cultural studies in both art and academia Elam shows elements of what mixed-racedness looks like in the classroom, as well as in the public sphere here at the turn of the 21st century…

Read the entire review here. Listen to the interview (00:59:00) here.

Gender and the Neighborhood Location of Mixed-Race Couples

Demography
DOI: 10.1007/s13524-012-0158-0
Published Online: 2012-10-17

Richard Wright, Professor of Geography
Dartmouth College

Steven R. Holloway, Professor of Geography
University of Georgia

Mark Ellis, Professor of Geography
University of Washington

Gender asymmetry in mixed-race heterosexual partnerships and marriages is common. For instance, black men marry or partner with white women at a far higher rate than white men marry or partner with black women. This article asks if such gender asymmetries relate to the racial character of the neighborhoods in which households headed by mixed-race couples live. Gendered power imbalances within households generally play into decisions about where to live or where to move (i.e., men typically benefit more than women), and we find the same in mixed-race couple arrangements and residential attainment. Gender interacts with race to produce a measurable race-by-gender effect. Specifically, we report a positive relationship between the percentage white in a neighborhood and the presence of households headed by mixed-race couples with a white male partner. The opposite holds for households headed by white-blacks and white-Latinos if the female partner is white; they are drawn to predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods. The results have implications for investigations of residential location attainment, neighborhood segregation analysis, and mixed-race studies.

Read the article in HTML or PDF format.

Request for Participants in a Study About Multiracial Identity and Conceptions of Self

2012-11-01

We are currently seeking interested, eligible individuals to participate in a study about multiracial identity and conceptions of self conducted by Evelina Lou and Dr. Richard Lalonde at York University, Toronto, Canada.

Participants will be asked to complete an online questionnaire that will take approximately 30 minutes of their time. All responses are entirely anonymous and confidential. As a thank you for contributing to this research, participants may enter a draw for a $25 Amazon gift card (1 in 30 chances to win).

You must meet all of the following eligibility requirements in order to participate:

• Your biological parents are of different racial backgrounds
• One of your parents is White
• You are at least 18 years old

Multiraciality is an ever-increasing lived experience for many individuals that goes well beyond “Black and White.” Unfortunately, most of the psychological research in this area so far has focused on mixed-race individuals from specific backgrounds (e.g., Black/White), despite statistics showing that only a subset of the multiracial population in the U.S. and Canada are limited to these groups. Our aim is to better understand the unique experiences of mixed-race individuals from a wide range of backgrounds. We are particularly interested in how biracial individuals perceive their own racial identity and how this identity is related to past and present social experiences, attitudes, and feelings.

To participate, go to the following website: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/multiracialonlinestudy

And please feel free to pass this along to any eligible friends or family members who might be interested in participating!

Thank you!

Evelina Lou, M.A. (elou@yorku.ca)
Dr. Richard Lalonde (lalonde@yorku.ca)
Department of Psychology
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3

2012 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference

DePaul University
Student Center
2250 North Shefield Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
2012-11-01 through 2012-11-04

“What is Critical Mixed Race Studies?,” the biennial Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, will be held at DePaul University in Chicago on November 1-4, 2012.

The CMRS conference brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines nationwide. Recognizing that the diverse disciplines that have nurtured Mixed Race Studies have fostered different approaches to the field, the 2012 CMRS conference is devoted to the general theme “What is Critical Mixed Race Studies?”
 
Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) is the transracial, transdisciplinary, and transnational critical analysis of the institutionalization of social, cultural, and political orders based on dominant conceptions of race. CMRS emphasizes the mutability of race and the porosity of racial boundaries in order to critique processes of racialization and social stratification based on race. CMRS addresses local and global systemic injustices rooted in systems of racialization.

For more information, click here. View the final schedule here.

I will deliver my paper, “Barack, Blackness, Borders and Beyond: Exploring Obama’s Racial Identity Today as a Means of Transcending Race Tomorrow,” during the Session Three panel titled, “Assessing Mixed—Race Iconography: Barack Obama and Tiger Woods” from 14:15-15:45 CDT (Local Time) in Room 313.  The abstract of my paper is below:

The racial identity of President Barack Obama has been the topic of considerable discussion and debate. Despite the fact that Obama has always identified unambiguously as black—most significantly in March, 2010 after filling out his census form—commentary continues to the point of unilaterally referring to him as “biracial” within some camps.
 
Using three separate frameworks, I explain why Obama is indeed black.  Firstly, I show that Obama is black within the framework of self-identification as crafted by the multiracial identity movement. Secondly, I show via an ethnological framework that Obama’s heterogeneous ancestry reinforces rather than weakens his cultural connection with black Americans.  Lastly, and most importantly, I show within a sociological framework, that Obama is black because we perceive him as such.

Furthermore, I show how the multiracial movement reifies rather than blurs racialized boundaries; and that Obama’s blackness creates one of the greatest challenges to this movement.  Rather than concluding with a seemingly triumphalist Afro-centric focus, I will instead explain how Obama’s “blackness” from “white/black” parentage can be used to exemplify the social construction of race and can provide us a means to create meaningful discourses that may lead us beyond the illogical nature of racialization.

