Beyond Black & White: Mike Tauber ´94 and Pamela Singh ´95 cross the color lines in their new book on mixed-race America

Posted in Articles, Arts, Census/Demographics, New Media, Social Science, United States on 2010-03-09 19:58Z by Steven

Beyond Black & White: Mike Tauber ´94 and Pamela Singh ´95 cross the color lines in their new book on mixed-race America

CC: online
Connecticut College Magazine
Fall 2009

Phoebe Hall

On a perfect summer day in July, Mike Tauber ´94 and Pamela Singh ´95 relax on the screened porch of their home in Fairfield, Conn[ecticut] As they try to feed lunch to their sons, Wyatt, 3, and Rohwan, 1, Tauber and Singh talk about typical parenting challenges: potty training, finding babysitters, and juggling their work schedules.

But they face not-so-typical challenges too. Like when strangers mistake Singh for the babysitter, and the white nanny as Tauber´s wife. Or when teachers assume Wyatt can´t speak English. Or when they fill out forms for schools or doctors and have to pick just one box to identify their sons´ race.

It was this issue of pigeon-holing, one with which Singh herself has struggled for years, that inspired the couple to collaborate on a coffee-table book, “Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed-Race America.” Published this summer by Channel Photographics, the book features individuals and families who identified themselves as multiracial on the 2000 U.S. Census, the first time they could do so…

Read the entire article here.

Tags: , , ,