New class: The Multiracial Experience

Posted in Articles, Campus Life, Media Archive, United States on 2013-07-10 03:53Z by Steven

New class: The Multiracial Experience

The Portland State Vanguard
Portland, Oregon
2013-01-16

Gwen Shaw

The eye of the storm.

That’s what Black Studies professor Ethan Johnson calls the Northwest, when it comes to multiracialism.

“The Northwest has some of the highest rates, within the black community in particular, of marrying outside of their race—in the whole country,” Johnson said.

This fact, along with many others, is discussed in Johnson’s course, titled “The Multiracial Experience.”

Johnson explained that the course has three focuses: interracial relationships, both friend and romantic; transracial adoptions; and people who identify as, or are identified as, multiracial.

With a primary focus on discussion, the class looks into these topics and considers how gender, class and sexuality play roles in the multiracial experience. In class, students will look at and discuss poetry, commercials, pop culture, music and documentaries.

“I see myself as a facilitator of discussion,” Johnson said…

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Multiracial meditations

Posted in Articles, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Live Events, Media Archive, United States on 2012-02-14 21:02Z by Steven

Multiracial meditations

The Portland State Vanguard
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
2012-02-13

Jeoffry Ray

PSU panel to discuss growing up biracial in context of novel The Girl Who Fell from the Sky

How does one begin to discuss the experience of belonging to more than one “race”?

It’s really up to the participants,” said Dr. Maude Hines, organizer of the Portland State and Multnomah County Libraries’ 2012 Everybody Reads project, which will hold a panel discussion titled “Growing Up Biracial” Thursday, Feb. 16, at the university’s Millar Library.

The discussion will focus on the panel members’ experiences growing up as multiracial individuals and will be presented in the context of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (Algonquin, 2008) by Heidi Durrow, the novel that is the focus of this year’s Everybody Reads program.

The panel will include associate professor of the PSU Black Studies Department Dr. Ethan Johnson, graduate student Adrienne Croskey and undergraduate Kevin Thomas…

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