Learning to be different: A white mother of biracial children experiences racism

University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
December 2004
194 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3154007
ISBN: 9780496146376

Jennifer Ann Greer Johnson

A Dissertation Submitted to the Education Faculty of the University of St. Thomas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Education

This qualitative autoethnographic study examines the experiences of an inner-city assistant principal in a multiracial high school who is also a Caucasian mother of biracial children of African American and Caucasian descent. The narratives throughout this study illustrate encounters with prejudice, discrimination, and racism in public and private places. The stories are analyzed through the lens of racial formation theory and Critical Race Theory. Results indicate that the identity of a mother of biracial children is complex as she straddles two cultures, that of the black and white community. An Ethnic Identity Development Model illustrates the struggles of rearing biracial children while working in an urban high school. This autoethnographic study illustrates the mother’s identity shift as she learns to be different in both worlds.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• ABSTRACT
• LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER 1: JUMPING THE BROOM
  • A journey into difference
  • Evolution of the study
  • Autoethnography
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Validity and ethics
  • Organization of the Dissertation
• CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
  • Interracial Relationships
  • Biracial Identity
  • Class Issues
  • Racial Formation Theory
  • Critical Race Theory
• CHAPTER 3: AWAKENINGS
  • Is she adopted?
  • Their father is Black.
  • Children are not supposed to be out in the sun
  • Intraracial Discrimination
  • We can only choose one
  • Would you buy a warranty on a Cadillac?
  • Another Awakening
  • Is that your child?
  • I will never be with another white woman again!
  • His mouth fell open, and he stared at my children and then at me
• CHAPTER 4: HAIR: POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF RACE
  • What is this, the next Shirley Temple?
  • Do you use this on your hair?
  • I decided that you need to do something with Jacqueline’s hair
  • Everyone stopped and stared at me
  • Shampoo and conditioner for one colored girl
  • I have to get their hair “right” in the eyes of the Black community
• CHAPTER 5: WILL MY CHILDREN HAVE A PLACE AT THE TABLE?
  • I was raised in a strict Catholic household
  • The Archbishop’s Letter
  • Racism is a sin
  • For my children’s sake, great changes need to be made
• CHAPTER 6: WILL MY CHILDREN BE LEFT BEHIND?
  • Appointment as Assistant Principal
  • “Are those your children?”
  • I circled ‘White’ even though my son does not look White
  • “She does not like you”
  • “So you’re kickin it with a black man”
  • You’re just picking on me because I am Black
  • Does anyone speak another language?
  • Mama, will you still like us even though your skin is white and mine is brown?
  • Let’s not just give people the boots, let’s give them the straps
  • Most of the International Baccalaureate students are white
• CHAPTER 7: A MOTHER’S STRUGGLE
  • “Second-Hand Racism”
  • Racism at school and the workplace
  • Rearing my children
  • Ethnic Identity Development Model
• REFERENCES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

• TABLE 1 Changing Racial Combinations of Interracial Marriages in Minnesota.
• TABLE 2 My Journey in a Racialized Society
• FIGURE 1 2000 Census Self-Identification Questionnaire
• FIGURE 2 Ethnic Identity Development Model (Fluid)

Purchase the dissertation here.

Mixed Race Issues to be Examined at DePaul University Forum

DePaul University
News Release
2012-10-29

As Americans of mixed racial ancestry continue to grow in number and diversity, the demographic, social, political and cultural implications for the country become more complex. These issues will be examined from a variety of perspectives at a groundbreaking conference that will bring scholars and artists from around the United States and the world to DePaul University Nov. 1 through 4.
 
The conference will include 50 programs featuring research presentations, panel discussions and performances that explore various aspects of the emerging field of Critical Mixed Race Studies. More than 150 presenters from the U.S. and other countries, including the Philippines and the United Kingdom, are expected to attend.

Individual programs will examine issues such as discrimination against mixed race persons, mixed race student organizations and mixed race gender and sexuality issues. Individual panel topics include: “Assessing Mixed Race Iconography: Barack Obama and Tiger Woods;” “Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Mixed Race Identities;” and “Media, Celebrity and Beauty: The Visuals of Mixed Race.”
 
All programs are free and open to the public. A full schedule of events, times and locations is online here.

For more information, click here.

Race in a Bottle

Scientific American
Volume 297 (January 1, 2007)
pages 40-45

Jonathan D. Kahn, Professor of Law
Hamline University, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Drugmakers are eager to develop medicines targeted at ethnic groups, but so far they have made poor choices based on unsound science. This article focuses on the drug, BiDil – a drug that combats congestive heart failure by dilating the arteries and veins of African American patients. The author expounds that there is no solid evidence that the drug should targeted towards only one ethnic group. The author includes the history of BiDil including its inception and then its reappearance with a race-based focus.

Read the entire article here.

Is Elizabeth Warren an Indian?

The Aporetic
2012-09-27

Mike O’Malley

The ques­tion posed above is extremely hard to answer. She doesn’t “look like an indian.” But what do Indians look like?

Just to recap: Elizabeth Warren is run­ning for the Sen­ate in Massachusetts. She’s been widely mocked for claiming herself as “native Ameri­can” at var­i­ous points in her career. Warren grew up in what’s now Oklahoma, a vast region which the US government had originally reserved for Indian tribes relocated from the East…

…The racial past of Americans is far more complicated and ambiguous than Americans generally realize. My favorite example is very personal. According to Virginia, the state in which I now reside, I am a black man. Had my family stayed in VA, my father could not have attended white schools and my parents would not have been allowed to marry. It’s absurd, and ridiculous: I’m as white as any white man you’d ever imagine, and no one in my family even knew of this history till about a decade ago. But there it is, a mat­ter of record.

The man responsible, Walter Ashby Plecker, was convinced there were no “real” indians in VA. Instead, he argued, there lived a mongrel race of intermmarried people, the “WIN” tribe (White, Indian, Negro). If you listed yourself as “Indian” on official documents, Plecker would rewrite them, and change “indian” to “colored,” because there were no “real” indians. Had Warren grown up in VA, she would have been unable to prove any connec­tion to Indian ancestors, because Plecker destroyed the records. And yet, the descendants of Indians still live in Virginia today…

Read the entire article here.